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

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Fred C. Moulton
> Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2006 3:42 PM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Edge: Thank Goodness! By Daniel C. Dennett
> 
> On Sat, 2006-11-04 at 23:35 -0500, Keith Henson wrote:
...
> 
> > Frankly I suspect that if people understood the origin of the human
> > capacity for religions they would be horrified...

Ja.  Fred and I, along with several of the local usual suspects enjoyed a
talk by Dawkins last weekend.  I had expressed concern that the local
religionistas would recognize that the venue was very limited in capacity,
and so would attack via displacers.  They could organize via the internet,
get a bunch of them to attend the talk, thereby using up all the room that
would otherwise be occupied by us flaming atheists.  They could make the
talk unprofitable to Kepler's by simultaneously not buying books.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried, or if so I was worried about the
wrong thing.  I saw no evidence of displacers, and no one heckled Dawkins.
Perhaps the others looked at me with my decades-outdated clothing and
hairstyle, probably thought I was one of the displacers.  {8^D  I bought a
book.    

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

Ja, especially those who didn't actually read Origin of Species.  That is a
marvelous book, which amazes me at how modern the ideas sound today, a
century and a half down the road.  Darwin had such a clear and wonderful way
of stating things, he can be considered the 19th century prototype of Sagan,
Dawkins, Asimov, Gould, Broderick, et al. 



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

Thanks Keith!

spike