Indra’s mount

[archerships]

You know, I think religion is a memetic meta-parasite. One that, with luck, will eventually fade into extinction.

But damn, if religion doesn’t inspire some cool architecture:

Via levelhead.

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

maybe

[cspowers.livejournal.com]

the fact that you think it's cool is an indication that it has touched something in your soul, which is of course what religion is all about.

Re: maybe

[crasch.livejournal.com]

I think the Hand's of Victory are equally cool. Same for many state buildings. I don't think that the feeling of awe has anything to do with the overall worth of the ideology/religion that lead to the creation of the work.

[pasquin.livejournal.com]

David Sloan Wilson, the evolutionary biologist, describes religions as adaptive at the group level. Meaning, unlike the Dawkinesque notion of it being an atavistic remnant, it is a way for members to compete.

Just as the Free State Project was a way of combining people of similar values together for common cause.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

That may be true. I've thought a fair bit about how to create a secular ideology/group identity that could successfully compete with religion, without creating it's own horrors.

[pasquin.livejournal.com]

I did a Salon on this very thing and how I feel O'ism does not acheive this aim.

I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell combines the two theories, with a hint of Freud's view*, into something a bit more complex.


*religion exists b/c of a fear of death

[pasquin.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to read Dennett, he's so widely quoted. Thanks for the tip.