On Aug 31, 2005, at 2:48 AM, William T Goodall wrote:
It would drive it underground. The number of people infected would be reduced and its influence in public affairs mostly silenced. Whether it would then wither away naturally or have to be rooted out is hard to judge.
I think we can take a lesson from history here in the form of the US "war on drugs", which has been an expensive and miserable failure. Any student of human nature would have predicted that.
If you're of the mindset that religiosity is addictive, that its effects on the human animal are analogous to drugs, I think the conclusion is inescapable. Banning religion won't help a single iota.
Only open, reasoned discussion can counteract a meme that is parasitic and potentially lethal. You must be aware of that. This means that nonbelievers have to be more straightforward about putting forth their nonreligious perspectives; but it does NOT mean we need to be aggressive, threatening, belligerent or insulting of others' lives or intelligence.
The very best you're likely to see, ever, is an uneasy compromise between doubt and faith. It would be more productive for you from a personal perspective to deal with that, I think, and approach the question from that assumption rather than the dogmatic one you've adopted.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
