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

[Lee Corbin]

Russell writes

> Religion worked for survival. Look at what happens to modern
> cultures where religion is gone: they fall apart into self-hatred and
> nihilism, birth rates plummeting below extinction level, their people
> rapidly headed for oblivion. The greatest civilization that ever existed
> on this planet is dying, in what should have been its hour of triumph -
> dying not of any external threat, but of its own parasite memes;
> and who will pick up the torch once we are gone? 

You bring up the gravest problem of all, a real one that is not going away,
unless a technological miracle happens quickly.

Europe is finished.  A Muslim civilization will replace it.

But in North America, the situation is less clear.

An elite in North America can continue to "run things" for a very long
time yet.  This is because as the class structure of the country becomes
more pronounced, the lower classes shall respond to direction, just as
they do in Mexico today, whereas in Europe, the Muslims have superior
cohesion and superior will.

Now, more and more people in the west are coming to see the danger,
and so resistence, even in Europe, may mount, and in interesting ways.
Prognostications, anyone?

But it's too late IMO to defend religion as you're doing.  You're right
about its original value, but the damage has been done, and we just
can't believe lies anymore.

Lee