Glen, It is if you are my shill, sitting out there in the audience amongst all the rubes.
See my post immediately following... --Doug On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 6:08 PM, glen e. p. ropella <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Thus spake Douglas Roberts circa 10/31/2008 04:48 PM: > > The reality is that as long as people feel the need to use religion hide > > from reality, to use ritual and dogma to avoid having to think for > > themselves, there will be fundamentalist religions > > Excellent! Now we may get closer to the truth. Humans (and their > psychological, biological, sociological, etc. constitution) _causes_ > fundamentalist religions, not vice versa. (though there will obviously > be reinforcing global forces when fundamentalism is the dominant context > that feed back onto the causes, but fundamentalism re-emerges so often > that I'd claim the feedback is weaker than the first order causes) > > Now that we have the directionality of that causal relationship > straight, we can begin talking about the constitution of humans, i.e. > the causes, rather than religion, which is merely the symptom. > > What is it about humans and their context that gives rise to the need > for habit, ritual, dogma, "instinct", and un/subconscious > stimulus-reaction processes? And when do things like habit prove > beneficial versus detrimental? > > It's quite clear that when, say, riding a bicycle or hitting a baseball, > ritual and habit reign. But when, say, voting or playing Go, it's > better to spend a large amount of time thinking. Mixed circumstances, > e.g. wielding an automatic rifle in the middle of Iraq, will obviously > present a complex problem that has to be solved with part habit and part > thought. > > Are there any generic (abstracted) properties of circumstances where > habit is clearly best ... or where in-depth analysis is clearly best? > > -- > glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
