A clean essay pushing back on the 'X is a religion' trope (environmentalism/transhumanism/social-justice/capitalism/Apple/UNIX all get called religions). Part I: the critique that 'religion' is broad enough to map onto anything (investing, medicine, even not-stepping-in-front-of-buses all have 'gurus/scriptures/rituals/sins'). Part II: but that overshoots — some movements ARE more 'religious' (environmentalism/social-justice vs gun-control/pro-choice), yet this is really CULTURE/community, not religion (the religion/culture line is a Western/Christian artifact — Shinto, Hinduism, American civil religion). Eliezer's 'every cause wants to be a cult' → Scott's 'every cause wants to be a community.' Concludes calling these 'religions' is the Worst Argument In The World (smuggling in 'magical thinking/blind faith'); use 'belief-based community' instead.

Quality 70 · Strong. High-Strong: a memorable conceptual-dissolution of a common rhetorical move, with portable reframes ('every cause wants to be a community'; religion-as-Worst-Argument; the religion/culture-is-Western point), but a relatively light clarification piece. 70.

Claude’s paradigm shift 52 · Moderate. A fresh reframe of the X-is-a-religion trope. B52.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. Within-discourse; the community/culture-not-religion reframe gets referenced. RWI2.

Is Everything A Religion?