[MD] Dawkins quotes RMP on religion.

[Platt Holden]

> [Krimel]
> Turns out the reference actually can be found in the introduction to "The
> God Delusion": 
> 
> "The dictionary supplied with Microsoft Word defines a delusion as 'a
> persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence,
> especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder'. The first part captures
> religious faith perfectly. As to whether it is a symptom of a psychiatric
> disorder, I am inclined to follow Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the
> Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when he said, 'When one person suffers from a
> delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it
> is called Religion." 
> 
> I have not read the book but looking it over and scanning the index I would
> definitely recommend it to Platt and Ham. It may not cure their delusions
> but as least they would have a better idea of why someone might think they
> are deluded. I will happily loan them an electronic copy, just ask.

It's one thing to be accused of delusions, but without any evidence 
offered, easy to ignore as empty blather. As to why I think that 
fundamentalist Darwinians may be deluded, I find the unanswered question 
from Pirsig  -- "Why survive?" -- evidence enough. But, Dawkins, the author 
of "The God Delusion,"  is a delusional case all his own:

"There turns out to be a serious problem with memes, however. They don't 
exist. A neurophysiologist can use the most powerful  and sophisticated 
brain imagining now available - and still not find a meme. The Darwinian 
fundamentalists, like fundamentalists in any area, are ready for such an 
obvious objection. They will explain that memes operate in a way analogous 
to genes, i.e., through natural selection and survival of the fittest 
memes. But in science, unfortunately, "analogous to" simply won't do. The 
tribal hula is analogous to the waving of a wheat field in the wind before 
the rain, too. Here the explanatory gap becomes enormous. Even though some 
of the fundamentalists have scientific credentials, no one even hazards a 
guess as to how, in physiological, neural terms, the meme "infection" is 
supposed to take place.
"So our fundamentalists find themselves in the awkward position of being 
like those Englishmen in the year 1000 who believe quite literally in the 
little people, the fairies, trolls, and elves. To them Jack Frost was not 
merely a twice personification of winter weather. Jack Frost was one of the 
little people, an elf who made your fingers cold, froze the tip of your 
nose like an icicle, and left the ground too hard to plow. You couldn't see 
him, but he was there. Thus also with memes. Memes are little people who 
sprinkle fairy dust on genes to enable them to pass along so-called 
cultural information to succeeding generations in a proper Darwinian way."

 --- Tom Wolfe, "The Human Beast"

Thanks for the book recommendation. In view Dawkins' delusion, I'll pass.