Intelligently designed to close minds
Thought for the day, from Niall Shanks in God, the Devil, and Darwin: a Critique of Intelligent Design Theory.
[T]he dark side of the wedge strategy, lurking at the fat end of the wedge, lies in the way that it is intelligently designed to close minds to critical, rational scrutiny of the world we live in. The wedge strategy describes very well the very process whereby, beginning with mild intellectual sedatives, religion becomes the true opiate of the masses. As [Philip] Johnson makes clear, once the wedge is driven home, even the rules of reasoning and logic will have to be adjusted to sit on theological foundations. In this way, critical thinking and opposition will not just be hard but literally unthinkable.
Just so. And that’s why Mr Framing is so entirely wrong.
The “literally unthinkable” comment makes me think of Newspeak. I always thought that it was one of Orwell’s most interesting philosophical ideas.
Just. So.
It is my view that there is a certain naivete, wilful or otherwise, amongst those who defend ‘moderate’ religion as harmless enough. They miss two things. 1) It only seems so because we are now so used to its presence. 2) The human mind’s malleability is both a wonderful thing and a very dangerous thing, and it is truly frightening the degree to which such conditioning can work upon it.
“It only seems so because we are now so used to its presence.”
Yes; hence the need to move the Overton window. This is what ‘new’ atheists are trying to do, while all the critics of ‘new’ atheism are just trying to keep the window right where it is. But habituation is not a good reason to hang onto an idea.