The Pragmatist's Guide to Crafting Religion
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Humanity consists of coevolving software (our religion and culture), firmware (our hardcoded proclivities, such as language acquisition), and hardware (our brains). Ripping out a third of the equation has led to innumerous unintended consequences. This book offers a guide to rebuilding or fortifying this increasingly neglected aspect of the human condition.Specifically, The Pragmatist's Guide to Crafting Religion serves as a playbook for those looking to strengthen traditional cultures in the face of collapsing birth rates or craft entirely new cultures designed to impart strategic advantages to adherents.Should You Read This Book?- If you were raised in the absence of a cohesive culture-or don't like your given culture-but see the value of cultural and religious traditions, this book is for you.- If you worry your culture or religion will go extinct and would like to see it endure across generations, this book is for you.- If you have ever thought about inventing a religion or starting a cult, this book is for you.- This book will neither be pleasant nor useful to those who don't want large families as it defines a successful culture as one that sustainably spreads over the long term-which, outside of a few niche exceptions, requires high birth rates.
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3 primary booksThe Pragmatist's Guide
The Pragmatist's Guide is a 3-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2018 with contributions by Malcolm Collins, Simone Collins, and Malcolm Collins.
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Essentially, it provides a playbook to answering the question: "how can we create a meaningful, stable, and evolving religious and cultural framework without resorting to evil or oppressive means?"
The Pragmatist's Guide to Crafting Religion is a thought-provoking and highly engaging exploration of one of humanity's most pressing issues: it's future. The book presents a collection of ideas, examining the factors that influence societal trajectories worldwide and offering a vision for creating a better future for ourselves and our descendants.
Drawing on insights from sociology, economics, evolutionary psychology, and more, the Collinses weave together themes of fertility rates, cultural norms, and societal stability to present a compelling argument that significant changes are on the horizon —potentially for the worse, but not necessarily so. They adopt a unique approach to religion, exploring how it can be intentionally crafted and shaped to act as a positive force in society, rather than a source of division and oppression. They navigate the challenges of this endeavor, highlighting that harsher ideologies often proliferate, while gentler religions tend to fade away. The book illustrates how it might be possible to harness the strengths of both worlds.
Throughout the text, the Collinses provide a rich analysis of various cultural types—hard cultures, soft cultures and more—discussing their respective advantages and disadvantages. They ponder whether any of these can form a stable cultural meme that remains resilient over time without veering into authoritarianism or destroying itself.