The Capacity for Idiocy

So I'm nearing the end of watching The Root of All Evil, which is a boiled down version of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Mainly because I don't like reading books unless it's necessary to pass an exam but I want to understand my own atheism better and develop a strategy to make it effective.

I can't help feeling a bit uninspired from the start when he states that suicide bombers want to die. I don't think that's a true reflection of what's going on in their minds. I also don't like his forthright approach in challenging people's beliefs. I'm more of a Louis Theroux kinda guy, who uses verbal Jiu-jutsu - use your opponents strength against them. Dawkins goes head on and gets nowhere with these people, which is not surprising. The he hops on a plane to Jerusalem and asks a fundamentalist Muslim (Moslem if you prefer) what he thinks about 9/11, shortly after saying to a tour guide pointing out the site of Jesus' crucifixion "you don't really believe that do you?"

What Dawkins fails to acknowledge every step of the way is The Capacity for Idiocy - the inherent ability of mankind to believe what they want to believe. It seems ludicrous that rational, thinking people should believe in a deity and of course they aren't rational thinking people.

Let's put this into context, it has been roughly 30,000 years since homo sapiens reached it's current evolutionary state, and it was only on the 24th of November 1859 that the concept of evolution was first released to the public - a bit less than 152 years ago. Erring on the side of caution that's belief in and worship of deities for at least 29,848 years versus a chance to discard it for just 152. 152/29,848 = 0.0051 or about 0.5%.

Now not only do people like religion, not only has it been ingrained in them since the dawn of the question "why are we here?" not only does it define our culture and customs but moreover, so much more importanly than this is that people, to this day, and for the foreseeable future, do not have the capacity to understand science.

Science is hard - I studied biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics at school and I worked at it because I had a purpose, an ability, support from my parents and teachers. A conducive, nurturing environment. I went on to study maths and physics at A-Level and subsequently Mechanical Engineering. Moreover I wasn't brainwashed into the doctrines of religion, so even my peers who studied at the same level and were better than me - but who were brainwashed - believed in a god.

Not only that, for those that did ever reach some sort of enlightenment on the issue, they would have to turn their back on their own parents, their grandparents, their friends, their lovers - or future lovers. Why should they? What's their incentive? What do they gain by becoming an atheist? Absolutely nothing. There is nothing to be gained by becoming an atheist and only things to lose.

And so The Capacity for Idiocy prevails to this day, the brainwashing continues and as far as I can see the only solution is to teach atheism as a specific course - not just enter it as a subset of religious studies, not just expunge it with science, to formally and forcibly overturn the brainwashing of religion. To indoctrinate free thinking in the masses at primary school. But o-ho the fundamentalists are one step ahead there, amassing themselves and forming lobbyist groups who can steer whole nations.

So I guess we have to amass too. To join together and form groups who cannot be ignored. To recruit, educate, promote, lobby, expand and develop the cause. It seems like the salami approach, one slice at a time, or "change by stealth" as I've also heard that called. I think I prefer the diluting view, add enough fresh water to salt water and it will become drinkable. Or distil the salt out. Getting on a plane to Jerusalem and saying "you don't really believe that do you?" to a few people isn't going to change anything, except to make them more hostile.