Re: virus: Religion

tom.holz (tom.holz@pobox.com)
Wed, 28 May 1997 18:02:08 -0400


>> *It's very rare that I actually disagree with something. Usually I can get
>> both sides of an argument and end up going "mmhmm, I see." I'm excited.
>
>Don't dis that, eh? It's far better to understand both sides than to go
>fundamental on only one side...

Though after a lifetime (a little more than 20 years in my case), being
able to arbitrarily say "you wong. me right." is a refreshing change. On a
side note, this is a skill I developed sometime in the last 2 months, and I
link it directly to my interest in taichi, which I would not have been
hooked on if it weren't for some random list person I remember saying
"taichi--the martial art that takes 6 years to be any good at." Thanks to
that someone. And on another note, a huge percentage of my mental
resources are spent thinking about taichi--very interesting memetic analisys.

>Now this makes sense. Except of course I disagree with "need the
>sacrificial death and resurection" part... I just think that it's enough
>to recgonize that we /are/ imperfect and do make mistakes. As long as
>you forgive yourself, and those around you forgive you as well, who
>needs more?

What do you think believing in Christ does? I could find heavily
quoted/influencial scripture saying: "he forgives you. you forgive them.
thats all you need to go directly to heaven ". This seems like the same
thing you are saying (only through different eye-glasses)

>I think I understand, although your explaination sucked (hehehe). Seems
>to me a better way would be to call imperfection and absolution the arch
>and "god is omnipotent" meerly a decoration on the arch. Christianity
>is not as nice without it, but it still works... (hey John, have I got
>this right?)

right. The decoration idea fits much nicer. There are certainly some
people who have mistaken decorations as structural necessity. (you know..
I was planning on dissin' what you said, but after about 10 seconds I wrote
this)

>> Probably. Although with a good solid week or two of exposure in a
>> well-engineered environment I can see the christian memeset taking over
>> again, at least temporarily.
>
>This is exactly why Churchs build schools.

And why schools were built in the first place, if I recall correctly.
Could this imply that certain Christian mindsets (those that built the
schools, not ignorance-people) are the evolutionary ancestors to
science-thinking?

I've been wearing memeticly-colored glasses this past week.

>> I prefer to think of it as maximum potiential meme density (MPMD). And
>> don't worry about the antagonistic part.
>
>That great! Now if only the acronym was easier to remember...

hmm.. take out the repetitious M, and you get PMD, which is much easier to
remember, and more versatile as well (!)

thwim, think, thunk.
tom the wet.