Hello Brian
You wrote:
>I went to the trouble of reading the last part of Dennett's book.
>
>I must say that Dennett scares me more than any fundamentalist
>creationist I've ever encountered. While he made not have written
>a sentence which says "parents should be quarantined", he makes
>his intentions very clear.
>
>He has a section where he is repeating the idea
>
> Save the (fill in the blank)! Yes, of course, but not _by all means_.
>
>For example, it is a good thing to save the elephants. But keeping them
>in their natural habitats may be too costly. But, we can put them in
>zoos so we can appreciate them without being endangered by them.
>
>As a Southern Baptist, I'm a little nervous that one paragraph begins
>"Save the Baptists! Yes, of course, but not _by all means_." The
>paragraph ends "Misinforming a child is a terrible offense."
>
>How could Dennett possibly be clearer?
I wonder if you're reading more into Dennett than is written. What do you
think he means?
Do you think we should save the Baptists *by all means*, i.e. at any cost?
I understand Dennett's point to be this. If the cost of saving the Baptists
is misinforming children, then that's too high a price to pay. We should
teach children about evolution, and, if they all turn away from Baptism as a
result, then so be it.
>I believe Dennett's philosophy is more dangerous to a free society than
>a parent teaching creationism to their children. To follow Dennett's logic,
>I should say:
>
>"Save the Philosophers! Yes, of course, but not _by all means_."
Er... OK. I don't think philosophers expect any special privileges in the
saving department.
>Nevertheless, I'm willing to extend to Dennett a freedom that he would
>deny me, as dangerous as that is.
Please be clear. What freedom are you talking about? Dennett is referring to
the freedom to keep children from learning about evolution. Denying this
freedom is certainly controversial, but it's far short of the things which
some people are accusing Dennett of.
Richard Wein (Tich)
See my web pages for various games at http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~tich/
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