LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Proselytizing” by lsusr


Listen Later

Religions can be divided into proselytizing religions (e.g. Mormons) who are supposed to recruit new members, and non-proselytizing religions, (e.g. Orthodox Jews) who are the opposite. Zen Buddhism is a non-proselytizing religion, which makes me a bad Buddhist, because I've dragged three other people to my Zendo so far. All three had a great experience. One has become a regular, and another will return someday.

I didn't sell them on meditation. All three were already sold on meditation. One of them was a Sam Harris Waking Up fan, and another one was really into the Bhagavad Gita.

The Sam Harris fan's name is Rowan. Rowan is gay, and grew up in a rural evangelical Christian family. I haven't pressed him for details, but that can't have gone well. You may reasonably deduce that Rowan has a bad history with religion. But he has all the human instincts [...]

---

First published:

February 22nd, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/J9jj2EY6kuBRJ4CXE/proselytizing

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LessWrong (30+ Karma)By LessWrong


More shows like LessWrong (30+ Karma)

View all
The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,161 Listeners

Astral Codex Ten Podcast by Jeremiah

Astral Codex Ten Podcast

131 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

7,228 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

564 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,211 Listeners

AI Article Readings by Readings of great articles in AI voices

AI Article Readings

4 Listeners

Doom Debates! by Liron Shapira

Doom Debates!

14 Listeners

LessWrong posts by zvi by zvi

LessWrong posts by zvi

2 Listeners