[extropy-chat] Islamic morons win yet again

[John K Clark]

Mike Dougherty Wrote:

> Why denounce religion?

Because it is a lie and because it has caused more human misery than
anything else in history. Some think criticizing religion is impolite and it
should always be given a free pass; I think religion should be denounced
just like any other great evil in the world.

> Attacking "religion" as a broad category of worldview without allowing
> for the possibility that it has value for those who 'believe' is a
> one-side approach.

You're right, attacking religion is one-sided, it embraces the clear headed
side of thinking without dealing with its complement, stupidity. That's not
to say religion doesn't have value for some people, the leaders of Iran and
TV preachers in America make a very good living off of it.

>  I would suggest that if you really wanted to disinfect a particular
> strain of religious belief that you would have to understand the behavior
> of the meme in much the same way the biological viral activity is studied
> before it can be effectively countered with drugs.

Religion exists for 2 reasons, one reason I understand and one I don't.
Clearly religion would not exist if the fear of death did not exist, but
there is another much more mysterious reason. How did preachers convince
people that faith is a virtue? It's very easy to see why some human beings
would want other human beings to believe this; but how on Earth did they
convince them that an all powerful and all knowing being thinks the highest
form of virtue is to believe in something when there is absolutely no damned
reason for doing so? There must have been some very sophisticated Meme
engineering at work to sell that load of crap.

     John K Clark