virus: The Myth a Rational CoV

KMO (kmo@c-realm.com)
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:39:32 -0800

carlw wrote:
>
> Good grief Tim.
>
> First it was fullsome (not to say frenzied) favoring of the fantastic
> effects of faith; then, as I collect, you followed it up by boldly
> blustering on the beauty of belief.

Excessive alliteration is an early indication of impending glosalalia. Talk about antici... PAYshun, I'm quite looking forward to witnessing your transformation. You'll be filled with the holy spirit, speakin' in tongues, handlin' snakes, and doing shots of arsnic by month's end.

> How ever did I get the opinion that COV was
> rational?

Perhaps you got that idea from reading the Church of the Virus website. David's vision for the CoV was to create and disseminate a religion that would promote rational thinking about religion, but he opened the evolving project up to other viewpoints; other voices, and then the project mutated, as David new it would. He has been the most long-suffering proponent of strict Monday-morning rationality in this enterprise, and he's done it and continues to do it with grace. He's offered server space to folks who'd like to give shape to related projects, even when, like mine, they don't adhear strictly to his notions of rationality.

You've been on the list long enough now that you must know that this advocacy of the utility of faith isn't just a phase. Those who see rationality as an extremely powerful and valuable means to a desired end, but as not the only tool in the cognitive toolbox and not an end unto itself, aren't likely to swear alliegence to Rationality anytime soon, and yet you stick around, and you spend a lot of time writing some very carefully constructed posts and listing the atrocities and deprivations visited on the world in the name of religion. You're obviously receiving some kind of reinforcement for your efforts, else you'd have departed after the first (few) collective non-response(s) to one of your carefully reasoned and constructed posts.

What is it that keeps you coming back?

Anyway, time for me to get back to work.

Take care.

-KMO