...hey there virians. Given that this here forum is dedicated to
...from the CoV homepage
skepticism and the questioning of assumptions, I thought it would be
nice if I pointed out a central assumption of this list that keeps
annoying me.
[1]a forum for rational discourse
[2]a memetically engineered atheistic religion
[3]a synthesis of religion and evolution
[4]the best possible conceptual framework for living and thinking
[5]a neo-cybernetic philosophy for the 21st century
[6]Darwin's dangerous idea out of control
[7]an extended phenotype of the Virion Council
...now, I've numbered the points myself. As I see it, points 2, 3, 5,
6, and 7 are descriptive statements which define the nature of our
endeavour. Fine, no biggie.
...point [4] though makes this list a ridiculous parody of itself.
[don't get me wrong, I love it, I'm learning tons]. [4] is a
subjective statement of value with no basis. We are making a baseless
assertion descriptive of the value of our endeavour.
the best possible conceptual framework for living and thinking
-for whom? -why? -relative to what? -toward what ends?
...inclusion of this fundamental conflict does some serious damage to
the assertion made in [1].
...it also encourages participants to indulge in a certain smugness,
by which viewpoints which conflict with the viewpoints of particular
virians are limited by the attachment of descriptors followed by the
word "meme"
..."that's a theist meme"
..."that's a postmodernist meme"
...etc
...etc
...etc
...which process encourages a closure to the process of discourse and
serves as a glib attempt to rob serious dialogue of meaning.
...isn't ALL ideology memetic? as long as we include point [4] in our
definitional statement, aren't we just slaves to the "meme meme"?
...limiting arument in some spheres makes perfect sense [eg. the
interdiction on christian apologetics] but prima facie dismissal of
other viewpoints based on an assumed objectivity with respect to our
own framework and a baseless judgement of value makes much less.
-psypher
[infidel in the temple]