On 16 Oct 96 at 17:32, noctem@centuryinter.net wrote:
> Food for thought:
> If a similar procedure (sometimes theistic, sometimes not) works in
> and is usually required by psychological treatment -- i.e., positive
> thinking -- why not apply it outside of the santitarium? Couldn't this be
> the reason that many people hold religious meme complexes?
Yes. Comfort and support. With you so far.
> Eliminating religious thinking could very well improve psychiatrists'
> incomes by increasing their caseloads....
> To wit: would it benefit individuals, groups, or society to break a
> floorboard that keeps people from falling into the basement of pathological
> psychology? Would an atheistic world necessarily be a healthier one, or
> would that require as a preliminary step the elimination of that percentage
> of the human population that cannot sustain itself without a religious
> meme-scaffold? Wouldn't that preliminary step be equivalent to
> intellectually-motivated genocide, and if the Church of Virus works toward
> the propogation of atheistic meme-complexes, isn't it a driving force
> toward that genocide?
If, as you suggest, a percentage of the human population cannot
sustain itself without the crutch of a religious meme to lean on then
do you think for one second that we'll actually be able to shake
those beliefs? I think no matter what we do those people (if they
exist) will stick to their faith or find another, equally comforting
one. If these people exist in sufficient numbers that they affect the
spread of the CoV meme noticably then we must either make it
comfortable for them or work on eliminating their need for comfort.
The former would, I think, compromise the whole point of CoV and the
latter is a very long term goal (probably spanning generations).
> Please bear in mind that I'm playing Devil's Advocate here....
Give him my regards ;)
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