The Last Post Game!!!!

[Aggie]

Last _{how do you outbreed the believing breeders?} Post

The best way to make more atheists is to encourage fundamentalists to have more children. The most hypocritical and virulent strains of orthodoxy are the most likely to cause an individual to openly reject them.  Tolerant, open-minded and less-delusional strains of organized faith-systems are probably more likely to have followers drift away, but less likely to run screaming in the other direction.

Last _{surviving a nasty meme can often result in immunity to it} Post


Next question:  How do we outbreed the compulsive consumers?
_{I'm pretty sure we're already outbreeding the wolves and fat cats, but they have power in numbers starting with $.}

[Swatopluk]

Unfortunately the rejection rate tends to be below 50%, so in relative terms quiver-full tactics will not critically weaken the fundie side, esp. when they can create a large enough monoculture, so there is no obvious visible alternative to those born into it(cf. the polygamist Mormon splinter groups that have acquired State-within-a-state status in certain areas of the country).

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[Griffin NoName]

..........so there is no obvious visible alternative to those born into it........

In the valley of the blind...............

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[Swatopluk]

But only if the blind don't do ophtalmectomies on infants just to be sure.

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Now I wonder if you placed all fundamentalists in one isolated place and check back a thousand years later would've them kept their restrictive society intact?

Last _{also depending on the level of isolation, I guess} Post

[Swatopluk]

There are precedents. The society may not be the same but the restrictiveness could very well endure.

Last _{or the whole thing could have perished as a result of inflexibility and in-fighting} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Many factors can alter the recipe.

Last _{the genetic factor should be considered too} Post

[Swatopluk]

Are we talking inbred hillbillies here?

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Not necessarily, many recent studies point to common factors among religious individuals and/or right leaning individuals which may point to genetic elements in play. If that were true, current conservative societies that not long ago lived in relative isolation should show up more markedly on the same markers.

Last _{compare an Iranian to a Dutch} Post

[Aggie]

Unfortunately the rejection rate tends to be below 50%, so in relative terms quiver-full tactics will not critically weaken the fundie side, esp. when they can create a large enough monoculture, so there is no obvious visible alternative to those born into it(cf. the polygamist Mormon splinter groups that have acquired State-within-a-state status in certain areas of the country).

Yes, this depends on a society with religious freedom. However, a repressed society is also more prone to catastrophic revolutions.  The appearance of freedom goes a long way to maintaining voluntary compliance.

EDIT: Iran's a good example of why theocracies have a hard time enforcing restrictions on a well-educated and modernized population.

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[Swatopluk]

As I said, the society may not stay the same and may undergo revolution(s). But those more likely than not end in just a different repressive equilibrium.
Look at Russia or Mexico for example. China too. The most 'liberal' era in China was during the Mongol rule because for a time the rigid class/social system became actually permeable.

It is of course a bit more complicated. In theory anyone freeborn in China could reach the highest levels of government through talent but it required extreme adherence and submission to the very conservative ideology, so a peasant becoming governor of a province did not undermine the rigidly stratified society but confirmed it.
The Roman Catholic Church at times ran that way too. Iirc at least one pope was an ex-slave (as was according to tradition one of the more famous emperors of Byzantium, another society proverbially rigid and conservative).

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The Iranian case is interesting, it is clear that the urban Iranians were more sophisticated but the country as a whole is extremely conservative which explains why despite the educated base in Teheran the regime has been very successful containing them.

Last _{I just wonder if some genetic selection has taken place} Post

[Swatopluk]

Too short a period to tell (the regime is not even half a century in power). The religious history of Persia from the beginning* (Zoroastrianism) to today (a version of Shiite Islam) is fascinating. The culture seems to have always been a breeding ground for religious experiments (the Bahá'i Faith is also from there).
And Persians seems to have rarely followed 'orthodoxy' put put their own stamp on everything (e.g.Perisn artists did not follow the ban on images in religious contexts that orthodox Islam mandates).

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*leaving out the earlier Elamite era because there is little secure knowledge about it (iirc). It seems that Elam was the 'big other' for the ancient Mesopotamians, a culture seen as very distinct from their own (while the other neighbours were far more similar).

[Griffin NoName]

Last _{How to Get to Heaven With the Hutterites} Post

[Swatopluk]

Off topic: How to circumvent certain aspects of the new Mississippi sex education law http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06kT9yfj7QE
(sadly, the clip cannot actually be shown at Mississippi schools)

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