Loving a world you don’t trust

(very minor) as a native Chinese speaker, associating "yang" 阳 (literally, sun) with black feels really discordant/unnatural to me. 

Some of this discussion reminds me of Mill's in his super underrated essay "Utility of Religion". He proposes there a kind of yangy humanistic religion, against a backdrop of atheism and concern about the evils of nature. Worth a read.

I can't recommend the podcast audio enough. 🥲

Love it.

Your discussion of how ‘Green’ vibes can fall short of really looking consequences in the face reminds of a quote:

“All that blood was never once beautiful, it was always just red.” - Kait Rokowski

Thanks so much for sharing your writing, it resonated deeply with me and made me cry more than once.

Executive summary: Loving the world despite its flaws requires balancing yang and yin, control and acceptance, in the face of an indifferent universe.

Key points:

1. Yang virtues like seriousness, discipline, and strength are valuable and should not be lost in discussions of yin.
2. Humanism is an existential orientation compatible with deep atheism that finds meaning and beauty in the universe despite its indifference.
3. The author's preferred form of deep atheism makes room for attitudes like mother love, loyalty, innocence, tragedy and forgiveness towards the world.
4. Humanity is both discovering and creating the nature of the universe ("God") through our choices and the future we build.
5. Navigating the age of AGI will require balancing yin and yang, gentleness and firmness, in the face of dauntingly new challenges.
6. The great humanist project is to straighten our backs, see clearly, and work to make the future a place of more light.

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