6d ago

What a nimrod

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Our thinking can be so twisted by religion. Imagine someone long ago wants to build a really tall tower. Nobody knows engineering, material science, etc. They just start stacking rocks on top of each other like they do when they made short buildings. Eventually it's so tall and heavy that it's no longer stable, one side sinks into the ground, and the whole thing falls over. And what's their takeaway? Is it about learning from their mistake and trying again? No, it's "God is punishing your hubris!" Religion just poisons the mind.
- Builder: "I'm not incompetent! Uh... God didn't want it to happen. Yeah, that's it; the collapse definitely wasn't my fault at all!"
  
  I bet a lot of religious tenets come from a lie that got way the fuck out of hand.
  
  That, and accurate observations that they couldn't correctly explain. For example, prohibiting eating pork because it's "unclean," while having no clue about trichinosis. They don't know (scientifically) how to mitigate it, so they just tell people it's a sin.
- The Icarus myth is still a useful analogy, even if you don't believe it actually happened.
  And what's their takeaway? Is it about learning from their mistake and trying again? No, it's "God is punishing your hubris!"
  Just substitute any force or phenomenon bigger than human ability for "God" in that sentence and it'll still apply to a lot of situations.
- It also explains why people started speaking different tongues. And Warns the young to not build a thing so ridiculously big, building fall down.
  Trying for what is progress, but in sight so you can achieve it is better.
- -said in a world full of weaponized drones, AI deepfakes, and lying, lying nazis who don't have the slightest clue how life works.
  The tower of babel is a great lesson.

41 comments