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

[Samantha Atkins]

On Nov 4, 2006, at 2:38 PM, Fred C. Moulton wrote:

> On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 22:57 -0500, Keith Henson wrote:
>> Besides, it's the wrong way to approach the problem.
>> Ranting against epidemic disease didn't save a single life.
>> What was needed was to understand what causes infectious diseases.
>> People have religions like they have chicken pox.
>
> There are several different ways of viewing religion. If one views
> religion as being infected by a set of bad memes then ranting can  
> make a
> difference if the ranting has an impact on the bad memes.  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.
>

There are  many of us in the world who were deeply and systematically  
infected with said religious memes and had much too many recurrences  
of related maladies.  People such as Dennett, Dawkins, Harris,  
Bertrand Russell and many more who spoke up against the prevailing  
memeset have been a very tremendous help and curative.  The world  
could use a great deal more like them.    I for one feel deepest  
gratitude and admiration for their efforts.

- samantha