This is amazing. Less sophisticated atheists would share memes about how the Dark Ages was a literal time of scientific backwardsness in the Middle Ages caused

This is amazing. Less sophisticated atheists would share memes about how the Dark Ages was a literal time of scientific backwardsness in the Middle Ages caused by Christianity (look at this graph!). But some robotmen[1] eventually suspended their (dis)belief for long enough to get the idea that there might be some reason why people have followed traditions (i.e. not just label it as irrationality). And some even take the brave step into whatever pagan (relatively speaking: backwards) ritual might be going on next door. And they still manage to keep their robot qualities: the ritual’s benefits are “pro-social” and promote “the belief in community”. (One can forgive this robot for not just going full neuroscientist and just saying “oxycotin”.) And they even start their own little clubs and hangouts which are labeled <common adjective>ist, like “people who are rational and think long term”. Of course these little clubs are firmly rooted in some blogosphere and have no connection to any real traditions out there. Maybe they will indeed end up being embedded in some tradition somewhere, where they will ritualistically get to practice pro-socialness, belief-in-community, etc. (Emphasis on ritual.) All these efforts are commendable in that they are very sincere in their efforts to find some actual human meaning out there. (I guess that’s called meta-modernist, or meta-something or other…) Which is a step beyond the postmodernist posers. [1] The robotmen and atheists simply overlap somewhat. This is about the “rationalist” types, not about secular people.