The Most Destructive Idea Ever.

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I was tooling through the meme bank for the past couple of days and I got an idea for a thread. I am wondering just what you guys think is the single most destructive memetic device in use today. A good example from economics/political science would be Marx's dictum--"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." The sheer amount of human death and suffering that occurred in defense of this dictum is staggering. Think about Stalin/Lenin/Mao and their ideological "cleansings". They too blamed man and not their fatally flawed ideology. (i.e. Who gets to decide whom and how much; and why should I take their self-proclaimed expertise as a good enough reason to enslave my comrades? Socialist and Communist ideologies are always initiated and enforced by violence.) Another good one would be "John 3:16".
But I think my all-time favorite would have to be the idea of "Original Sin". The doctrine that every single person ever born at any time is born evil and sinful and that there is an existential need to "have your soul saved". When I think of the human cost in lives and sanity caused by such a simple idea I feel sad and hopeless for this race of critters we call Homo sapiens. The fact that the vast majority of people alive on this planet actually believe this rubbish in some degree or another makes me sad because unless the race figures out that this is a totally absurd premise I see no reason to believe that humans will not destroy ourselves.
Can you think of any others?

Lenin/Stalin/Mao didn't actually believe in the Marxist doctrine... they were elitist using the doctrine to gain power.

'Original Sin' is the eating of the fruit by Adam and Eve. Technically it was 'cleansed' by Jesus's death... and thus everyone has been born neutral for over two thousand years.

Quote from: John Edward Mercier on May 25, 2012, 12:44:06 pm

Lenin/Stalin/Mao didn't actually believe in the Marxist doctrine... they were elitist using the doctrine to gain power.

Tell that to the dead. Again, you are blaming the destruction caused by Socialist/Communist ideologies on the failure of imperfect men instead of the errors inherent in those ideas.

'Original Sin' is the eating of the fruit by Adam and Eve. Technically it was 'cleansed' by Jesus's death... and thus everyone has been born neutral for over two thousand years.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all humans. Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original sin". As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence").[34]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that in "yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state … original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" — a state and not an act" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 404). This "state of deprivation of the original holiness and justice … transmitted to the descendants of Adam along with human nature" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 76) involves no personal responsibility or personal guilt on their part (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 405). Personal responsibility and guilt were Adam's, who because of his sin, was unable to pass on to his descendants a human nature with the holiness with which it would otherwise have been endowed, in this way implicating them in his sin. The doctrine of original sin thus does not impute the sin of the father to his children, but merely states that they inherit from him a "human nature deprived of original holiness and justice", which is "transmitted by propagation to all mankind" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 404).
Though Adam's sinful act is not the responsibility of his descendants, the state of human nature that has resulted from that sinful act has consequences that plague them: "Human nature, without being entirely corrupted, has been harmed in its natural powers, is subject to ignorance, suffering and the power of death, and has a tendency to sin. This tendency is called concupiscence" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 77), but is distinct from original sin itself, since it remains even when original sin is remitted. In Catholic theology, the meaning attached to the word "concupiscence" is the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the 'flesh' against the 'spirit' Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offence, inclines man to commit sins" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2515).

I don't see anything there that says I was born "sin-free". It appears from this that Jesus Horatio Christ (I bet you didn't know that was what the "H" stands for, did you?) died for nothing. If the situation were different then why do we still baptize (supposedly) innocent children?

Originally they didn't baptize infants.
And I don't think that the RCC has a teaching on what happens should an infant not be baptized before dying.

Baptism is largely the initiation into the Church; and were used for centuries as a means to keep track of births.

It's all very interesting in the context of mythology and fiction, Cristians beleive that their Savior died to clense their sins and that anyone that does not beleive them is either to be sent to hell or sentenced to exicution (whether socially or physically). Chistians are in a state of denial to be honest. I went to Catholic school for an extended period of my childhood, not to insult the good practices of their schooling, but after I left and went to public school and made friends, I was exposed to the truth they hadn't told me. That Christianity is a huge metaphor for cellestial activity. Try to deny it, it's true. All the religions that surfaced around that time all had the same story. Virgin gives birth to the son of God on December 25th and the boy lives around thirty years them dies and is resurected. It's a metaphor as to what the sun does during the winter season. I don't deny an existance of a higher being or power, I'd just like the "Bible-thumpers" to stop ramming their lies down my throat. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, don't touch mine. And most definitely don't kill me for being indiferent.

"Cristians beleive that their Savior died to clense their sins and that anyone that does not beleive them is either to be sent to hell or sentenced to exicution "

Some do but that is often treated as a misunderstanding. Belief and faith are two different concepts. Faith a product of charter and love, what matters. Someone who is only doing good because they fear hell still has bad charter and many religious people understand that.

I tend to think that Christianity and spiritual forgiveness begets an infinite cycle of premeditated sin and forgiveness. Christians do bad things knowing that their God will forgive them. Theists include Hitler, Mussolini and Osama bin Laden. Atheists include Gandhi, Bill Gates (philanthropy), Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud and Stephen Hawking.

The worst and the best. It is that simple?

Quote from: SpeakOut on July 10, 2012, 10:53:47 pm

We're not sure that we will be forgiven. Nor are we sure what sins will be held absolved.

Quote from: John Edward Mercier on July 13, 2012, 10:07:46 am

Quote from: SpeakOut on July 10, 2012, 10:53:47 pm

We're not sure that we will be forgiven. Nor are we sure what sins will be held absolved.

You stated it well. Cool

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