Adrian noted that some people are vehemently opposed to religion.
Anders Sandberg asked
Anders, do you really see no reason to have a vehement opposition to
institutions that may be harmful?
Do you really think the best thing to do when confronted with a institution
that is harmful is to think calmly about how wonderful it might
> I wonder about that vehemence, why does it occur? Is it just a natural
> reaction towards the fairly religious US society by rebellious
> thinkers, or are there other reasons. I see no reason to become
> emotional about the non-existence of things, or even the presence of
> institutions that might be harmful. I think it is better to remain
> calm and think about them, how awful or wonderful they might be.
I doubt that this is in fact true. If you saw individuals from an organization (lets pick a nice patsy like the KKK) moving into your town or your front yard with the avowed purpose of beating the crap out of people for no good reason, would you speak up or act up? Or would you really sit calmly and think how wonderful they might be?
My own feeling is that this strategy is simply appeasement: a strategy to diffuse opposition which has been shown to work rather poorly: Prime Minister Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany being the canonical example.
cheers,
tim