I'm struck by the (I have to say, rather beautiful) line from a believer: 'I know God to be good in the same way that I know sugar to be sweet.' But does this work the other way around? 'I know religion to the determined not by metaphysical truth but contingent human social-and-personal evolutionary anxieties and conceptual reinforcement loops, in the same way that I know sugar to be sweet.'
Perhaps not.
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2 comments:
I know religion to the determined not by metaphysical truth but contingent human social-and-personal evolutionary anxieties and conceptual reinforcement loops, in the same way that I know (partly thanks to wikipedia and allowing 'knowing' to also cover 'copying large chunks while only understanding one word in three') that certain carbohydrates, such as fructose, glucose, galactose etc. are not only an important source of energy for the human body but also, within variance and among other compounds, produce a sensation on the tongue buds of a human being that we have collectively decided to call sweetness by binding a 'sweet' molecule to their receptors, which causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn activates the G-protein, gustducin, which in turn activates adenylate cyclase, which catalyzes the conversion of ATP to cAMP, which then activates a protein kinase, which in turn phosphorylates and closes a potassium ion channel; the excess potassium ions increasing the positive charge within the cell causing voltage-gated calcium ion channels to open, further depolarizing the cell, ultimately causing neurotransmitter release, which is then received by a primary afferent neuron, and also too much can be bad for you?
That's a marked improvement over my phrasing.
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