From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 10 Feb 2003 - 11:54:59 GMT
Some responses, all IMHO
<What meme would you use to make the believers change their minds?>
Well, without being too flippant, perhaps the axe meme accompanied
by some comment like 'may god strike me down before I hack this holy
fencepost to bits'.
<If the beleivers thought the Virgin Mary wanted this man to shut
up, and they took
> action to make him do so, where would right and wrong come into it?>
>
Well, true believers could kill him and still feel righteous as
nothing can come in the way of revealed truth, which they presumably would
believer the face in the fence to be.
<Was he rational in preaching to them against their beliefs?>
Yes. Always rational, if not always good for your health, to
<Would they be rational in trying to stop him?>
It would be understandable for them to try and stop him, or rather
internally consistent with their beliefs. I'm not sure that makes ir
rational though.
<When two sides are both doing what they believe is
> right, it's very difficult to reason with either side.>
>
Yes, except that here the dispute is between reason and delusion.
(Nobody ever really sees the face of the virgin mary in anything, because
nobody knows what she looked like- they might see what looks like various
iconic images of her but that's not the same thing at all- now Jimmy Hill's
face on the side of a cow, now that I've seen!).
Vincent
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