[ExI] Evolutionary psychology and religion

[Seien]

>
> >... We're not like other animals, and our biggest priority is no longer
> reproduction  ~Seien
>
> Seien, you may find yourself competing against humans who firmly believe
> to
> the contrary.  You and your few offspring will be wildly outnumbered.  It
> is
> likely your memes will not survive or propagate in the brains of those who
> believe the opposite of your theory stated above.  Such a tragedy is this.


--Spike



>if he can start a church with morality as a goal, maybe the powerful god
representation can trump the larger numbers if they believe themselves
subject to his desire.  (of course it's easier if you start programming them
as early as possible to accept the doctrine before they have any experience
with logic and rational thinking)

>But if you take it all away, what are you left with?--Mike Dougherty

Firstly, Spike: you presume that memes can be passed only from parents to
children. Not even genes are this limited, and memes are far more dynamic
than genes. I can persuade people of my ideas and propagate my memes that
way. Many philosophers had no children and yet their ideas more or less
survive. If anything they are improved upon, which one can only be glad
about. As I said, reproduction isn't the most important thing for humans any
more. Making rational and useful ideas is far more important than that.

And Mike: Morality IS rationality. It would be quite abhorrent to follow an
idea with no rational justification. Morality is about ideas and theories on
the best way to live. This is arrived at rationally. Again, persuasion over
coercion. There's no need to speak like a savage when you have the mind of a
human being. :)

Also, if you're going to use a gender pronoun, you may as well use the right
one: I am female.
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