

Viruses of the Mind - Richard Dawkins on Religion - jey
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Dawkins/viruses-of-the-mind.html

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jacoblyles
Please, god, no.

>"I have just discovered that without her father's consent this sweet,
trusting, gullible six-year-old is being sent, for weekly instruction, to a
Roman Catholic nun. What chance has she?"

"What chance has she?". God forbid she grow up to be a Catholic. The way
Dawkins phrases it, she might as well be dead.

I loved "The Ancestor's Tale", though, Richard! One of the four best books
I've ever read.

~~~
subhash
"What chance has she .. in understanding and possibly rejecting religious
dogma when she can't do the same with obvious nonsense like tooth fairies"

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kirse
This comment section is really going to end up with a lot of bickering and
very little progress made...

I will note that Dawkins has certainly succeeded in producing his own "virus
of the mind" cult of religion-fearing individuals primarily fed by his
vitriolic and scathing intellectual attacks against religion.

For every few Bible-believing Christians you find an atheist pseudo-
intellectual clutching his hardbound copy of "The God Delusion". So much for
free thinking there.

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xsmasher
In order to be a "good" atheist, is it necessary to be an expert in genetics
and evolution? In order to be a "good" Christian, is it necessary to be a
expert historian and biblical scholar? In order to be a a free mind, do you
have to write your own book?

I don't think "The God Delusion" is going to convert anyone with strongly held
beliefs, although it might move some fence-sitters. Like most apologetics,
it's not written for the other side. If it were, it would need a less shocking
title. But as an long-time Atheist in America(tm), it's nice to see books
about atheism in the front shelf in bookstores, and discussion of the topic on
television. Finally, it doesn't have to be "my secret shame!"

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danbmil99
As a cult, Catholicism has done way more harm in its history than Scientology.
I think it's very sad to see another generation grow up believing in that sort
of sick madness.

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jacoblyles
By being the sole center of learning and scholarship in the European Dark
Ages, by giving birth to the modern university, and by inventing musical
notation?

Yes, I am aware of the bad things too. Reality has nuance.

Edit: Now that I think about it, you are certainly right that the Catholic
church has done more _gross_ harm than Scientology, if only because it is much
bigger and has been around for more than twenty times as long. However, I am
not sure how the _net_ harm stacks up, due to its central role in the founding
of Western civilization, and other mitigating facts.

~~~
xsmasher
I think "learning and scholarship" is stretching the truth - the primary
caretaker in preserving ancient scholarship, yes. But what new research and
learning was going on? The really hot stuff was going on in the Arabic world
at that time. While the monks were carfully copying old books, Al-Khwārizmī
was busy moving forward.

