[extropy-chat] Re: Athiesm in decline

[Joseph Bloch]

Excellent post, John; I would make only one comment...

john-c-wright at sff.net wrote:

>I note that in these optimistic tales, the con men who fool the rubes with
>their made-believe religions win. DUNE by Frank Herbert is an exception; one of
>his themes is that the Messiah cannot control the events he sets in motion, the
>Jihad world-destroying he sparks cannot be stopped. 
>  
>

The theme of the engineered religion is actually approached in several 
places in the Dune series. I note specifically the idea that the Bene 
Gesserit seeded various worlds with messianic faiths that were 
specifically tied to the appearance of Bene Gesserit Mothers (the 
"Missionaria Protectiva"). As Sparknotes puts it (and I use that only 
because it is one of the first sites to come up in Google, and is a fair 
assessment of the topic):

"The Bene Gesserit use the Missionaria Protectiva to spread contrived 
legends and prophecies to developing worlds. Bene Gesserit can exploit 
these legends to earn the respect of the native inhabitants, who believe 
in the contrived legends." (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dune/themes.html)

Joseph

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