Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?: A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity

(Greg DeLong) #1

prevention. It is, in the words of my former advisor, Peter Vaughn, social medicine. Dawkins would call
this a meme, an idea that has spread. Since it has no ill side effects it continues, even though it probably
has no medical benefit either.


A side note to memes: Going against them could create social ostracism, which would have a
deleterious effect on one's mental health, so it is a fine line.


The major point to recognize is that memes can come from anywhere, a suggestion somewhere in the
past, an urban myth, a shocking event. But once a meme gets spread, it is very hard to eliminate it.


The feeling of freedom is such a meme, in my view. (I am not sure if my advisor, who is much more
expert on this matter, has ever discussed this with me. But I think he would agree with me.) There is
ample reinforcement of this meme, both in history (wars fought over freedom), and in our immediate
cultural surrounding (in the land of the free). An excellent intellectual achievement would be an analysis
of how this meme has developed through time.


Just this weekend, while waiting for a subway train in NYC, my girlfriend and I were discussing how
filthy and disgusting the trains and platforms are. Millions of bits of bubble gum everywhere, grime and
spit every step, cigarette butts at every turn. Why does this happen? Because people think, "Hey, its a free
country." That's right-they shirk any sense of responsibility because they believe they are free to do
whatever they want to do. Now, I agree they could justify this bad behavior even if they thought they had
no free will. But let's face it, freedom rules the day, and it is the dominant meme that allows this behavior.


Remember, we are talking about a feeling here, a process in the brain that brings about a certain
behavior. It is impossible for people to understand how mechanical all this is in the absence of biological
knowledge. So when they hear that all organisms are determined by heredity and environment, they have
no idea what that means. They treat such a statement with skepticism. Indeed, even many biologists don't
appreciate the complexity involved in the word environment. They are used to controlling environmental
conditions in their laboratory experiments. But it is clear that environmental determinants are extremely
complex and have a time dimension as well.


Hereditary factors are also extremely complex-over 80,000 genes interacting with each other and with
the extracellular envi ronments. It is a very, very complicated matter that we've only just begun to figure
out in any way. So until more is understoodand don't underestimate how fast we are accumulating
knowledge about genetics and environment-it will not surprise me when people object to the statement
that they are very complicated robots with the retort, "F*** you, I feel free. I live in America, therefore I
am free."


I have started to challenge myself on the idea that you touched on near the end of your last note-the idea
that "I am writing this now, and I could be doing something else, but I'm not, I am writing instead." I have
started to think more along these lines: "I am doing this now, so some set of appropriate conditions must
have come up to compel my brain to make me do this." We think we are aware of all the conditions that
lead to our behavior. That is just human arrogance. In fact, even though our brains are the most elaborate
computing and sensing devices, our consciousness cannot adequately monitor all the subtle stimuli that
influence behavior. So we are conscious that we are doing something and we reason with ourselves about
what must motivate this behavior, when in fact we do not know.


This     is  how     I   can     feel    compassionate   toward  criminals   (even   if  I   don't   excuse  them)   and     why     I
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