Religion a virus (Richard Dawkins)
• Skeptics & Atheists
Richard Dawkins is delivering this year's Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Harvard.
Asya Troychansky, The Harvard Crimson: Oxford Scientist Launches Sharp Critique of ReligionSociety provides a breeding ground for the virus of religion by labeling children with the religion of their parents. Children, in turn, absorb these beliefs because they are conditioned to do so.
Though it is universal, Dawkins said, religion is not widely beneficial.
Rejecting the theory of many of his contemporaries, Dawkins argued that religion has not helped people to adapt or to survive. Beyond acting as a source of solace, religion provides no protection against diseases or physical threats.
A person who is faced with a lion is not put at ease when hes told that its a rabbit, Dawkins said.