Summary

This post argues that secular people have not abandoned sacredness but merely changed its content, examining three complementary secular accounts of the sacred. Robin Hanson’s sociological view treats sacredness as coalition glue—deliberately vague values that bind groups and suppress internal conflict. David Chapman’s phenomenological approach frames sacredness as an interactive mode of perception and engagement requiring no metaphysical scaffolding. Axio’s structural account defines sacredness as whatever occupies the apex position in a value hierarchy, the principle that arbitrates all conflicts. The piece concludes that understanding secular sacredness is “intellectual hygiene” necessary for recognizing what actually governs your choices and alliances.

Key Concepts

  • Sacred as non-negotiable apex – The value that sits atop a hierarchy and adjudicates all conflicts, regardless of supernatural framing.
  • Far-mode abstraction (Hanson) – Sacred values are kept vague and idealized to enable coalition unity while suppressing divisive details.
  • Interactive sacredness (Chapman) – Sacredness as patterned relationship and experiential mode, available through wonder, ritual, and attentiveness without metaphysics.
  • Structural necessity (Axio) – Every coherent value system requires an apex principle; pretending you lack one leaves you vulnerable to capture.
  • Three-level analysis – Social (coalition glue), phenomenological (experiential texture), architectonic (value system apex).

Evolution Notes

  • Synthesizes external intellectual frameworks (Hanson, Chapman) with Axio’s structural approach to value hierarchies.
  • References “Sacred Coherence” as Axio’s explicit candidate for apex value while maintaining the general structural analysis.
  • Represents Axios engaging with rationalist/post-rationalist discourse around values and meaning-making.
  • The “secular sacred” framing positions Axio as post-religious but not anti-sacred.

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Cross-References

Open Questions

  • Can explicit recognition of your apex value actually prevent ideological capture, or does capture happen at a pre-reflective level?
  • Does the structural account (sacredness as apex) genuinely differ from Chapman’s phenomenological one, or are they describing the same thing at different levels?
  • What happens when individuals or cultures have incoherent apex values (multiple non-negotiables that conflict)?
  • Can a society function without shared sacred values, or is Hanson’s coalition-binding mechanism civilizationally necessary?