The Boundary Project

Aka the Reasonable Disagreement Project

aka The Anti-Polemic Project

I don’t really have a better name, and it’s hard to describe what I have in mind. The following are just examples, and theses lists are very much not exhaustive. (Just like this entire Brain, really.) This is also not some sort of real project that anyone has agreed to be part of, it’s more of an approach to wanting to learn broadly, and wanting to be challenged. It’s a group of likeminded people who are not afraid of ideas, who share boldly without being overbearing.

To be clear, this is not about Both-Ways-ism or Doublespeak. It’s more about acknowledging the limits of knowledge while trying to learn as much as possible. It’s not about courting favor by not speaking up. It’s OK to have a point of view, and just as importantly, it’s OK to change your mind, if you find better arguments or better evidence. It is about trying to celebrate this approach to learning more about the hard things.

My Boundary Project tag thought

collects up stuff like the following:

A group of people who are either:

well-informed, nuanced believers who are interested in critiques of religion and don’t pretend the critiques aren’t real problems
well-informed unbelievers who are interested in studying religion in good faith, and the benefits of religion without giving religion a pass, nor ignoring the reasoned critiques and shortcomings of reason / atheism / skepticism / secularism

Examples of such people:

A list of subject areas that are interesting and worth discussing, and admit of debate and evidence, argument and progress, regardless of which “side” we fall on:

Philosophy / Ethics / Morality / Skepticism / Atheism / Empiricism
Religion / History of Religion / Theology / Divine Nature / Cognitive science of religion / New Testament studies
Psychology / Anthropology
Eudaimonia / Science of Happiness / The Science of Well-Being / Philosophy & the Science of Human Nature / Stoicism

A list of schools of thought that sort of try to encode nuance and questioning into their entire approach, or conclusions that aren’t really conclusive but ride some sort of boundary:

Baháʼí Faith / Secular Buddhism / Stoicism
Christian Atheism / Christian Existentialism
Ignosticism / Pantheism / Epitheism
etc.

A list of ideas, questions, and problems that are truly tricky, regardless of belief or unbelief:

Why is there something instead of nothing?
Euthyphro dilemma
Problem of induction
What are the limits and downsides of secularism, after we stop treating it as a bogeyman? See Religion for Atheists.
Can religion provide meaning and value to people without the baggage of harm and undue influence? Is there room for religion to avoid dogma and still produce good people and make the world better? How do believers and unbelievers collaborate on this project of learning how to live, being kind, sharing wonder, valuing honesty, and teaching others to do the same?
Why does religion attract so many bad apples and fraudsters, and how do we avoid this problem, besides criticizing religion as is already done? Can we throw the bathwater out and keep the baby?
How convincing are various arguments for God? Tier list / Over 100 Arguments for God Answered, 12 hours
How convincing are various arguments for atheism? Tier list
Questions or Problems
etc.

A list of practices that can help anyone become a better human:

The goal would be that such resources, authors, podcasters, ideas, and subject areas would be just as interesting and valuable to an unbeliever who somehow later regained belief, as well as holding value for a believer who lost belief, and could hold on to this framework for how to live well. In other words the ideas hold some weight regardless of where you fall in terms of agreeing or disagreeing with them.