[extropy-chat] The Bible Belt Paradox

[Damien Broderick]

At 06:11 PM 1/16/2007 +0100, Anders Sandberg wrote:

>it supports my hypothesis that the
>fundamentalism-crime correlation is caused by fundamentalism being a
>coping mechanism towards a dangerous environment.

Yes, but does this speak to the question of *why* such environments 
are especially dangerous? I still back my off the cuff suggestion 
that as duller people with constitutionally impaired impulse control 
accumulate in a region without many outlets or productive 
constraints, they will steadily make the environment more hazardous 
for everyone else there--and their relatives will share some of their 
vulnerability for superstitious memes especially of a brutal and 
authoritarian kind. On the other hand, this is perhaps an absurdly 
reductive and partial account.

Damien Broderick