Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA12755 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 28 Mar 2001 19:48:56 +0100 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20010328124426.00833b40@mailhost.rongenet.sk.ca> X-Sender: hawkeye@mailhost.rongenet.sk.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 12:44:26 -0600 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk, memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Lloyd Robertson <hawkeye@rongenet.sk.ca> Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme In-Reply-To: <3AC21572.7462F3FC@bioinf.man.ac.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745D2D@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 05:46 PM 28/03/01 +0100, Chris Taylor wrote:
>
>As for religion (thankyou Vincent, please accept my sincere sympathy for
>what must have been an unbearable time for you and yours), I used to be
>a hardcore antireligious person, but now I'm not. I'm not religious, but
>I do see that it's a lot easier to use religion to indoctrinate kids
>with morality (memetic engineering ain't just an ad thing) before they
>know enough to resist (and then they spend the rest of their lives
>justifying what they already think, as do we all) than it is to try to
>teach the golden rule and Kant. The kids will often abandon religion
>(like I did with Catholicism) but the fundamental behavioural prejudices
>it has scored in there will remain, with 'resident's advantage'.
>
The problem is that the abandonment of the religion (as will happen with
many intelligent youth) will often lead the reverse of what you
experienced, an abandonment of the moral principles that were tied to the
religious teaching. Why bother being "good" if the big guy in the sky that
rewards whatever version of goodness we have been taught doesn't exist?
It seems to me that pre-operational children will do what is "right" (as
defined by their parents) if those parents consistantly structure their
experiences so that it is in their best interest to do so. That pattern
then leads to the fundamental pro-social behavioral prejudices of which you
speak without the danger that the moral principles will get thrown out once
the "big lie" is discovered.
Lloyd
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