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214 sats \ 16 replies \ @Scoresby 22h \ on: How I Got Into Bitcoin (Bitcoin Magazine, Joakim Book) bitcoin
You know, I really like Bitcoin, but there are definitely some weird similarities to religions.
We have our creation myth (Chancellor on brink of second bailout) and a savior (satoshi) and our dogma (hold your own keys, 21 million, run a node, no middlemen), we are supposed to spread the good news (orange pilling), and we have sins (shitcoining, fiat things), and also we have our conversion stories.
100% agree there's a religious hint about bitcoin. Personally, I don't like the religious allusions that accompany bitcoin. 1. Bitcoin is a lot of things: tech, math, physics, economics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, life coach?, other? But it'd not a religion. 2. It's disrespectful to real religions to "play religion" with things that are not.
I think the bitcoin-religion comparisons mostly pop on the scene because they're easy and they're fun.
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of course.
You're not the first to remark on that.
...and I also don't think it's that weird. It's a similar kind of before/after moment, completely shifting the way you look at things.
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I'm trying to think of other cases where a tool becomes a religion. Tech evangelism (you gotta try this new thing) isn't quite the same: bitcoin is so much more participatory. And it has a moral element (the fiat system is evil). Even the environmentalists don't have such a cohesive set of religious elements.
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tech didn't change people's worldviews... smartphones e.g., just run their lives, having captured their minds etc. But nobody has a completely altered perspective because of them
....and religion almost always ends up with some sort of toxic fanaticism, or say "extremism"
Is it really a good thing or is it bad? Can it possibly cause a stall in Bitcoin adoption?
I wonder if those similarities are serendipitous in helping it resonate.
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I've definitely been accused by my nearest and dearest of being in a cult. First Bitcoin, then Carnivore.
Once I get got interested, I was just so fascinated that I couldn't stop talking about it.
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Freaky Friday sequel
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Also - I feel like Bitcoin and Carnivore are some of the most important, and NON OBVIOUS "discoveries" of my life, in terms of how much they improve it. But both of them are actively propagandized AGAINST.
That's why I talk about it so much. They're not obvious. People mostly believe the exact opposite.
It's as though you meet a starving person, but you're right next to a river with lots of fish that are easy to catch. Not telling them how to fish would feel like you're doing something evil.
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We've even got our Inquisitors. Slay!
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Like anything in life, someone can take it and create a cult around it. This is only true for those who follow the precepts you described. If someone sees it as decentralized money, there's nothing religious about it.
I know there are many Christians who seek Bitcoin as "salvation" against the oppressive state. However, that doesn't make Bitcoin a religion.
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The turning point is whether you think there's anything supernatural/divine about Satoshi or Bitcoin beint delivered(!) to humanity.
Regardless, it's not far off
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