[extropy-chat] Islamic morons win yet again

[The Avantguardian]

--- John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:

> 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.

Correction: religion has justified more human misery
than anything else in human history. Whether it be by
the divine sanction of the persecution of infidels or
absolving the believer of responsibility for his own
condition, actions, and fate. In any case the misery
itself has other causes.

Religion has always served to provide people an escape
from reality in much the same way that drugs and
alcohol do. Marx was on to something with his
comparing it to an opiate. For this very reason, it is
not surprising that so many religions forbid drugs and
alcohol to eliminate "competition".

> >  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.

When you live in the squalor of a ghetto beset with
crime, poverty, and disease, the white fluffy clouds
and houris of paradise sound pretty damned appealing.

One cannot try to "cure" somebody of their irrational
belief in and hope for another better life after death
without increasing their stake in this one. 

> 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?

How does television convince a 10 year old to neglect
his math homework? The truth is most people don't like
to think and religion has all the answers to life's
most puzzling questions in simple convenient sound
bites. You don't want to take the time to understand
how evolution works? Fine, God made little green
apples. 


> 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?

When you have no data or don't understand the data you
do have, then all possible hypotheses seem equally
likely. If you have a choice between two or more
equally likely hypotheses and a charismatic leader
tries to convince you that hypotheses A is more likely
than B, you believe him because you are genetically
inclined to do so.

There must have been some very
> sophisticated Meme
> engineering at work to sell that load of crap.

It's less about engineering a perfect meme-set, than
about shielding against contradictory memes.

 

Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us 
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." 

-Galileo Galilei

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