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Yaniv's avatar

Credences are coordination devices. You need coordination devices when you are collaborating with others. That's why reducing bullshit amounts to alienation. Every time you take out a credence, you reduce your ability to collaborate with other people of that credence. What you're missing is that your move against bullshit is driven by a worship of Truth. truth has value, but it's finite. Worshipping Truth to the degree that you're willing to sacrifice all potential collaboration assigns a value to truth that is too high. When you do that you're making truth into Truth. Credences are useful. It does not matter that they are bullshit, because the seeking of Truth at all cost is not objectively correct. It's a credence. You're doing this to gain status with other Truth seekers. You're doing this to socially demonstrate how much you're willing to sacrifice for the group that shares your credence that Truth is the highest value. Which is... bullshit, in the sense that truth is not really the highest value.

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Will Peterson's avatar

It's interesting that two people can hold the same position, but for one person it's a belief and for the other it's a credence.

I grew up in an evangelical Christian culture. Christian high school, church all the time, etc. I bought in whole-heartedly. But I needed evidence to justify my beliefs. I was really into reading about the evidence for Noah's Ark, about intelligent design and the "fact" that biological evolution was impossible. Despite still being a full fledged Christian, I remember clearly having an argument with a friend where I claimed it was important to be prepared to defend our religion with facts (Jesus really rose from the dead based on X,Y,Z evidence...), whereas she said faith was more important.

Using your terminology, mine was a belief while hers was a credence.

Because of this, once I encountered reality and more evidence during college, I COULDN'T HELP but abandon my religion, whereas my classmate is still rolling right along with her faith.

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