IP: Richard Dawkins: Religion's Misguided Missiles

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

I know I am going to get a blast from this one but.... djf

BTW

Richard Dawkins is professor of the public understanding of science, 
University of Oxford, and author of The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, 
and Unweaving the Rainbow.

Not a kook

Dave



> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 23:45:19 -0600
> To: dave () farber net
> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
>
>
> Religion's misguided missiles: Promise a young man that death is not the 
> end and he will willingly cause disaster
>
> Special report: terrorism in the US
>
> Richard Dawkins
> Guardian
> Saturday September 15, 2001
>
> A guided missile corrects its trajectory as it flies, homing in, say, on 
> the heat of a jet plane's exhaust. A great improvement on a simple 
> ballistic shell, it still cannot discriminate particular targets. It could 
> not zero in on a designated New York skyscraper if launched from as far 
> away as Boston.
>
> That is precisely what a modern "smart missile" can do. Computer 
> miniaturisation has advanced to the point where one of today's smart 
> missiles could be programmed with an image of the Manhattan skyline 
> together with instructions to home in on the north tower of the World 
> Trade Centre. Smart missiles of this sophistication are possessed by the 
> United States, as we learned in the Gulf war, but they are economically 
> beyond ordinary terrorists and scientifically beyond theocratic 
> governments. Might there be a cheaper and easier alternative?
>
> ...
>
> Could we get some otherwise normal humans and somehow persuade them that 
> they are not going to die as a consequence of flying a plane smack into a 
> skyscraper? If only! Nobody is that stupid, but how about this - it's a 
> long shot, but it just might work. Given that they are certainly going to 
> die, couldn't we sucker them into believing that they are going to come to 
> life again afterwards? Don't be daft! No, listen, it might work. Offer 
> them a fast track to a Great Oasis in the Sky, cooled by everlasting 
> fountains. Harps and wings wouldn't appeal to the sort of young men we 
> need, so tell them there's a special martyr's reward of 72 virgin brides, 
> guaranteed eager and exclusive.
>
> Would they fall for it? Yes, testosterone-sodden young men too 
> unattractive to get a woman in this world might be desperate enough to go 
> for 72 private virgins in the next.
>
> It's a tall story, but worth a try. You'd have to get them young, though. 
> Feed them a complete and self-consistent background mythology to make the 
> big lie sound plausible when it comes. Give them a holy book and make them 
> learn it by heart. Do you know, I really think it might work. As luck 
> would have it, we have just the thing to hand: a ready-made system of 
> mind-control which has been honed over centuries, handed down through 
> generations. Millions of people have been brought up in it. It is called 
> religion and, for reasons which one day we may understand, most people 
> fall for it (nowhere more so than America itself, though the irony passes 
> unnoticed). Now all we need is to round up a few of these faith-heads and 
> give them flying lessons....
>
> Full text at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4257777,00.html



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