Religions have clergy and laity. It's the clergy's job to study theology and know what's True, and it's the laity's job to trust the clergy and follow their lead. This archetypal form is so baked into human social programming that you're gonna be hard pressed to supplant it. So secular replacements for religion are bound to follow it.
"Boooring, muh everything's a religion." Rationalism doesn't try to be a religion, you say? Well I'm sure the clergy understands that but tell that to the laity. No actually the laity believe that too and recite it. But at the end of the day they follow the archetypal form. They will call themselves Rationalists but they have jobs and hobbies and lives (as is right and proper for laity of any religion—this is not a dunk) and so they will trust the EYs and the Scotts and the other clergy to do the actual work. The actual thinking. The actual application of Bayesian reasoning. Etc. For their part they simply have faith that they have found the True epistemology and that they follow the lead of trustworthy workers of Truth.
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Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
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Notes -
Religions have clergy and laity. It's the clergy's job to study theology and know what's True, and it's the laity's job to trust the clergy and follow their lead. This archetypal form is so baked into human social programming that you're gonna be hard pressed to supplant it. So secular replacements for religion are bound to follow it.
"Boooring, muh everything's a religion." Rationalism doesn't try to be a religion, you say? Well I'm sure the clergy understands that but tell that to the laity. No actually the laity believe that too and recite it. But at the end of the day they follow the archetypal form. They will call themselves Rationalists but they have jobs and hobbies and lives (as is right and proper for laity of any religion—this is not a dunk) and so they will trust the EYs and the Scotts and the other clergy to do the actual work. The actual thinking. The actual application of Bayesian reasoning. Etc. For their part they simply have faith that they have found the True epistemology and that they follow the lead of trustworthy workers of Truth.
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