Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA21847 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 24 Jan 2002 07:00:04 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020124014157.0352f2b0@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 01:57:29 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Scientology In-Reply-To: <00f701c1a482$81889440$aa86b2d1@teddace> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020121013659.035280b0@pop.cogeco.ca> <5.1.0.14.0.20020122195748.03522ec0@pop.cogeco.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 06:54 PM 23/01/02 -0800, "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net>
wrote:
>Keith:
snip
> > easy to find. Grady has been very low profile for years and they are
> > still after him.
>
>What exactly does this mean? Are they harassing him in some way? Death
>threats? Stalking? And if so, can't he get the police involved and bring
>charges against them? Or is it legal harassment?
Mostly legal harassement, going after his employers, legal stalking (using PIs)
>[switching threads]
>
> > >if i understand Susan Blackmore's book correctly, then she believes
> > >we have no choice whatsoever.
>
> > Susan is *technically* right on this point. It is the direct consequence
> > of the fact that everything is either directly caused by something else
> > or the result of a random event.
>
>This would seem to render moot your whole case against Scientology. If we
>have no freedom to begin with, how could a cult steal it?
Sigh. I don't know why I get into these discussions. If you can imagine
getting outside our 3 space and one time dimension it is obvious. If you
can't it is like trying to describe 3D to Flatlanders. I am not the best
person to describe the situation in any case. Look up what some of the
heavy science thinkers say about this topic. I might try to answer Joe
Dees or maybe not.
> > So you can look back and state with confidence that everything that
> > happened including any memes you picked up were either caused or
> > random. You can even say that the future is the same way. But it
> > makes no difference in the operation sense because you will always
> > feel you have choice.
>
>Exactly. The central theme of Scientology is freedom. This past summer
>they had a bunch of evening concerts, and they always seemed to be singing
>about the glories of freedom. It's that perfect reality reversal that makes
>cults and clinical narcissists so creepy. But if your argument is correct,
>all of us are victims of a cult, specifically the cult of the brain, which,
>for reasons of natural selection, makes us believe we have free will.
>
>It's difficult to understand, given your belief in universal mind-control,
>why you're at war with the Church of Scientology.
They offend me.
Keith Henson
PS. In Robert Heinlein's story Starman Jones there is a character who is
killed on a remote planet. In the story his grave marker reads:
Sergeant Anderson, late of the Imperial Marines.
"He ate what was set before him."
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