Some excerpts from Breaking the Spell (2006) by Daniel Dennett
“We need to secure our democratic society against the subversions of those who would use democracy as a ladder to theocracy and then throw it away, and we need to spread the knowledge that is the fruit of free inquiry…
A research topic of particular urgency, but also particular ethical and political sensitivity, is the effect of religious upbringing and education on young children… What do we teach them until they are informed enough and mature enough to decide for themselves? We teach them all the world’s religions, in a matter-of-fact, historically and biologically informed way, the same way we teach them about geography and history and arithmetic. This should all be part of the mandated curriculum for both public schools and homeschooling…
As communications technology makes it harder and harder for leaders to shield their people from outside information, and as the economic realities of the twenty-first century make it clear that education is the most important investment any parent can make in a child, the floodgates will open all over the world with tumultuous effects…
As the experience in the former Soviet Union shows only too clearly, the worst features of capitalism and high tech are among the most robust replicators in this population explosion of memes, and there will be plenty of grounds for xenophobia, Luddism, and the tempting ‘hygiene’ of backward-looking fundamentalism…
Cults and prophets proclaiming the imminent end of the world have been with us for several millennia, and it has been another sour sort of fun to ridicule them the morning after… [but] some are working hard to ‘hasten the inevitable,’… taking political action to bring about the conditions they think are the prerequisites for that occasion...
Until the priests and rabbis and imams and their flocks explicitly condemn by name the dangerous individuals and congregations within their ranks, they are all complicit.”
#Religion #Extremism #Ignorance #Democracy #Theocracy #Philosophy #Dennett #Bookstodon #Education #Indoctrination #Misinformation #Disinformation #Internet
Joseph
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2025-10-09 16:37:22 UTC
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2025-10-09 16:37:22 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Some excerpts from Breaking the Spell (2006) by Daniel Dennett\n\n“We need to secure our democratic society against the subversions of those who would use democracy as a ladder to theocracy and then throw it away, and we need to spread the knowledge that is the fruit of free inquiry…\n\nA research topic of particular urgency, but also particular ethical and political sensitivity, is the effect of religious upbringing and education on young children… What do we teach them until they are informed enough and mature enough to decide for themselves? We teach them all the world’s religions, in a matter-of-fact, historically and biologically informed way, the same way we teach them about geography and history and arithmetic. This should all be part of the mandated curriculum for both public schools and homeschooling…\n\nAs communications technology makes it harder and harder for leaders to shield their people from outside information, and as the economic realities of the twenty-first century make it clear that education is the most important investment any parent can make in a child, the floodgates will open all over the world with tumultuous effects…\n\nAs the experience in the former Soviet Union shows only too clearly, the worst features of capitalism and high tech are among the most robust replicators in this population explosion of memes, and there will be plenty of grounds for xenophobia, Luddism, and the tempting ‘hygiene’ of backward-looking fundamentalism…\n\nCults and prophets proclaiming the imminent end of the world have been with us for several millennia, and it has been another sour sort of fun to ridicule them the morning after… [but] some are working hard to ‘hasten the inevitable,’… taking political action to bring about the conditions they think are the prerequisites for that occasion...\n\nUntil the priests and rabbis and imams and their flocks explicitly condemn by name the dangerous individuals and congregations within their ranks, they are all complicit.”\n\n#Religion #Extremism #Ignorance #Democracy #Theocracy #Philosophy #Dennett #Bookstodon #Education #Indoctrination #Misinformation #Disinformation #Internet",
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