[MD] economic pragmatism

[ian glendinning]

Mark and David M, (and Gav and Arlo et al)
I like the quality of both your thinking, so this is worth exploring.

Mark I believe you are right when you say religions (most aspects of
"all" religions) are imitated patterns of behaviour, social or
socio-cultural if you like. Agreed.

I think few of us understimate the significance of this fact in our
time. The in our time aspect is an illusion, but everything post-9/11
puts this stuff in stark focus for us to debate. The significance is
apocalyptic - Armageddon-sized.

What more of us underestimate is that the "immitated patterns of
behavior" criticism can be aimed at a great deal of what passes for
science and logic too, particularly in the popular media and politics
arena.

So how do we "eliminate" (the bad social imitation aspects of both
science and) religion ? (That's not a rhetorical question). How do we
ensure good memes prevail over bad (and what is good Phaedrus ?)

You can probably tell, I side with David when he suggests dialogue
(engagement / interaction) is better than .... anything else I can
think of. And I'm no less an atheist for that. (Baggini, Wittgenstein
and Matt Kundert have all tried to point out to us that dialogue is
the key to any good philosophy.)

Cool (and wise) heads needed, as I suggested when commenting on a
recent interview ith the Archbishop of Canterbury.

We have a great opportunity to build here, post the Democratic US
election wins, and the (new, but rhetorical) focus on "values"; but it
will all come to nothing if the partisan cynics are allowed to
polarise every debate.

Regards
Ian

On 11/19/06, Squonkonguitar at aol.com <Squonkonguitar at aol.com> wrote:
> Hi Mark
>
> I think, like everything else, religion needs to
> evolve.  I would suggest that engagement and
> interaction with religious thought would  be required
> to try and help itto develop.
>
> Ta
> David
>
> Mark 19-11-06: Hello David,
> The fact is all religions are imitated patterns of behaviour.
> If they are not there to be imitated they won't exist.
> They have been invented.
> Do you understand the magnitude of this claim?
> Love,
> Mark
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