Psychologist Dr. Sue Blackmore has an article on Dawkins’s site about how a recent lecture of hers on (religious) memes created quite a stir, with 100 people or so fleeing the room.
The mass exodus evidently occurred mainly because the audience was full of badly educated religious devotees from other parts of the world. She could never have prepared anything skeptical to appeal to them. Showing one of the Danish Islam cartoons certainly WOULD cause many to walk out, however, so that’s a no brainer.
Outside, some young Muslims were waiting for me. I was angrily told that I’d made them feel ignorant.
Of course, because they ARE extremely ignorant. But why do they care what this one woman thinks about them? Because they are also extremely insecure in their unfounded beliefs.
Obviously, if she’d been speaking to EDUCATED NON-believers, that wouldn’t have happened. There are still billions of religious fanatics on this planet, despite all the best efforts.
An important illustrative case, however. We freethinkers remain unsafe and in the minority on a world full of religious idiocy and barbarism.
As religious simpletons ostracize us, we need to continue to make it clear that we do not accept THEIR views of reality, which are not only largely false but also quite deleterious. The problem then lies with them reproducing and passing along their dumbing-down brainwashing to the next generation, which, as we know, is the most effective way in spreading memes that cannot easily be changed or removed.
Cheer up, Sue. Your efforts will not have been in vain. Despite the response from the ignoramuses and fanatics, the memes you put forth likely have stuck somewhere in their brains, as well as those of more intelligent and better educated individuals.
