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Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by bobson381 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @11:48AM (#44877899)
There should be an extremist cult of people who are certain only that uncertainty is the only certain thing
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by rpcope1 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:02PM (#44878148)
More people should read Sextus Empiricus as he's basically the O.G. Phyrronist skeptic and goes pretty hard on this very train of thought.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by bobson381 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:09PM (#44878252)
Cool. Any specific recs or places to start with him?
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by rpcope1 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:25PM (#44878509)
Probably the Hackett book, "Sextus Empiricus: Selections from the Major Writings on Scepticism"
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by bobson381 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:40PM (#44878743)
Thanks!
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by Telemakhos on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:41PM (#44880213)
If I remember my Gellius, it was the Academic Skeptics who claimed that the only certainty was uncertainty; the Pyrrhonists, in opposition, denied that one could be certain about the certainty of uncertainty.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by ameliaquining on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @11:53AM (#44877989)
Like Robert Anton Wilson if he were way less chill, perhaps.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by arwhatever on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:22PM (#44878463)
“Oh, that must be exhausting.”
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by saltcured on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @12:49PM (#44878850)
There would be, except we're all very much on the fence about whether it is the right cult for us.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by hungmung on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @01:20PM (#44879315)
What makes you so certain there isn't? A group that has a deep understanding fnord of uncertainty would probably like to work behind the scenes to achieve their goals.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by cwmoore on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:22PM (#44880006)
The Fnords do keep a lower profile.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by dcminter on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @01:43PM (#44879568)
One might even call them illuminati? :D
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by card_zero on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @01:23PM (#44879344)
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by pancakemouse on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:03PM (#44879788)
My favourite bumper sticker, "Militant Agnostic. I don't know, and neither do you."
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by bobson381 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:32PM (#44880127)
I heard about this the other day! I think I need one.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by jazzyjackson on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:05PM (#44879812)
A Wonderful Phrase by Gandhi

  I do dimly perceive
  that while everything around me is ever-changing,
  ever-dying there is,
  underlying all that change,
  a living power
  that is changeless,
  that holds all together,
  that creates,
  dissolves,
  and recreates
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by tim333 on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @02:21PM (#44879998)
Socrates was fairly close to that.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by freedomben on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @03:24PM (#44880751)
My thought as well! I can't remember names at the moment, but there were some cults that spun off from Socrates. Unfortunately they also adopted his practice of never writing anything down, so we don't know a whole lot about them
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by JTbane on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @03:20PM (#44880697)
"I have no strong feelings one way or the other." thunderous applause
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by tomjakubowski on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @04:22PM (#44881365)
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by mapontosevenths on Tuesday August 12, 2025 @05:39PM (#44882099)
There already is, they're called "Politicians."
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by Viliam1234 on Wednesday August 13, 2025 @06:16PM (#44894528)