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Comment by sundarurfriend | Hacker News Reader

> Someone else in another comment mentioned his work might appeal to atheists, so it's interesting you mention now believing in God.

It's probably the G.K.Chesterton influence that led to that. Scott definitley writes from an atheist viewpoint, although like a lot of the rationalist community he has a soft spot for Buddhism - see for eg. his short story Samsara (https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/11/04/samsara/).

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Chesterton certainly played a role, but it was mostly the posts on Aron's blog themselves. The story is like this: I was born into a christian family, but like many young people, and helped by some written works, some healthy amount skepticism, other not-so-healthy things, and what I saw inside and outside my social circles, I came to doubt my previous beliefs.

Anyway, then I discovered Aron's blog, and it was like a new world open to me. Something that I've experienced very few times in my life; maybe when I found SICP/Lisp…

And it could even ve said that I discovered that blog thanks to SICP since it went something like this: OCW > SICP > Paul Graham > Hacker News > (eventually) The Blog. ^^

Scott does write from an atheist viewpoint, since he is atheist, but even though I am not, I still enjoy his writing very much, just as I've liked many of PG's essays or LessWrong articles. It is not necessary to hold the same beliefs to enjoy intellectual fellowship/communion as it is (usually) exemplified by Hacker News itself.

Also, if you want to, I can share with you some of my favorite articles there. I have a huge list though.

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