[extropy-chat] Edge: Thank Goodness! By Daniel C. Dennett

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Sat, 2006-11-04 at 23:35 -0500, Keith Henson wrote:
> 
> For reasons I don't completely understand, but are rooted in the stone age, 
> I don't expect ranting against religions to have a positive effect and it 
> might well be counter productive, switching off rational thought by 
> mechanisms that originated in wars between hunter gatherer bands.

It seems to me that we might have different understanding of the phrase
"ranting against religions".  I had assumed that it was a short hand
reference to "arguing against memes such as the existence of hell,
heaven and supernatural deity or deities"; this assumption was based on
my understanding of Dennett.  I think it is important to remember that
telling someone that they have chickenpox is not "ranting against
chickenpox" but rather an attempt to convey information and similarly
telling someone that they hold religious views which are false is not
"ranting against religion". 

> >Consider the
> >decline of infectious disease with the advent of better sanitation.
> >Dennett, Dawkins, Harris and others are hopefully causing a more
> >critical focus on the memes associated with religion.
> 
> You might note that better sanitation memes are an outgrowth of 
> *understanding* infectious disease, particularly what *causes* it.

I agree that understanding the mechanisms in which harmful memes take
hold is important.  My opinion is that this is a very complex subject
and that Dennett, Dawkins and Harris (along with many others) are just
beginning to make progress in this area.

> Ranting against religions might be really effective if religions were 
> understood to the level we understand infectious disease.  As it is, what 
> this crew is doing is like ranting against fevers without the least 
> understanding of what causes fevers.

I think I found more value in what Dennett, Dawkins and Harris are doing
than you do.  For one thing they are providing momentum to a long
overdue response to some of the nonsensical attacks on atheism which
many religious persons have been doing for years.

> I have been doing a bit of ranting on this subject myself on the Harris 
> page. 
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060916_sam_harris_rottweiler_barks/

The URL worked and I will take a look at it.

> Frankly I suspect that if people understood the origin of the human 
> capacity for religions they would be horrified.

Of course there were people who were horrified when Darwin and others
began to publish their ideas on evolution.

> Best wishes and give my best to the Silicon Valley crew.

Thanks and I hope all is going well with you.

Fred

> Keith
> 
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