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[waider]

Startlingly, this great sceptic, this non-guru who believes in nothing, is still a practising Christian. He regards with some contempt the militant atheism movement led by Richard Dawkins.
"Scientists don't know what they are talking about when they talk about religion. Religion has nothing to do with belief, and I don't believe it has any negative impact on people's lives outside of intolerance. Why do I go to church? It’s like asking, why did you marry that woman? You make up reasons, but it’s probably just smell. I love the smell of candles. It's an aesthetic thing.” (link)

This is an interesting article - with, admittedly, a few odd hints, like that Taleb isn't entirely convinced of global warming - but I really like that quote. I've made several attempts to add a little editorialising on this, and I'm not happy with how any of them have come out. So, just read it and make up your own mind.

Comments

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

Dawkins says he has an atavistic regard for the Church of England, which is no doubt an aesthetic thing too, and also says we should learn about religion so we can understand the point of great works of art and architecture. The man isn't a philistine. But saying that religion has nothing to do with belief is just silly. I might go into a church building once or twice a year to take some photos or enjoy the light coming through the stained glass or whatever. Going every Sunday morning, now that takes something that isn't just an aesthetic whim.

[waider.livejournal.com]

It depends, I guess. For some people, it might have started out with a belief, but it's now just a deeply ingrained - and comfortable - habit for one reason or another. I spent years going to church on a weekly basis because it was expected of me, and even though I was in the church with no supervision I'd still actually go rather than just tell my parents I'd gone there.

Besides, this is why I had trouble editorialising it. Anything I write down about it seems to either not convey what I'm thinking, or stray off the point I'm trying to make, which suggests I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make. I do think that to reduce religion to belief is incorrect, but you're probably equally right in saying that it's incorrect to say it's nothing to do with belief, too.

[oh6.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly reminded of Juanita's take on religion in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, that there's some kind of "religion centre" in the brain. Ignoring it just leaves it to act unsupervised, and suppressing it is impossible, and probably a bad idea. So it's best to exercise it in some well-known, relatively harmless way, well-known because more people will have tried it and turned up any problems. That puts it out in the open where you can keep an eye on it and ensure that it contributes to your well-being.

I'm also reminded of Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, where the leader of the scientists in contact with the Cloud explains that people are fundamentally and necessarily irrational. We're capable of reason, but we can't live rationally, and any workable approach to life has to acknowledge this, implicitly or explicitly. Taleb's career as a trader required too much dedication to reason to allow this acknowledgement to be implicit, so he has had to work it into his life explicitly, like it or not.