
Ask HN: Hackers and Religion - yangtheman
Just out of pure curiosity, how many of you are religious or have faith? I think certain types of people make up hackers, and I am curious about relationship between hackers and religion.
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edw519
I'm probably an outlier here at hn, but I feel fortunate to have been born
into the religion of my parents and grandparents, which is perfectly suited to
my "hacker" mindset. It incorporates a system of thinking and lifelong
learning along with an understanding that there is still that which is bigger
than ourselves.

I won't say any more than that because these kinds of discussions at hn
quickly devolve into something other than what was intended. I do answer
emails.

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noodle
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253682>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=237517>

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Mz
I sometimes refer to "god". It's shorter than saying "whatever intelligence is
behind the workings of the universe". I believe that belief systems attempt to
squish the grandness of whatever intelligence is out there into this little
box known as the human mind. I am not so arrogant as to think I can comprehend
the universe to that degree. I also like to leave room for the universe to
surprise me.

FWIW: my ex used to describe me as a "non-denominational christian". Not
really accurate but perhaps as close as one is likely to get. (To quote
Madonna:) I hate labels. They are too limiting.

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ncarlson
From my anecdotal experience, hackers tend to have a distaste for organized
religion. Atheism and Agnosticism seem to run strong among programmers.

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saurabh
Curiousity about systems makes you a hacker, be it religion or a machine or
behaviour. If you don't question your beliefs, you are not a hacker.

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thunk
I count a belief in "the singularity" as to some degree religious. Composed of
equal parts millennialist eschatological zeal, denial of the lack of
compelling evidence for the emergence of the requisite strong AI, and even its
own Heaven (see "Rapture of the Nerds"), Singularitarianism is usually where
your religiously inclined hacker ends up.

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acg
There is not a relationship, just because people do or don't believe in a god,
many gods or what have you has little to do with their creativity. If there is
a relationship it might be that some religions have an emphasis on reading and
books. Some people also confuse the want for secularism with the absence of
belief in something. Religious belief is culture as much as anything, often
parents bring children up to believe or not.

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byoung2
I'm definitely not religious but I don't completely discount the possibility
of a higher power. I believe the search for an answer to the question "is
there a god?" is more interesting than any answer could be.

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DanielBMarkham
I'm not much of anything, but if you had to pigeon-hole me, I'll take agnostic
pantheistic deist. But that's a stretch. Agnostic probably covers me more than
anything else.

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iterationx
I'm a traditionalist Catholic. This should probably be a poll.

