Reddit mentions of Seven Types of Atheism

> The decline of traditional faith in America has coincided with an explosion of new atheisms. Some people worship beauty, some worship political identities, and others worship their children. But everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants.

The sources in this paragraph are pretty dubious. Here they are:

https:/www.amazon.com/Seven-Types-Atheism-John-Gray/dp/0374261091/

Read the top review on this.

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-cult/

> Callahan’s whole report is pretty wild, with one interesting caveat: The audience wasn’t wholly invested in the guest speakers. A lot of people walked out of Sadeghi’s lecture, and the crowd was most excited about Paltrow’s panel with celebrity guests Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie, and Miranda Kerr.

So this source basically admits that it is just sensationalism. The audience didn't care about the con artists, they just wanted to see some celebrities.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/andrew-sullivan-americas-new-religions.html

Just a regurgitation of the previous book, so not really a different source.

http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html

And finally... a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace?

I would take everything here with a grain of salt.

Carlin is up there among my favorite comedians. Another ones are Doug Stanhope and Tom Segura.

> Also points for the emphasis on possibly. It irritates the hell out of me how people just take it as given that ‘rationality > emotionality’ when it’s completely arbitrary. People need to drop the Seneca and pick up the Descartes now and then.

Before moving forward, are using 'rationality' and 'reason' as synonyms? If I understand correctly, one of the cornerstones of Stoicism is that reason is the only thing that differentiates humans from other animals. So as you might guess, reason takes an important place in Stoicism since without it, it'd be futile to distinguish between what's under your control and what's not under your control. However, I think I understand where you're coming from. For instance, as an atheist, up until recently I thought religions to be a scorch to the human species but after reading the book John Grey's Seven Types of Atheism [1] and giving it some careful thoughts, I've come to realize that religion might've had (and likely still has) its place throughout different civilizations for reasons that are unique to the human condition. Certainly I don't condone all the horrific crimes that have been committed in the name of religion but at their cores, some religion might be considered benign and just try to provide some framework in a chaotic universe even if such framework isn't scientifically accurate.

[1]: I don't consider this book to be infallible but with all of its weakness, it puts forward some interesting ideas that are at least worth entertaining, even if you don't espouse any of them.