[extropy-chat] Re: Athiesm in decline

[Samantha Atkins]

Aren't all religions engineered?   Since every religion seeks to find 
and spread a Way to human salvation and or greater well-being along 
some parameters it appears that "engineering" is always present.   
Christianity was engineered, for instance, for some 1600 years before 
the supposed "revealed word of God" as we know it in the ever popular 
king James version was produced.   The faith is still be engineered to 
this day and must be if it has any real life left in it.  Christianity 
is no stranger to contrived legends and prophecies.   Jesuit?  Bene 
Gesserit?  Hmm.

- samantha

On Mar 16, 2005, at 4:43 PM, Joseph Bloch wrote:

> xxxxxxtxxxxxxxxxxxxjohn-c-wright at sff.net wrote:
>
>> I note that in these optimistic tales, the con men who fool the rubes 
>> with
>> their made-believe religions win. DUNE by Frank Herbert is an 
>> exception; one of
>> his themes is that the Messiah cannot control the events he sets in 
>> motion, the
>> Jihad world-destroying he sparks cannot be stopped.
>
> The theme of the engineered religion is actually approached in several 
> places in the Dune series. I note specifically the idea that the Bene 
> Gesserit seeded various worlds with messianic faiths that were 
> specifically tied to the appearance of Bene Gesserit Mothers (the 
> "Missionaria Protectiva"). As Sparknotes puts it (and I use that only 
> because it is one of the first sites to come up in Google, and is a 
> fair assessment of the topic):
>
> "The Bene Gesserit use the Missionaria Protectiva to spread contrived 
> legends and prophecies to developing worlds. Bene Gesserit can exploit 
> these legends to earn the respect of the native inhabitants, who 
> believe in the contrived legends." 
> (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dune/themes.html)
>
> Joseph
>
> Enhance your body "beyond well" and your mind "beyond normal":
> http://www.humanenhancement.com
>
> New Jersey Transhumanist Association:
> http://www.goldenfuture.net/njta
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