Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA01029 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 31 May 2001 14:39:57 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745EC6@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Email virus spreads memetically Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 14:36:13 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<Only to those who wish to maintain the ignorance. Knowledge removes
fear.
> It is better to light that one candle.>
>
I think I know what you mean and agree. Of course one of the
problems, that religions and others exploit, is that some kinds of knowledge
for quite a lot of people is inherently fearful. Fear of death is
alleviated for many by the notion of an afterlife, for example, despite it
being a preposterous idea. It allows people to avoid dealing with the
knowledge of the inevitability of death.
Arthur C Clarke once said, of the existence of extra-terrestrial
intelligent life, that there are basically two answers to this question-
either we're alone in the universe, or we're not alone, and either answer in
terrifying. In some regards I think he's right about that (although I'd
only find us being alone terrifying).
I still cling to the hope that we'll make contact with an
intelligent extra-terrestrial race one day (although the chances are
incredibly slim), in the naive hope that this will make all those true
believers sit up and say "Hang on, none of my religion's sacred texts, or
priests have ever mentioned these aliens before, and yet they claim divine
knowledge received from god(s)", and then realise it's all self-serving
rubbish and start waking up. It won't happen, of course, just as doomsday
cultists don't (usually) give up and go home when doomsday goes by, without
the doom part (apart from that bloke a couple of years back who had TV
camera crews watching him wait for the word of God to appear in his TV set,
I forget his name, but he gave up and went home).
You can feed true believers to lions and they still won't give up...
oh wait that's been tried already, hasn't it.
Incidentally, I saw a report in New Scientist the other day that
there are clear differences in the genetic ancestry of the different castes
in India, indicating quite clearly that the caste system, thought of by
Hindus as a route to spiritual growth, was initially simply a sophisticated
form of apartheid.
Anyway rambling on my hobby horse again, sorry.
Vincent
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