Richard Dawkins on the programming of humans …
Richard Dawkins is am amazing man, and the creator of the term “meme” in his book “The Selfish Gene”. In this article he discusses some perspectives about humans and the September 11th attack on the United States.

Although I disagree with his perspectives on “religion” as a whole, I do believe that there are a variety of ways that organizations create stories which assist in furthering their intentions. He does a great job of explaining a scenario in which the humans who committed the terrorist acts, and died in the process, might have been convinced to do this.

The area that I do disagree is the requirement of some “religous-like” practices which I believe were culturally evolved to provide forms of memetic maintenence. I think that there are numerous distinct aspects of a “religion” and that several of them might provide valuable contributions to an effective organization or society. It seems that every race and culture has developed some sort of “wise man”, “guru”, or “religion” of some kind … or the converse is that it seems that communities that do not have some sort of “religion” no longer seem to exist.

I plan on writing more on this subject in the future …

Richard Dawkins: “Testosterone-sodden young men too unattractive to get a woman in this world might be desperate enough to go for 72 private virgins in the next.” [Scripting News]