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The Evolution of Confusion

A talk by Dan Dennet at AAI 2009. Enjoy

  • Charnal
  • posted by Charnal
  • Date 11/4/2009 1:33:50 PM
  • Views: 340
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2 Comments

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exploder : LVL 50: VP 5: said:

exploder

0 votes NegativePositive

28 days 5 hours ago...

Thanks Charnal, that was a real gem.

I have been remiss in not seeking out more of Dennet`s work. I particularly agree with his ideas of undesigned evolutionary mechanisms as the explanation of many religious phenomena. That is why I don`t listen to what most religious people say themselves, or what their holy books have to say. I see internal religious philosophy as being nothing more than oil in the gears of a larger social machine that is actually governed by real human monkey business: social hierarchy; submission, domination and fealty; organization and exploitation of labor; etc..

If you want to see where the religion train is rolling, the track is a steel road that runs straight to social power, status and wealth, and nowhere else. Don`t be confused by the seemingly noble places the train passes by, the best the religion express does is slow at those places so people don`t get too injured jumping off. The train only bothers to slow, to help hide the fact that religion has only one real destination, which again is human monkey social power business. And I have to say that for all the credit given to religious people who jump off at great places like charity, I think they would get there with fewer mental injuries, and better focused integrity, if they had just walked there themselves.

Meanwhile, all of that mystical mumbo-jumbo that religions perpetually scribble and babble, amounts to the same tired junk as what Dennet so generously credits the theologians for (fuck I loved that bit of his talk): empty excuses to cover up awkward questions about what they are really up to. Religious people start to lose it when they look too deeply into things like the Bible, and realize the bigger picture is a pile of bullshit. Theologians supply the opium to keep them sleepy. On a bigger scale, the self explanations of entire religions are just opportunistic cover for naked social power building and social control. A democratic society should be revolted by these social activities being conducted by church actors with little or no public accountability, and a decidedly closed, authoritarian, manipulative, and ugly internal process.

Religion is the wrong way for a modern people to organize and work together. Don`t be fooled by it`s irrelevant self explanations. See that religion is an opportunistic evolving social phenomenon that is repugnant to our higher human social and intellectual aims. Only by properly teaching those people caught up in it, to see what it is they are truly involved in, can we bring light into their darkness. We need to move forwards together.

Charnal : LVL 16: VP 2.5: said:

Charnal

0 votes NegativePositive

28 days 3 hours ago...

^I was rolled by a mountain of text! But it felt good! I`m happy you liked the video.

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