

Ask HN: How is religion affecting (if at all) the common hacker's life? - zrgiu_

Happy Easter to all Christians around!<p>I have always wondered how/if religion affects the hacker's decisions, and life in general. Religions have all kinds of "requests", like going to church every sunday, kneeling at sunset or visiting Mecca once in your life. Hackers tend to dedicate their life for long periods 100% to just coding and developing their product, thus obviously not respecting them.<p>Also, how about decisions and beliefs in general? The world has become very connected, allowing us to learn almost everything about anything, making us more self-aware. Are your beliefs affecting the decisions you make?<p>Last but not least, have you ever considered creating a startup that targets religious people? Are you working right now on such a startup ?
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jtheory
Well, I don't do it much anymore, but in the past I've wasted innumerable
hours arguing online about religion, or in debates that are irrevocably
tainted by religion (like abortion, evolution/intelligent design, etc.). So
that's a negative result. But I have been an atheist for decades, so there's
no need to respect any religious edicts.

I've long gotten the sense that hackers have a better-than-average grasp of
rationality, which means fewer of them ascribe to any major religion (though
being more vaguely "spiritual", meditating, etc. isn't ruled out). There's
just such a huge amount of obvious nonsense wrapped up in major religions that
if you have the habit of taking things apart to see how they work, you'll
eventually apply that to this _thing_ that your parents told you should be a
central part of your life, and religion doesn't stand up well to analysis that
doesn't assume its truth.

Hackers still usually have families, though -- sometimes families who are very
dedicated to religion -- which means there are quite a lot who still go
through the motions (at least when visiting home, for example) just so their
Grandmother doesn't have a heart-attack because she thinks her grandchild is
going to hell.

I personally just sort my way through the conflicts as patiently as possible
(I have a family that's full of pretty serious Catholics), because I can't
stomach faking it, and generally I'm not harassed about it, much.

For religious hackers -- I suspect their religion's requirements aren't too
heavy. Generally we're more productive when we take breaks now and then, so
feeling obligated to stop and think of something else for a bit is probably a
good thing.

Whether they make a difference in decisions otherwise -- possibly, but
probably not as you might think. I grew up in a wealthy area, and Christmas
mass meant a parking lot full of expensive cars and pews full of fur coats. If
they actually listened to the sermons, they'd hear they had the same chance to
pass into heaven as a camel through a needle's eye, but that didn't affect how
they used their money as far as I could see.

On the contrary, among people who are genuinely interested in making the world
a better place, I suspect an atheist would be more likely to carefully analyze
complicated situations before deciding what path might lead to better results,
and test the outcomes... whereas anyone with strong religious beliefs would
believe they already knew what was required. Think of how many AIDS cases
could have been avoided if so many Christian missionaries weren't opposed to
birth control....

I've long hoped that greater interconnectedness will lead to less belief in
the supernatural globally, but that hasn't been the case so far -- I don't
have the study link, but from what I've read people are more likely to seek
out like-minded sites/people, to reinforce their beliefs, _not_ sample widely
to find out if other approaches might be more valid.

Create a startup targeted at religious people? Not seriously. I've toyed with
the idea of creating sites to explain gently & non-aggressively what atheism
is and why some people choose to be non-believers, or to offer support to
people trapped in highly-religious communities and families who have lost
their faith -- but idea #1 would likely be fairly useless (see previous
paragraph), and some sites already exist for idea #2.

~~~
read_wharf
You make some excellent and interesting points, but don't discount the number
of smart, competent hacker/technologists who are also ardent believers in
specific religions. I believe they are a significant if quiet minority.

~~~
jtheory
Yup, not discounting them -- it's just been noticeable to me that the
percentages of believers in the general population (where non-believers are a
minority that's completely discounted and/or actively discriminated against in
many places) is quite different from the ratios in hacker circles.

I also don't seek out believers to critique them; everyone goes through
different paths in their life, and may or may not have reason to question any
number of beliefs they've inherited or taken up along the way for whatever
reason.

I'm fairly driven to dig down through almost everything, but I also have a
friend who comfortably believes all kinds of crazy things with hardly a second
thought, because "life is more interesting that way". Dunno what direction
he'd go if stricken with a life-threatening illness (I really, really hope he
wouldn't treat it with prayer circles, chelated mercury, toxin cleansers,
homeopathy, etc..) but his approach _hasn't_ caused any problems I can point
to, so I have no argument.

Back to hackers -- the topic of religion doesn't generally come up except
possibly in random smalltalk, and never in my career has it become a point of
conflict (i.e., company-mandated prayer groups or bible study or something
like that). So if there's a quiet religious minority, and an equally-quiet
non-religious majority, that seems like it would suit everyone just fine.

------
ankurdhama
For the same reasons that you mentioned about religious duties I have
preferred to follow a simple and yet the most important religion which I call
as "Humanity". It is very simple to follow, it is global and if the whole
world starts to follow this same religion I am sure we can get rid of many of
the problems that we face today.

~~~
Deinos
I agree wholeheartedly with ankurdhama. All religions have some good things to
take away: great parables on how to live a kind and just life, a sense of
community and sharing, etc. However, often times these wonderful things that
we should be taking away from the multitude of religions are marred by some
people's ignorant, narrow views: the necessity of justifying that their views
are right (hence, the only view), intolerance, a crutch to explain something
that might be outside of our scope of knowledge at the moment, etc. to name a
few.

I feel as though modern religion has become a paradox of useful teachings that
are twisted into justifiable hypocrisy.

That is not to malign those who practice a religion while also treating their
fellow man with respect and acceptance, but pointing out those who use
religion as a dark alley in which they can hide their inadequacies, hate, etc.

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icebraining
It doesn't, mostly. I'm an (agnostic) atheist, and so are my parents. The rest
of the family is either atheist, apatheist or just very "soft" Catholics (my
grandmother, for example, doesn't believe in the afterlife!).

While I'm not religious, I mostly like religion as it's practiced here in
Portugal and Spain - people seem to focus mostly on what I consider the good
parts (community reunions, solidarity, processions) and less on the
enforcement of Christians morals.

------
eli_gottlieb
Religion is a major, and painful, component of my life. I feel as though the
longer I live in America, the further I am dragged into the muck of being a
"world citizen", an atheistic, "rational" capitalist slave.

So we'll see what else I say when it's not Pesach.

~~~
jtheory
It can get rough, or even very rough in some parts of the US (let alone some
other parts of the world... a few months ago I was following the case of a
Saudi Arabian who posted a few _tweets_ expressing atheist views; he had to
flee the country, but Malaysia actually deported him back to SA to face a
death sentence).

No need to be a capitalist slave, though. A life spent chasing gods or dollars
isn't generally a life well-spent in either case; but of course there are more
options.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
No, no, you're not getting it. I _want_ to be religious. I _like_ being
religious. What I don't like is living in a culture that is only conducive to
capitalism, _nothing_ else. Even the dominant forms of religion in America are
capitalist.

