Below is a quote that made me laugh, but the whole article is very good (quite long).
The atheist delusion | Review | guardian.co.uk Books: "Dawkins's 'memetic theory of religion' is a classic example of the nonsense that is spawned when Darwinian thinking is applied outside its proper sphere. Along with Dennett, who also holds to a version of the theory, Dawkins maintains that religious ideas survive because they would be able to survive in any 'meme pool', or else because they are part of a 'memeplex' that includes similar memes, such as the idea that, if you die as a martyr, you will enjoy 72 virgins. Unfortunately, the theory of memes is science only in the sense that Intelligent Design is science. Strictly speaking, it is not even a theory. Talk of memes is just the latest in a succession of ill-judged Darwinian metaphors."
2 comments:
This is a good article making some interesting comments with the benefit of Gray's wry humour; I have saved it to read again.
Last year I read his book, Straw Dogs, in which he rips apart the conceit that somehow we as 21st century people are somehow superior to men/women of the past and says, in effect, behind a veneer of technology we are still no better than animals (and probably worse!).
I think he would not have any sympathy for religious belief, but is honest enough to recognise that includes faith in atheism as well.
Further to my previous comment, by technology, I mean the increase of knowledge, and especially of "science" that deludes mankind into thinking it is advancing and becoming better. This is the secular myth of "progression" that he refers to in his article.
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