From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Dec 26 1999 - 03:36:10 MST
"Technotranscendence" <neptune@mars.superlink.net> writes:
> Even so, it seems to be a pattern of history that when a particular faith,
> creed, or ideology is in the minority, especially underground, its followers
> tend to be tolerant. However, when that faith, creed, or ideology becomes
> mainstream, it generally its followers tend to become less tolerant -- even
> oppressive. I offer up Christianity as an example of this. I also offer up
> Buddhism (as in Sri Lanka) and Islam (as in anywhere) as more examples of
> this.
I don't think this is true. Intolerant small sects are abundant (as a
rule, they become more intolerant the smaller they are), while Islam
was much more tolerant than Christianity in the middle ages even when
both dominated their societies totally.
Maybe a more refined model would be that small groups carrying a meme
that seek to be part of society and maybe eventually memetically
dominate it have an advantage in tolerance, while small groups that
seek just to propagate themselves (as many sects) have an advantage in
intolerance (since it keeps members in and bad memes out). If the
ideology dominates society, the tolerance level will be determined by
other factors (what memes are dominant, politics, culture etc).
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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