anatman

As others have said, the argument here is not causative. There exists a significant overlap between nonreligious and collectivist beliefs, which is what the presentation is about: atheists are largely ignoring their aptitude to reject irrational authority when it comes to the State. Stef-chan recently put up a great conversation with an atheist, where he talked about how everyone has their own cherished beliefs that they refuse to put out in the sunlight of reason, because they are at some level aware they will shrivel up and die. In Stephen King's beautiful and illuminating book 'On Writing' (which is much more than just a guide to technique, but about managing creative energies), he says "kill your darlings, kill them, even when it breaks your egocentric heart, kill all your darlings". I struggled to kill my darlings through an examination of HBD (human biodiversity) in which I desperately wanted to believe, (ironically) as a life sciences lecturer that anyone can learn anything, given enough training. It was my opinion that some people may take longer than others, or have particularly difficult learning styles, but that any physiologically normal person could rise to the highest levels of achievement in any field if they had the motivation. I went kicking and screaming. I rebutted IQ to my students many times in the past -- after all, IQ only measures ONE kind of intelligence, right? No. IQ is strongly linked to achievement and ability to handle complex information of all types, and is irrefutably linked to G, which is more like a processor clock speed than I had hoped. Why bring up IQ? In this thread, several people like ObserveAndReport brought up a valid point: the State-leaning tendencies of the religious: "big expensive government wars, interfering in the bedroom, sovereignty of body". But we know there is some organization of theism along the IQ spectrum -- we know especially low IQ people aren't really about examining their assumptions and sources of evidence. They are likely to echo what's socially acceptable at large. It's a good reproductive strategy. The atheist subpopulation is much more performant. The disparity between this ability to throw themselves onto the altar of critical examination for God, and complete disinterest when it comes to a much less abstract State is what this is all about. It makes them much more cowardly, in my opinion -- having the ability but not the will.