(important post)
—“Q: Why are low IQs and low education so strongly correlated with being religious?”—
(Decidability> MIndfulness > Social Confirmation > Emotional Feedback > Precision)
Um… The reasons are 1) that the spectrum of means of ‘measurement’ available to the human mind, and 2) the spectrum available means of mindfulness available to the human mind, and 3) the spectrum of need for emotional feedback, from much to none, and 4) the spectrum of social confirmation, from much to none, are all satisfied by very broad, very imprecise, but entirely actionable formulae provided by narrative analogy.
Yet as Agency (ability, knowledge, resources, opportunity) increase, we need increasingly precise methods of measurement and increasingly sophisticated means of mindfulness. So as our abilities increase we ‘leave behind’ analogy, then leave behind rule, and then arrive at calculation, just as we leave behind virtue ethics, leave behind rule ethics, and arrive at outcome ethics.
But the spectrum of religious parable, normative and rule, rational estimation, and scientific calculation, all gracefully fail, back upon the broader method of choice, allowing us to make decisions with the the maximum and minimum of knowledge we have on any given topic.
So some of us gain our mindfulness from very great precision because of our agency, and others of us gain our mindfulness from very low precision because of our lack of agency. Some of us seek narratives because we want independence of emotion and social confirmation. some of us seek narratives because we need emotional reward, and social confirmation.
That’s actually the answer.
Because people need to act, and to act they need to decide, and they can only decide with the information available to them, and the information available to them is only possible, given the information processing they have available to them.
The lower one’s ability the more one needs very simple, very fixed, rules, so that one is not in a constant state of indecision, and because of it, a constant state of failure, and because of it, a constant state of anger and frustration.
The greater one’s ability the more one needs very precise and dynamic means of calculation, so that one can identify and seize increasingly valuable opportunities.
But interestingly, regardless of ability, we need either social confirmation or don’t, or we need emotional returns or don’t. And so we have a much more complex set of related needs than is obvious by just a test of intelligence. Because some very bight people need both emotional feedback and social confirmation, and some very bright people need no emotional feedback and no social confirmation. and some of us need only either emotional feedback or social confirmation, but not the other.
BUT TRUE OR FALSE MYTHS?
So Mythologies, Parables, Stories, and the lessons of history, are not so much a bad thing, as are FALSE MYTHOLOGIES, parables, stories, and lessons of history.
Selecting virtuous characters from history. Adapting them into archetypal characters, adapting their stories to archetypal narrative structures, so that they answer archetypal problems, by means that are pre-cognitive to us, is not difficult.
The principle problem is getting enough people to use the same narratives so that people with low ability make decisions by the same criteria, so that they can cooperate successfully, so that in turn they obtain decidability and mindfulness.
That is the answer.
THE FIRST ABRAHAMIC DARK AGE
The problem is that we have been taught three false (abrahamic) narratives in place of our ancient narratives (the seasons, the family, and the trials of Achilles), with hideous narratives (we are born evil, we must atone to an evil god, we can seek false immortality by obedience, the classes are at war rather than cooperating, the races, tribes, and clans are at war rather than cooperating through competition, and the trials of the underclass Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. So judaism, christianity, and islam in the ancient world as a revolt against aristocracy, meritocracy, productivity, and technology. And Roussuea-Kant, Marx-Boaz-Freud-Cantor-Mises, and the Frankfurt and Postmodern schools in the modern world.
THE SECOND ABRAHAMIC DARK AGE
There is no difference between the frankfurt school and the council of nicea. There is no difference between academic postmodernism, and the forcible closure of the stoic schools. THere is no difference between the systematic islamic and christian destruction of greek and roman thought, and the active suppression of western history, conservative thought, and scientific research into genetic and cultural differences.
ORGANIZED RELIGION TO DEFEAT ARISTOCRACY (MERIT)
The purpose of christianity was the destruction of western scientific aristocracy, and the purpose of rousseuian-kantian philosophy, marxim-socialism, frankfurt-postmodernism, and jewish and islamic fundamentalism, is the destruction of western scientific aristocracy in the modern world.
TRIPARTISM
Classes can cooperate in the natural hierarchy of western Tripartism -as we have for millennia. Or we can conflict in the unnatural pursuit of false equality that the underclasses will wishfully promote and destroy the world, and bring about another dark age, if we let them.
Curt Doolittle,
The Propertarian Institute
Kiev, Ukraine