By
Roberto Diego
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Copyright 2008 Roberto Diego. No part of this
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Table of Contents
Introduction See Below
Bad Idea #3 Selfishness is Evil
Bad Idea #4 Human Sacrifice/Altruism/Collectivism
The Solution: A Secular Society
The author would like to acknowledge an intellectual debt to novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand as well as philosopher Leonard Peikoff. Over many years, I have been a student of the philosophy of Objectivism that was originated by Ms. Rand. I have found the principles identified by Ayn Rand and Dr. Peikoff invaluable to my intellectual development. In particular, Objectivism’s identification of the importance of reason; the identification of the principles of an objective reality and the primacy of existence have been central to my own development. Ms. Rand’s and Dr. Peikoff’s identification of rationalism and empiricism as fallacies were also important to the writing of this book.
The author asserts that he is
not a spokesperson for the philosophy of Objectivism. I am responsible for my
own interpretations in this book.
The worst ideas in history must certainly be ideas of such monumental import that they would be known to almost everyone. Yet, you might be surprised to learn that the most destructive ideas in history have been barely noticed and they have been accepted with barely any comment by most of our leaders for generations. In fact, our most prominent leaders are advocates of many of these ideas; they foster them, promote them and work according to their principles.
Yet, these ideas destroy wholesale and globally; they are responsible, not only for genocide, wars and human devastation but also for the losses suffered by people in their every day lives. They are even considered some of our more civilizing, humane and enlightened ideas.
Understanding our history requires that one be a detective of sorts but with a major difference. After a major crime has been committed, the astute detective must engage in a process of induction in order to collect the facts that will help him find the criminal. He must construct a scenario on how the crime was committed, who did it and why. The result of using a correct methodology is a proven case that will hold up in a court of law. A philosophical detective, on the other hand, has to evaluate the intellectual work of men who presented ideas centuries ago. And, if previous generations have not noticed the devastating impact of those ideas, he might find himself being a critic of ideas that are hundreds of years old that have been entrenched in the universities and influenced millions of lives for hundreds of years. He might find that the worst defenders of the damage done by these ideas are the practitioners of them, the victims whose critical faculties have been destroyed which means that the court trial may span decades of centuries.
A philosophical detective has some major challenges: In addition to pointing out the logical fallacies of the ideas he investigates, he must also identify the consequences of those ideas on the very real lives of people that have absorbed them. When he takes on such a task, he may learn that a great many thinkers in his culture do not believe there is a connection in reality between ideas and consequences – few have looked at philosophical cause and effect. Many believe that if an idea is considered good, then it must be good, it must have good consequences. Yet, few have actually attempted to identify the results of broad abstractions in practical terms.
The four ideas discussed in this work are considered to be the best ideas in history by many people. As I will show, they derive from some of the most primitive and unsupportable ideas known to man. Yet, their harm is that they exert tremendous influence on the lives of all men, even those who are considered “non-believers.” In addition, those people, like myself, who take issue with these ideas are considered almost criminal, irresponsible, evil and even hateful because we presume to question the unquestionable. In fact, the proponents of the four worst ideas in history, philosophers and religious leaders, have used their power to establish dominance for their ideas at the expense of rational evaluation.
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