From the two-part Channel 4 (UK) series The Root of All Evil?:
Episode 2 The Virus of Faith
“How is it, asks Richard Dawkins, that despite science having exposed old religious myths, militant faith is back on the march? The mechanism for perpetuating beliefs that Dawkins describes as leading to murderous intolerance, is by imposing religion on children who are too inexperienced to judge it for themselves”
We wouldn’t categorise children according to their parents’ political stance, says Dawkins, since they are too young to make up their minds about such matters. But we segregate them in sectarian religious schools, where they are taught superstitions drawn from ancient scriptures of dubious origin, which promote a ‘contradictory and poisonous system of morals’.
From generation to generation
Dawkins compares this to a virus, which infects the young and is passed down the generations. Visiting an ultra-orthodox Jewish school, he describes the British-born headteacher Rabbi Gluck’s Yiddish accent as testament to the isolation of his community.
Continued at “The Root of All Evil?”
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Watch the video “The Root of All Evil: The Virus of Faith” here
Part 1, “The God Delusion“, can be seen here
John Latter / Jorolat
Evolution Research:
http://evomech3.blogspot.com/
Isn’t there a middle way between cold atheism and irrational religion that permits our scientific pursuit to understand every bit of nature – yet preserves spirituality ??
In a recent essay Stuart Kauffman elegantly articulates a new sceintific worldview, beyond reductuonism, that sees an emergent and creative universe worthy of awed wonder and deep regard for all life and the planet. This allows for a new kind of spirituality without a Creator God.
The piece can be found on the web at http://www.edge.org:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/
kauffman06/kauffman06_index.html