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Religion might be better analogised to firmware - installed early in the lifecycle by the manufacturers, difficult to replace; most end users would not do so or

Religion might be better analogised to firmware - installed early in the lifecycle by the manufacturers, difficult to replace; most end users would not do so or even consider doing so. If we look at someone who is born into a religion, lives their life holding those religious beliefs, and dies as a member of that same religion - is it valid to assume that they could have separated themselves from their beliefs? Just because a subset of the population undergo religious conversion or deconversion later in life (for whatever reason), does not imply that everyone has that capacity. It may well be that for those people, their religion is effectively immutable. (Also, racial characteristics are at least partially alterable, using plastic surgery to modify physical ethnic traits, e.g. see http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/07/ethnic-plastic-surgery.html http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/07/ethnic-plastic-surgery.html)

pohl 12y ago
If we look at someone who is born into a religion, lives their life holding those religious beliefs, and dies as a member of that same religion - is it valid to assume that they could have separated themselves from their beliefs? Exercise — of both body and brain — is work. Not having done it does not mean one is unable to. Many live entire lives without a taut muscle. Yet we know they could have lived differently.
kristofferR 12y ago
Many forms of Islam has e-fuses that can brick you if you try to change the firmware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam
josteink 12y ago
> If we look at someone who is born into a religion, lives their life holding those religious beliefs, and dies as a member of that same religion - is it valid to assume that they could have separated themselves from their beliefs? Ofcourse that's fully possible. My parents was Christian. They raised me a Christian. It wasn't until my late teens, when I got a job that I was exposed to a critical thinking crowd. They were very much willing to speak their minds, instead of showing religion some special-cased "respect". It made me think. It made me reconsider. I'm now an atheist. But oh boy was the period in between then and now a interesting one. Somehow just asking yourself "what if there is no God?" felt so incredibly wrong and the mind many, many times tried to stop itself thinking that very thought. Confusion is certainly not a sufficient word to describe what went on then. Anyway today I'm extremely thankful that people didn't show me nor my religion "respect". They treated me with reason, rationality and critical thinking even though they knew it might offend me. Now that is showing someone real respect!
- geographomics 12y ago
  Yes but a religious deconversion having been possible for you, does not necessarily imply that it is something everyone can do. Or even that they would want to do, which amounts to the same thing.
melling 12y ago
Do you still think Cumberbatch was poorly cast in the Imitation Game? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8777831 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8777831 A best actor nomination.

pohl 12y ago

If we look at someone who is born into a religion, lives their life holding those religious beliefs, and dies as a member of that same religion - is it valid to assume that they could have separated themselves from their beliefs? Exercise — of both body and brain — is work. Not having done it does not mean one is unable to. Many live entire lives without a taut muscle. Yet we know they could have lived differently.

kristofferR 12y ago

Many forms of Islam has e-fuses that can brick you if you try to change the firmware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam

josteink 12y ago

> If we look at someone who is born into a religion, lives their life holding those religious beliefs, and dies as a member of that same religion - is it valid to assume that they could have separated themselves from their beliefs? Ofcourse that's fully possible. My parents was Christian. They raised me a Christian. It wasn't until my late teens, when I got a job that I was exposed to a critical thinking crowd. They were very much willing to speak their minds, instead of showing religion some special-cased "respect". It made me think. It made me reconsider. I'm now an atheist. But oh boy was the period in between then and now a interesting one. Somehow just asking yourself "what if there is no God?" felt so incredibly wrong and the mind many, many times tried to stop itself thinking that very thought. Confusion is certainly not a sufficient word to describe what went on then. Anyway today I'm extremely thankful that people didn't show me nor my religion "respect". They treated me with reason, rationality and critical thinking even though they knew it might offend me. Now that is showing someone real respect!

geographomics 12y ago
Yes but a religious deconversion having been possible for you, does not necessarily imply that it is something everyone can do. Or even that they would want to do, which amounts to the same thing.

melling 12y ago

Do you still think Cumberbatch was poorly cast in the Imitation Game? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8777831 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8777831 A best actor nomination.