From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon 16 Jan 2006 - 19:41:53 GMT
>From: Kate Distin <memes@distin.co.uk>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: Dawkins on Channel 4 tonight
>Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:04:22 +0000
>
[snip]
>
>I'm not sure that I understand what is going on in the minds of people who
>fly aeroplanes into buildings, or say (as Dawkins's interviewee did last
>week) that they "hate atheists". But nor do I understand what is going on
>in the minds of people who commit atrocities in any cause, be that
>political, gang-related, tribal or whatever.
>
True. See below and also my other reply to you on this thread.
>
>And I am pretty clear that what is going on in these minds is not very much
>like what is going on in mine when I engage in robust philosophical or
>theological debate with my Christian, Muslim, Sikh, or atheist friends.
>
One of the worst examples of science gone mad would be the "research" on
twins that Mengele conducted at Auschwitz. There were other Nazi
"scientific" atrocities committed in the camps, but that was probably among
the worst.
I don't have much truck with religion, but the history of eugenics is a
caveat as to what could happen when the urge to build better humans via
science goes haywire. The recent movie _The Island_ may be a little
far-fetched in some aspects, but the parallels to the darkest years of
eugenics were blatantly obvious.
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