Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Dawkins
Yesterday, Tom gave me a link to a Google video, containing the famous two-episode documentary “The Root of All Evil”, by Richard Dawkins. Coincidence (or not), I’m just reading through Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene”, a famous book which theorizes about the nature of altruism, among other things.
The documentary brings nothing new to the masses. Dawkins does not surprise those who know him: he looks to religion as a virus, a dangerous disease that lasts for thousands and thousands of years.
Analyzing this “virus” through the scope of evolution, we may speculate that it’s a matter of survival of the fittest: if most of the human beings have that tendency towards religion/superstition, and even considering they are wrong, we must admit that this “virus” survived easily among its competitors. Whether it’s a “genetic” or “conceptual” “virus”, it has managed to survive and grow: the adoption of religion by humans seems to be a benefit. Well, of course religion helps raising anger in some people’s hearts. Politics have the same effect… even football has the same effect! Why wouldn’t something so important as religion fit as an excuse to kill? OK, it’s stupid, I know! But killing someone because of its football team is even more stupid!
However, I share some worries with Professor Dawkins… For instance, the growth of religious education in the western world is one of the points that I find really “frightening”.
Everything else, Professor Dawkins, is exhageration. Religion, superstition and irrational thought are inevitable. I find things that 90% of the world’s population believe in just ridiculous… But not everyone has my education… even less people have Richard Dawkins’ education… and, yet, we know nothing…