> Your values are a bet on what is best in life.
But then
> Our most important low-hanging fruit is to recognize the problem: most of the values we learn from the institutions around us are fake and exploitative. They do not represent our real interests.
> Abraham rejected the cults and their false and unnatural values. Instead of valuing the socially constructed and overly entangled values of the societies around him, Abraham expected a reward in the values natural to living existence
> In contrast to these false values, what we can do is recognize and orient ourselves more rigorously to Abraham’s hard natural values. Are you winning at a biological level? Are you getting more territory at a more sovereign level of control? Are you living rigorously in contact with natural law? Are you working on something that will achieve eternal fame? Are your enemies being cursed and your friends blessed? Does your winning at these things serve any great and higher plan of blessing for all creation and all peoples?
So its just caveman hedonism? or some incoherent mishmash of the state of nature. I think its error to point at drug addicts and say, "they are obsessed with false values" its just a description that doesn't do any work.
I mean what would it even mean to emulate Abraham? The most important thing about him is that we was lucky (how many people does God talk to). You can't emulate luck. So this is cargo cult values?
P(outcome | god talks to you) vs P(outcome | you have good values)