The philosopher Daniel Dennett used to tell a story about space aliens. Instead of invading and terrorizing, these aliens wanted to learn about the planet and about us. They were nice.
They were so nice, all the human kids wanted to be around them. The aliens showed them new technologies and new pastimes. Soon the kids had forgotten all about music, whether it be country, classical or rock’n’roll. They forgot about baseball and football.
It was all too much for their parents, who didn’t care how nice those aliens were.
Dennett told the story to remind fellow atheists what a century of secularization had done to the psychological wellbeing of traditionally religious people. It seems to me that the cultural changes we have seen in the past 70 years or so were broader than that. Many people abandoned more than traditional churches — family farms and brick-and-mortar stores, for example.
It’s a lot of change to absorb, and many people are struggling. Dennett’s parable is a reminder that losing patience with the strugglers doesn’t help.
• Source: Dennett’s parable appeared in Breaking the Spell, but he told it often. I found it in Daniel James Sharp’s “Consciousness, free will and meaning in a Darwinian universe: interview with Daniel C. Dennett” in The Freethinker, Dec. 18, 2023. It’s here:
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