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> And, for the record, I'm all in for homeopathy and faith > cures - they may help remove some undesirable genetic > traits from the gene pool. OTOH, th
by substack 15y ago
> And, for the record, I'm all in for homeopathy and faith
> cures - they may help remove some undesirable genetic
> traits from the gene pool. OTOH, the populations presenting
> such traits can evolve to have better immune systems. Life
> has a way to perpetuate itself.
Susceptibility to harmful ideologies really doesn't work like that. Being raised within a religion or cultural practice is an amazingly better predictor for continuing that belief in the next generation than what genes were passed along. Faith cures and placebos operate at the level of belief and culture, not the gene level.
Further, look no further than the anti-vaccination movement to see how harmful medical ideas can put the general population at a greater risk for entirely preventable diseases.
- rbanffy 15y agoSorry. I was half joking. I'd much rather educate people than negligently allow them to self-select themselves out of the gene pool.
- substack 15y agoPart of my point was that "self-selecting out the gene pool" does nothing to dispel harmful beliefs. That is a culture and education problem.