[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Let me explain why, when it comes to children, I think of religion as a dangerous virus. It’s a virus which is transmitted partly through teachers and clergy, but also down the generations from parent to child to grandchild. Children are especially vulnerable to infection by the virus of religion.

A child is genetically pre-programmed to accumulate knowledge from figures of authority. The child brain, for very good Darwinian reasons, has to be set up in such a way that it believes what it’s told by its elders, because there just isn’t time for the child to experiment with warnings like “Don’t go too near the cliff edge!” or “Don’t swim in the river, there are crocodiles!” Any child who applied a scientific sceptical questioning attitude to that, would be dead.

No wonder the Jesuits said, “Give me the child for his first seven years and I’ll give you the man.”

The child brain will automatically believe what it’s told even if what it’s told is nonsense. And then when the child grows up it will tend to pass on that same nonsense to its children.

And so religion goes on from generation to generation.

For many people, part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking. But if an individual doesn’t succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy. And there is a real danger that he will infect the next generation.

—Richard Dawkins, “Root of All Evil? part 2: The Virus of Faith

Richard Dawkins = Pompous ass.

I am not infected with a virus. I am a rationally thinking human being. I can function in society, and nothing about my beliefs are evil. THey are only threatening to guys like Dawkins because he can't disprove my beliefs any more than I can disprove his. The difference is, I don't go about pointing out "evil" where it does not exist.

He quotes Darwin like it is fact, even though Darwinism is a theory, but he scoffs at faith. He has faith in Darwin. What makes him smarter or better than me?