[ExI] de Waal

[John Clark]

On Fri, Mar 2, 2018 at 12:18 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com
> wrote:

>* you did not react to my statement that Muslim terrorists were a very
> tiny part of the Muslim world,*

Then I will do so now. Most Muslims are not terrorists but most terrorists
are Muslims. Yes, active terrorists make up a small percentage of the
Muslim world, but the percentage that are terrorist enablers and
sympathizers is not small at all, it approaches a majority in many
countries.

> *> no matter what people say on surveys. *

So what are you saying, you already know the truth and don't want to be
confused by the facts? I don’t understand why so many people feel it is
their duty to perform logical contortions if that’s what it takes to avoid
criticizing religion. You’re free to criticize a person's politics or their
knowledge or their intelligence or their personality or even their personal
hygiene, but don’t dare criticize their religion, if you do then that means
you're a bad person. I don’t get it.

> > *Yes, people learn quite well starting from before birth.  But that
> does not make a case for genetic tendencies to learn from parents and to
> obey them.  *

As I’ve said over and over, not a tendency to obey adults but a tendency to
believe what they say is true, especially in things involving morality and
general philosophy

> *> A generalized learning ability, genetic, of course, can take care of
> that easily.*

And how can very young children learn if they don’t believe anything adults
tell them?

> * >  It is also easy to learn contrary opinions from others. *

I agree with that, parents aren’t the only people children learn from,
perhaps even more important is the opinion of other children, but the other
children got their opinions from others too.

> * > What do tots and teens think when their parents disagree?  *

Historically it was pretty rare for parents to disagree about religion, in
fact historically disagreements by anybody over anything religious were
illegal.

> *>  Peers, while one is a teen, outrank everybody, despite the clear fact
> that one's peers often don't know any more than the person does, and is
> very often wrong *

The type of learning I’m talking about now isn’t about learning facts, its
about learning opinions and values and a philosophy of life.

> *> If there is any genetic tendency to hear and obey parents, it's mostly
> gone by the teen years.*

By the teen years they no longer take it for granted that what adults tell
them is true, but by then its too late, the damage has been done and they
will believe ridiculous religious crap for the rest of their life without
question. And they will teach the exact same bullshit to their children.

> *> What does a person say when he is asked, or asks himself, just who he
> is?  Religions affiliation is usually noted, if not first, then, shortly
> thereafter. *

I know, people are put (or they put themselves) into categories depending
on religious franchise, and that melancholy fact has cause more misery in
the world than anything else except for death itself.

​  ​
John K Clark
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