Filling the world with religion, or religions of the type of Abrahamic religions, is like scattering loaded guns in the streets
Richard Dawkins
By
Translation: Shlomi Tal, courtesy of the website Hospitals
The original article can be read on the website www.secularhumanism.org
The guided missile corrects its course during its flight, when it hits, for example, the exhaust of a jet plane. This is a great improvement over a simple ballistic projectile, but it still cannot distinguish between defined targets. He cannot home on a certain skyscraper in New York if he is launched from a distant place like Boston.
This is exactly what a modern "smart missile" is capable of doing. The miniaturization of computers has progressed so far that a smart missile can be programmed nowadays with the Manhattan skyline, along with
Instructions for homing on the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Smart missiles of such sophistication are owned by the United States, as we learned from the Gulf War, but economically they are beyond the reach of ordinary terrorists and scientifically they are beyond the reach of theocratic governments. Is there perhaps a cheaper and easier alternative?
In World War II, before electronic components were cheap and tiny, psychologist B. P. Skinner conducted research on missiles guided by pigeons. The pigeon had to sit in a small control booth, after being trained to peck the keys so that the marked target remained in the center of the screen. The missile was the real target.
The principle worked, although the US authorities never used it. Even when taking into account the cost of training the pigeons, they are cheaper and easier than computers of similar efficiency. Their actions in Skinner's boxes suggest that a pigeon, after a training regimen in color slides, can indeed guide a missile to a prominent building on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Yuna has no idea that she is a missile guide. She just keeps pecking at these two tall triangles on the screen, and every now and then food drops out of the container as a reward, and it goes on until… doom.
Although the pigeons are cheap and can be thrown away like the guidance systems on top of the missiles, there is no escaping the cost of the missile itself. And no missile large enough to cause much damage can penetrate US airspace without being intercepted. What is needed is a missile that is not recognized as such until it is too late. Something like a large airliner, which has the innocent markings of a familiar freighter and plenty of fuel. That's the easy part. But how do you sneak the important guidance system into it? After all, one cannot expect the navigators to give up the steering wheel in favor of a pigeon or a computer.
How about using humans as guidance systems, instead of pigeons? There are at least as many humans as pigeons, their brains are not significantly more expensive than pigeon brains, and for many tasks they are better. Humans have a history of hijacking planes with threats, which act because the real pilots value their lives and the lives of their passengers.
The natural assumption that the hijacker values his life as well, and will behave rationally to preserve it, leads the aircraft crews and ground control to make calculated decisions that do not work if the guidance elements lack a sense of self-preservation. If the plane is hijacked by an armed man who, despite his willingness to take risks, surely wants to continue living, then there is room for bargaining. The rational pilot complies with the hijacker's demands, lowers the plane to the ground, sends hot meals to the passengers and leaves the negotiations to the people skilled in this.
The problem with the human guidance system is exactly that. Unlike the pigeon, she knows that a successful mission ends in her destruction. Can we develop a biological guidance system that is obedient and projective like the pigeon, but also has the ability to integrate and penetrate the system like the human? What we need, in short, is a human being who doesn't mind blowing up. It will be a perfect guidance system. But it's hard to find people who are enthusiastic about committing suicide. Even terminal cancer patients will lose heart when the crash is imminent.
Can we convince normal people that they won't die as a result of flying a plane straight into a skyscraper? I wish! No one is that stupid, but how about this - it's a weak attempt, but maybe it will work. Since they are surely going to die, can we trick them into believing that they will come back to life after that? Don't be ridiculous! No, listen, it might work. Offer them a fast track to a great oasis in the sky, cooled by eternal springs. Harps and wings will not charm the young people we need, therefore tell them that there is a special reward for dying in the name of religion in the amount of 72 virgin brides, guaranteed to be coveted and exclusive to him.
Will they fall into the trap? Yes, testosterone-drenched young men who aren't attractive enough to get a wife in this world may be desperate enough to try to get 72 private virgins in the next.
We've been lucky and have just what we need: a ready-made mind control system that has been refined over centuries and passed down from generation to generation. It's a flimsy story, but worth a try. In any case, you should bring them while they are young. Feed them a complete and consistent background mythology to make the big lie sound believable. Give them a holy book and tell them to learn it by heart. You know, I think it might actually work. We've been lucky and have just what we need: a ready-made system of mind control that has been refined over hundreds of years and passed down from generation to generation.
Millions of people grew up on it. It's called a religion, and for reasons that one day we may understand, most people fall into its trap (and especially in America itself, although they don't notice the irony). Now all we need is to gather these believing heads and teach them to fly.
Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end
The Hytholi? Contempt for unspeakable evil? This is the complete opposite of my intention, which is extremely serious and driven by deep pain and terrible anger. I'm trying to draw attention to the elephant in the room that everyone is too polite - or pious - to notice: religion, and especially the way in which religion creates a devaluation of human life. I'm not talking about the devaluation of other people's lives (although she can do that too), but about the devaluation of a person's own life. Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.
If death is final, one would expect a rational activist to value his life highly and hesitate to lose it. It makes the world a safer place, just as the plane is safer if the hijacker wants to survive. On the other end, if a significant number of people convince themselves, or their clergy convince them, that the death of a suicide bomber in the name of religion is like pressing a button on space and going through a wormhole to another universe, it can make the world a very dangerous place. Especially if they believe that this other universe is a heavenly refuge from the troubles of the real world. Add to that sexual promises that are honestly believed, even though they are foolish and hurt women. Were you surprised then that innocent and frustrated young people are eager to be selected for suicide missions?
There is no doubt that the mind immersed in the idea of the next world is indeed a powerful and dangerous weapon. It can be compared to a smart missile, and its guidance system is better in many areas than the most sophisticated electronic brain money can buy. But for a cynical government, organization or religious leadership it is very, very cheap.
to fill the world with religion, or religions of the type of Abrahamic religions,
It's like scattering loaded guns in the streets
Our leaders described the latest atrocity with the cliché: mindless cowardice. "Out of mind" is a description that could fit the destruction of a phone booth. It is not very helpful in helping us understand what hit New York on 11/XNUMX. These people were not mindless and certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had extremely efficient minds and were equipped with insane courage, and our reward would be great if we understood where this courage came from.
It comes from religion. Religion is also, of course, the source of the conflict in the Middle East which motivated the use of this deadly weapon in the first place. But that is another story and not my concern here. My issue is the weapon itself. To fill the world with religion, or religions of the type of Abrahamic religions, is like scattering loaded guns in the streets. Don't be surprised if they are used.
