Re: Humour

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Thu, 26 Dec 1996 10:35:49 +0100 (MET)


On Wed, 25 Dec 1996, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:

> > Another sure way of revealing the sacred cows is to try to joke
> > about them. If there is anything a sacred cow cannot stand, it is
> > humour (at least about itself, joking about others sacred cows is
> > quite acceptable). The best way to reveal someone to be a fanatic or
> > memeoid is to see if he or she can joke about his or her beliefs.
>
> Do I qualify? I see the Holocaust as a horrendous tragedy, and if
> someone smaller than me made a joke about it, I'd punch his lights out.

But can you joke about your sorrow and hate?

There are many things that fill us with intense emotions, both good and
bad, but the sacred cows are our beliefs about them, not the things in
themselves. A fundamentalist can believe in God just as much as a liberal
believer, but he cannot inspect his own beliefs *about* God.

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