On Rationalism and religion
A bleg for questions
On Sunday, I’ll have the honor of interviewing the insuperable Eneasz Brodski about religion. Want to recommend any questions I ask him?
You might know Eneasz (pronounced EE-nee-ash)1 as the co-host of the podcast The Bayesian Conspiracy, where he’s interviewed people as interesting as Simone and Malcolm Collins, Adam Mastroianni, Aella, Zvi Mowshowitz, and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
Or you might know him as the creator of the audio-i-fication of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, generally considered to be the most popular piece of HP fanfiction ever.
OR you might know him as the guy who substacks at Death is Bad (a topic which, by the way, I still don’t agree with him about, and maybe that’ll come up in the podcast).
OR you might know him as the author of innumerable short stories, and a few novels. My personal favorite of his, a fanfic of the Cain and Abel story, has just been published in an anthology. And “100 Words”, another favorite, can be found here.
(Dude gets around.)
He’s a former Jehovah’s Witness… and while he’s rarely talked about that on his podcast, he has, in passing, mentioned that he has a major crush on Christian theology,2 and has said that he’s interested in “building a religion inside Rationalism”. As a fellow current-non-theist who was shaped by his religious upbringing, I find this fascinating, and want to plumb his thinking on faith, worldview, and the future of the world.
(And honestly? I also want to ask a lot of questions about what it’s like to be a Jehovah’s Witness.)
Wanna help? Share as many questions you’d like me to ask in the comments. I obviously can’t promise to ask them all, but they’ll be helpful in shaping the way I come at the conversation.
Or something close enough that he doesn’t complain.
That’s my phrase — if I remember right, his was… a little less family-appropriate. This would be a good moment to slap a content warning on much of his stuff; listen to it in front of kids at your own potential embarrassment.
I’m fascinated by the ‘religion inside rationalism’ thing. I think my biggest question is- are you sure it isn’t already a religion? It has ethical teachings it pushes (EA), revered prophets (like him!), sacred writings (The codex), and even communities of adherents.
It seems like religions are generally evolved to be for the average person, leaving those on the periphery dissatisfied. Who exactly is the rationalist religion for? Something which works for the average person probably doesn't work for the average rationalist, or for the peripheral rationalist. Something which accommodates all of the above seems like it would be super soft as to lack all coherence.