X-Message-Number: 20575
From: "Stephen Bogner" <>
Subject: =?US-ASCII?Q?Re:_Crowding_out_Islam_in_Children's_Brains?=
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 11:59:49 -0700

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Subject: Re: Crowding out Islam in Children's Brains
 
In the following extracts (which I hope are still in context,
notwithstanding my chopping them up) Steve Harris writes, with his usual
eloquence and insight:
 
"Humans are susceptible to the "magic lie" naturally, and if you don't
believe it, look at any primitive culture."
 
".the point of fundamentalist Islam, and indeed fundamentalist religions
of all kinds, which is a feeling of controlling magic and power against
your rivals and enemies, because you're special, and special to god,
because you have the correct beliefs."
 
".if you can't promise a lot of power for a little work, you're going to
lose out to meme-complexes that do. Religious leaders ARE specialists in
this. They know what works. They've been evolving ideas for many
millennia, and what we have now is what HAS worked on the human psyche."
 
"The alternative, after all, is hard work with no guarantees, having to
admit you're nobody very special (life's a bitch), and then (finally
after all that) you die and your conscious ends. Religions, which
promise and end to this state, are computer viruses for the mind . And
no vaccine known for the average mind, except prior infection with
something nearly as bad."
...
 
Usually, I have observed that community ridicule generally acts to
restrain the more egregious excesses of beliefs at obvious (or even
apparent) odds with "reality" - nothing destroys someone's status faster
than being considered to be a fool or an idiot by his peers.  However,
religions have even managed to turn this fundamental meme on its head,
to their great advantage: It appears to be almost a universal that
religions consider ridicule of their beliefs by non-believers as a form
of persecution, and the endurance of persecution for the sake of those
beliefs to be exceedingly meritorious and status enhancing within the
religious group - often the most meritorious thing that a member of the
religion can do.  (This is hardly surprising upon reflection, given the
memetic nature of religious belief in the first place.)
 
In fact, the extreme persistence in holding beliefs advocated by the
religion, but especially if those beliefs are demonstrably false by all
objective evidence, is viewed by "faith-based" religion as a key litmus
test of religious piety.  In effect, such individuals have been
essentially inoculated against reason - and hence against the critical
examination of their beliefs.  And their religions recognize and value
them accordingly.  The rest of us generally view them as brainwashed
idiots.
 
After years of observation, I have concluded that for many people the
social community within the religion is the draw for their
participation, and they often do receive a legitimate psychological and
social benefit by being part of that community.  I have seen many
individuals who have been able to reconcile themselves to tragedy and
desperate lives by accepting religious messages.  Indeed, one of my old
(and wise) philosophy professors once noted (and I relate this without
intentional irony, given this forum) the directly measurable correlation
between the desperation of one's circumstances and the willingness to
accept any ideas, however unlikely, purporting to ease those
circumstances.  
 
The alternative to holding religious beliefs is to face the abyss - and
sometimes the darkness can be very dark indeed. Not everyone has the
psychological strength required.  As I have mellowed over the years, I
have decided that for the majority of religious - living their desperate
little lives, and just trying to get through it all with a little
dignity - it is probably more important to be happy than to be right.
So long as they keep their irrationality out of the schools and out of
politics I am willing to live and let live.
 
Steve.
 

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