>> I was speaking specifically of your need to present discussion in a rational
>> manner, be able to argue your point rationally. "If I believe in god am I
>> irrational?" Yes and No. You may be a rational person in general, but when
>> it comes to your beliefs, then yes, you are irrational. To have faith in
>> something with no evidence to support your position and a great deal of
>> evidence against your position, then you are not rational about said
>> subject.
>To go 'meta' on the these points, couldn't one just say that rationalism
>itself is a meme, just as religion is named one. In that case, by what right can
>you judge one meme (rationalism) better than another (religion, or any other
>irrational belief)??
I like that idea.
>except that perhaps memetics (being a 'science' - another damn succesful meme)
>could be considered a mutation of the rationalism meme, and thus memetics
>precludes competing memes such as 'faith'.
Can there be situations where a meme can ENCOURAGE its "anti-meme"? IE, in a
discussion where raising one point of view polarises your opponents into
strongly defending their beliefs, and encourages them to come forward with
those beliefs? I can imagine walking into a room full of Christians who are
all reading the newspaper and saying "you're all deluded security-obsessed
wankers, there's no such thing as God and death is the end of the self" and
then there'd be more pro-Christian memes flying around than before I came
in...