The Religion Virus?
I saw an amusing article on kuro5hin comparing religion to a virus (and explaining the analogy, of course). It's quite an interesting article, rather well-written, and certainly has the funny factor. Kind of reminds me of Smith's speech in The Matrix (then again, that was probably my least favorite part of the movie :p).
Coding Viruses for the Mind
Coding Viruses for the Mind
posted by Antonio |
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1 Comments:
You're describing a virus according to what it looks like, as opposed to how it behaves. This is a comparison of religion with the behavior of a virus, not with its biological structure.
As for religion and science - it can be argued that atheism is a religion, that science is a religion. But it isn't really true. For one thing, science precisely doesn't try to explain away death in a way that is palatable to the human mind. In fact, science rarely ever takes the easy way out, because science tries to fit the facts. Religion is, essentially, the easy way out - an easy way to explain the existence of mankind and the universe. Problem is, of course, that it isn't that simple.
I do agree that there will always be some people who will need an afterlife to believe in, to believe that life goes on after death. Personally, I'm fine with no continuance. As was pointed out in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, I just want to leave a mark on the world, or, really, on some people. Whether the planet remembers me is of secondary importance - I want those important to me to remember me. Regardless of when I die or how.
I don't fear death in the sense that I don't fear what's not coming after. There is, of course, the off chance that I'm wrong, that there is a Heaven and a Hell, and that I'll be taking the fast train to an eternity of suffering. But I don't think that remote possibility justifies my devoting my life to a religion that contradicts itself and whose followers do not follow it.
As far as I can tell, all religions advocate peace. But all of them were founded on blood. I suppose Islam is the one most bloodily created, but still it advocates peace. And yet, here we are.
I just put my faith in this quote:
"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."
-- Bertrand Russell
Even if I don't really believe it. At least not in my lifetime. If only....
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