San Francisco, 2009-Oct-31
This Halloween, I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Darrel Ray's (website, YouTube channel) insightful presentation of his latest book, The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture.
The first time I encountered the idea that religion was a virus of the mind was in the excellent article Thoughts in Captivity - Religion as a memetic virus. Dr. Ray's book and presentation go into details about the similarities between religion as a meme (a piece of information that is transmitted from one mind to another) and biological viruses: immune systems, infection channels, vectors and implications.
One of the elements that sets the book apart from the classic new atheism books by Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens is that the other authors âdon't tell you how to interact with religious people in a way that respects them but doesn't cave in to their beliefsâ. This is of particular interest to me, because so far I have rarely seen direct debate succeeding in deconverting believers. The gist of why this happens can be summed up in one question: "Would you argue logically with the flu virus?"
Below is my summary of Dr. Ray's presentation.
The god virus spreads with the help of:
A shocking example of hypnosis and music combined are the Battle Cry rallies organized by fundamentalist anti-gay and anti-choice Evangelical Christian mission Teen Mania Ministries, during which teens are lured in to rock concerts; shamelessly indoctrinated with the righteousness of Jesus contrasted with the perils of pop culture, advertising and corporate greed; then sold CDs and t-shirts produced by Teen Mania Ministries.
Guilt drives behavior: gilt -> tension -> behavior. 80% of church songs are guilt-laden.
Originally, Hawaiian culture had lots of taboos about food, but none about sex. Married individuals could have sex outside marriage without much fuss. When religion came along, it invented and taught sex guilt: it became suddenly forbidden to walk around naked, and God would punish those who did not listen. Of course, the missionaries brought with them smallpox and other diseases, which did kill numerous natives.
Most god viruses are obsessed with sex. Take masturbation, the most prevalent form of sex. Dr Ray quoted psychologist Albert Ellis as saying "97 percent of all men admit to masturbation, and the other 3 percent are lying". By prohibiting something virtually inevitable, the virus creates a huge cognitive dissonance in the victim, which religion conveniently and temporarily solves, until the behavior happens again.
On religion and relationships: black women are the most religious group in the US and at the same time, the least married. Highest divorce rate: Baptists.
The Invention of Lying - best atheist movie of the year
Buddhism is very different where practiced from our image of it. In the US, Buddhism is considered a peaceful spiritual practice. In Asia, among those who actually practiced it, Buddhism is a religion like any other, with worshiping and rituals.
Ask a person about something normal and watch their reaction, then ask them about religion. You will notice a marked difference: their eyes will light up, they will become enthusiastic (even consumed), their voices will become more intense etc. One needs to realized that those infected with the god virus are just that - infected - and their organism is impaired, particularly in the areas of reason and communication. Logic is NOT the answer - why would you argue with a cold virus?
To have a chance at talking sanity into a believer, realize that defensive people do not learn because defensive people do not listen. Pissing people off is not a good strategy. Ignore the god virus personality, and focus instead on the emotion of the person, and take it from there. For example, if a believer says "my daughter was sick, I prayed and God cured her", answer "I hear you are concerned about your daughter's health", and speak to the human, leaving religion entirely aside.
How to inoculate kids against religion: similarly to the pre-vaccine era practice of taking kids to groups of other kids who were infected, expose children to many god viruses. This will help them realize the nonsense that each virus preaches, and how many contradict each other in flagrant ways.
This question has bugged me for a really long time. Back in high-school, I was a highly rational student, excelling at computer programming, and at the same time, I had never questioned religion for at least 5 years, while quite fervently practicing it (that's how I managed to read the entire Bible).
Thus, I asked Dr. Ray to explain, as a psychotherapist, how come that highly rational individuals, such as famous programmers or engineers, can be religious. His explanation was, paraphrased, that
programmers or engineers have technical, mechanical minds. They need answers to how things work, and god is such an answer. They don't have scientific minds, though. They don't apply critical thinking principles.
In retrospect, my deconversion coincided with the time I was learning about logical fallacies, critical thinking, and FiLCHeRS - the mnemonic for the criteria a claim must satisfy in order to be evaluated as true: Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness, Honesty, Replicability, Sufficiency.
Now, I can't explain how in the world I could ever not had thought critically, at least after 14, when I became serious about computer programming. But I had. Which goes to show that believers are not to be condemned, but understood, and helped.
Author Darrel Ray Lectures on âGod Virusâ, by Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger's Newsmagazine