[extropy-chat] Edge: Thank Goodness! By Daniel C. Dennett

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 22:57 -0500, Keith Henson wrote:
> Besides, it's the wrong way to approach the problem.
> Ranting against epidemic disease didn't save a single life.
> What was needed was to understand what causes infectious diseases.
> People have religions like they have chicken pox.  

There are several different ways of viewing religion. If one views
religion as being infected by a set of bad memes then ranting can make a
difference if the ranting has an impact on the bad memes.  Consider the
decline of infectious disease with the advent of better sanitation.
Dennett, Dawkins, Harris and others are hopefully causing a more
critical focus on the memes associated with religion.

Fred