{"id":2826,"date":"2014-09-11T20:33:24","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T01:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2014-09-11T20:48:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T01:48:44","slug":"how-to-create-a-faith-based-guided-missile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2014\/09\/11\/how-to-create-a-faith-based-guided-missile\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create a faith-based guided missile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2014\/09\/image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2827\" src=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2014\/09\/image.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"289\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Every year, I talk with my fellow service members and (mostly USAF) veterans about where we were and what we were doing when the second plane stuck the Twin Towers. Every year I ponder the same questions, most of which lead to life lessons that we might never get to use. It&#8217;s maddening, to be honest, but one of the only constants I can see is that surely we&#8217;d be better off as a species without rooting our hopes in holy books and hollow promises of a blissful afterlife. I&#8217;m not saying atheism would <em>cure<\/em> terrorism, but it would scale it back quite a bit.<\/p>\n<p>Seems like a good day to reread <a href=\"http:\/\/www.secularhumanism.org\/library\/fi\/dawkins_22_1.html\">one of my favorite columns<\/a> from Professor Dawkins:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Could we get some otherwise normal humans and somehow persuade them that they are not going to die as a consequence of flying a plane smack into a skyscraper. If only! Nobody is that stupid, but how about this. It&#8217;s a long shot, but it just might work. Given that they are certainly going to die, couldn&#8217;t we sucker them into believing that they are going to come to life again afterwards? Don&#8217;t be daft! No, listen, it might work. Offer them a fast track to a Great Oasis in the Sky, cooled by everlasting fountains. Harps and wings wouldn&#8217;t appeal to the sort of young men we need, so tell them there&#8217;s a special martyr&#8217;s reward of 72 virgin brides, guaranteed eager and exclusive. Would they fall for it? Yes, testosterone-sodden young men might go for 72 private virgins in the next world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that the afterlife-obsessed suicidal brain really is a weapon of immense power and danger. It is comparable to a smart missile, and its guidance system is in many respects superior to the most sophisticated electronic brain that money can buy. Yet to a cynical government, organization, or priesthood, it is very very cheap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When life is cheap, it cheapens everything. This is bound to happen, once a blissful afterlife becomes an article of faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, I talk with my fellow service members and (mostly USAF) veterans about where we were and what we&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}