I understand how the materials presented at a conference are used differently after the conference depending on whether it was academic/scientific or commercial/engineering, but does that really matter from the point of view of the attendees?
I was not trying to imply that Lambdaconf is a scientific conference. My point was that in technical fields one's ability in the field is largely orthogonal to one's religious or political beliefs. People can be first rate programmers, engineers, or scientists while holding offensive or stupid religious and political beliefs. Limiting oneself to only learning from those with compatible religious and political beliefs, or only being willing to be in the same building as people with the same religious and political beliefs, will make it much harder to become first rate.
I was not trying to imply that Lambdaconf is a scientific conference. My point was that in technical fields one's ability in the field is largely orthogonal to one's religious or political beliefs. People can be first rate programmers, engineers, or scientists while holding offensive or stupid religious and political beliefs. Limiting oneself to only learning from those with compatible religious and political beliefs, or only being willing to be in the same building as people with the same religious and political beliefs, will make it much harder to become first rate.