
Malcolm Gladwell: How I Rediscovered Religion - hymnsfm
https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/malcolm-gladwell-how-i-rediscovered-faith/
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fjfaase
In my late teen years, I had a transcendental experience at a youth rally and
became a devoted ('born again') Christian and remained this for several
decades. There is nobody who questioned my faith more than I myself. In the
end science won. I believe that Sean Carroll gives a rather convincing
argument why there is no 'spiritual' dimension, that there is no life after
death and no super natural dimension, because if they would have existed, they
would have been found by now. Joscha Bach presents an interesting view in his
'The Ghost in the Machine' talk about our experience of what is reality. This
makes every 'convincing' experience of human reactions less reliable than the
scientific facts derived from experiments with respect to elementary particles
and elementary forces.

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Kednicma
Christianity is so very sticky; trying to clean it off just results in more of
it getting gunked around. At this point, I've structured my thoughts around
religions so that my default assumption is that all religious beliefs are
delusions. My reasoning comes in the form of three barriers.

First, historicity. When we pull apart ancient holy texts, we find a mix of
myths, legends, distorted tales, and eventually the foundation of history. Any
religious belief has to first demonstrate that it's consistent with our
archeological finds, current resources, and competing histories.

Second, speaking of competing histories, is comparative religion, AKA
comparative values and beliefs. Religions generally have contemporary
competitors. They may claim different versions of historical events or have
contradictory metaphysics.

Third, physics and the fallacy of nature. In short, observable events are
natural and described by physics, and the burden of proof is on religions to
show that supernatural events happen. As science has marched on, miracles have
shrunk in occurrence and priestly rituals have decreased in power.

So, for example, how might born-again Christianity fare when considered this
way? On the first barrier, there probably was somebody like Jesus or John the
Baptist or Simon the Zealot at roughly the given times, stirring up the
trouble and getting killed for it. Also, we know that the Gospels were
secondhand accounts at best due to when they were written, and we know that
they were deliberately crafted to fulfill Jewish prophecies. However, Second
Temple Judaism doesn't have strong historicity for its founding figures of
Abraham and Moses, which hollows out the promises that the figure of Jesus
makes.

On the second barrier, there are a pile of sun-god and resurrected-demigod
cults around the Mediterranean, some dating back to the Egyptian New Kingdom,
which would have made the general mythological ideas over a millennium old at
the time of Jesus. Indeed, in the Gospel of John, Jesus performs a
resurrected-demigod ritual. I want to say "nothing is new under the sun-god",
or maybe "Jesus is too much in the son-god"?

And on the third barrier, there's no reason to accept any of the miraculous
claims for as long as there are natural physical mechanisms of action, and
explanations which are simpler than the implications of the Problem of Evil.
We know that modern speaking in tongues is a sort of hypnosis, that modern
faith healing is quackery and scams, that modern reincarnations are a
combination of childish pranks and gullible adults, that modern water to wine
is a magic trick dating back to Egypt, and that modern baptism feels tingly in
your brain because of the mammalian cold-water diving reflex. There's no
evidence to suggest that these were any different in ancient times, and plenty
of evidence to suggest that humans were broadly the same then as now, and that
their culture was extremely similar to ours.

So, on reflection, what actually supports Christian beliefs, and why should we
accept it as evidence? It turns out not much at all!

~~~
aklemm
Excellent. This is pretty much my reasoning as well. On your third point, I
use a different angle which is “religious explanations don’t outperform no
explanation at all” in a nutshell. But I love it, this progression really
helped me put aside religion altogether.

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ykevinator
This is intellectual weakness. God cannot possibly exist and science fearing
people know this. When we redefine what the word "believe" means, we can
believe anything that brings comfort. I'm sorry to all smart people who will
soberly listen to science, god is not real. No one can logically argue that
supernatural is compatible with science. You cannot believe both without
redefining what believe means.

~~~
senectus1
While i agree, be careful making claims of fact. You dont yet have enough
evidence to claim that something doesn't exist, just like they don't have
enough evidence to claim that something does...

If you use the same weak foundation they do your argument is at the same level
as theirs, and that is not right. They need to produce evidence to back their
claims, until then the default value to apply is 0 (disbelief) .

 __edit Also its worth noting that the OP article isn 't about facts or
accuracy. its all about support structures. The guy had a few moments when he
needed some and the ones that A) there and B) easy to slot _back_ into were
Christianity.

The guy was never really free of that yoke, he just didn't have a lot of need
for it. Until he did and slotted back into the fold seamlessly.

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drewcoo
Gladwell's entire career has been seeking one revelatory moment after another.
Always backed by (entertaining!) anecdata and cherry picking.

On the one hand, I have trouble believing he ever lost religion given the way
he operates. On the other, this seems like marketing for a new book.

Now what's the hand of two hands not clapping?

~~~
Tanath
Certainly not his entire career. Malcolm Gladwell is/was a propagandist
shilling for pharma, big tobacco, wall street, and the health insurance
industry.

[https://shameproject.com/profile/malcolm-
gladwell-2/](https://shameproject.com/profile/malcolm-gladwell-2/)

Eg.:

* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/02/27/n...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/02/27/not-smoking-could-be-hazardous-to-pension-system/0c2151ba-c38a-400d-aab5-bd45a5ba80ec/)

* [https://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-destroys-malcolm-g...](https://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-destroys-malcolm-gladwells-10000-rule-2014-7)

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asplake
Title: s/Religion/Faith/

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RickJWagner
Religion is a great thing, for some people. (I am one of those.)

Whatever you need to bring you peace. Life is hard, and complicated. These
things help.

~~~
aklemm
In the other hand, being forced to navigate the willful delusions of so many
makes the world a harder, less prosperous, and less kind place.

