What is the most dangerous idea of all?

Question

There had been many dangerous ideas in the past--the concept of 'zero', the heliocentric universe, the theory of evolution, the idea of a Messiah (it was dangerous to the ancient Romans), rock n roll, etc...

So, what is the most dangerous idea of all time?

Answer 1

eat your own penis after cutting it off with a spork

Answer 2

The idea that belief justifies everything.
This has been used so many times by religions and politicians to justify actions that were morally and ethically lacking.
In the first and second world wars both sides were praying to the same god for success before killing each other due to a politicians 'belief' that war was the only solution.

In Ireland, politicians managed to use peoples' religious beliefs to polarise them on a position based on boundaries and ownership.

In the Middle East the two sides are divided by religious belief as much as any other reason.

When you consider that all world religions and most political organisations say they promote the idea of peace for all and acceptance of differences, then, based on one person's 'beliefs', go to war and cause untold suffering for all concerned it is definitely the belief part of it all that is the problem.

Belief has screwed up more things in this world than ideas ever will so, therefore, it is my candidate.

Answer 3

The idea that a buncha carniverous little fµck monkeys are playing around with sub-nuclear energy sources capable of generating more energy (per unit volume) than the sun, working out the deeper mysteries of DNA coding, --AND-- getting ready to jump out into the universe and probably fµck it up as badly as they have their own homeworld.

Doug

Answer 4

TAKEN FROM EXTERNAL REFERENCE! HOPE ITS OK!

The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?


You can read the answers from 120 luminaries from many disciplines here. Many of respondents fled to the polar banalities of atheism, solipism or pantheism, and there is little here that is really dangerous, subversive, or would even be unnseemly at Unitarian prayer breakfast.

But read and judge for yourself. And think of what your most dangerous idea is. I’ll share mine.

The last few years have seen great advances in genetics, the decoding of the human genome, the discovery of gene thearapies, etc. The prospects of curing genetic diseases by formulating designer drugs is no longer the stuff of science fiction. That some diseases are associated with certain ethnic or racial groups is also well-established. For example, Ashkeazic Jews have a greater probability of being born with Niemann-Pick, Gaucher, or Tay-Sachs diseases. Men on the Caribbean island of Tobago have a 3-fold increase in the likelihood of getting prostate cancer due to an shared genetic mutation. Cystic fibrosis is more common among Norther Europeans. This is not to say that race or ethnicity is a genetic determination, but that certain generic mutations associated with certain diseases are more prevalent among certain subpopulations, and these subpopulations often break along racial and ethnic lines.

For a hundred bucks or so, I can take a mail-order test in the privacy of my home to see if I have Native American ancestry, African ancestry or Jewish ancestry, including whether I have the Cohanim gene.

Think of the implications of this. We can identify specific genetic markers that can be used to distinguish members of various human subpopulations. But this ability can be used for good or bad. Put it altogether and think evil. No, even more evil than that. Think Ultimate Evil. Unleash the demons of biological warfare. What in principle prevents one from creating a biological organism which targets a specific human subpopulation based on their genetics? For example, a targetted virus which would attack everyone of European ancestry, but would have no effect on the Chinese? The genocidal implications of this are enormous.

Churchill spoke of the danger of losing WWII and how we could “sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.” Certainly there is no shortage of ways to destroy the entire world with germs, with bombs, with climate changes, with microscopic blackholes, etc. Our inability to prevent such destructions proves that Man is foolish. But our ability to destroy a fraction of our word, in a clinically targetted, racially motivated way — that may prove that Man is Evil, and that is my most dangerous idea.

Answer 5

The idea that we know it all, and since we know it all we don't even consider alternate options/ideas. The idea that what we know is the truth, the full truth and nothing else can be true.

When it comes to knowledge we as humans are still children and we have much to learn. We have plenty of theories that should be treated as such and not facts, still we hold the theories as true.

Answer 6

The most dangerous idea of them all is to continue the use of biochemical weapon and allow the manufacture of the same to be used against the human race. That for me is a holocaust to humankind.

Good day my friend!

Answer 7

The most dangerous idea of all is the idea that there is no being responsible for creating us and the universe.

Answer 8

Granting Bush the right to declare war without congress.

Answer 9

Nazism

Answer 10

That the power to accomplish anything is already within us. It's also the most powerful positive force, as well.

Answer 11

The most dangerous idea is that we all have choices, that we don't "have" to do anything.