> Even people who host the logic meme for the most part of their daily
> lives can simultaneouly host a theistic meme with the addition of
> one other meme, a sort of escape clause: God is beyond (outside of,
> above) logic. This simple addition makes their religious beliefs
> immune to any and all rational arguments so it is hardly surprising
> to find it is quite pervasive in our culture.
And then Boyd said,
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Careful. I could put any person's name in place of 'God' there
[workability of substitution in real life irrelevant!]. We need some
content-based way to deny that formal substitution.
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I can't understand why we'd want to deny that substitution.
Had he some better publicists and a few less powerful memes
to deal with, Jim Jones could have become the next messiah to
a larger portion of the population.
Many hosts of god-memes believe in gods incarnate, so it seems like
a misstep to rule out a substitution.
As an analogy containing some relevance perhaps, many people see
their political leaders as being beyond law, as gods are beyond logic.
eEc