[All_no-ing]

History (mythology) is full of stories of authority putting horrible burdens on people for no other purpose other than to test their obedience to authority. God wanting Abraham to offer up Isaac, Joseph Smith wanting Heber C Kimball’s wife for his own (and telling him so), stake presidents who want all men in their stakes to be clean shaven, President Hinkley dictating how many earrings a woman may wear, etc.

Since these types of actions have no purpose other than to test obedience, it is no wonder there is a resistance to authority. If someone in authority asks me (or commands me) to do something, they better have a legitimate reason for it.

[All_no-ing]

I think not. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have always been strong on family… until one leaves the faith then they get shunned.

[All_no-ing]

Dawkins is generally heavily demonized by a lot of religious people. The fact is, he is very analytical and expects those who say something is true to be able to provide evidence of the claim. To me that is not demonic. I define that as not being gullible.

One of his books, The Selfish Gene, explains very clearly what a religion is. It is simply a meme. Dawkins defines a meme as being similar to a gene in that it is information that is passed on, and also just like a gene, the information mutates. It is different from a gene in that it spreads very fast. Dawkins never compares memes to living organisms but instead compares them to viruses, which also infuriates religious people. His meaning is that memes do not have a llife of their own; they require a host to duplicate it and spread it. This is how religion is. It is in no sense *true*. Successful memes, like religions, don’t have to be true to be successful. But having the hosts believe they are true certainly helps them to spread.

Given all that (and I highly recommend the reading of The Selfish Gene – it’s a heavy read but well worth it) it makes perfect sense that Dawkins characterizes religions as he does.

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