thanks for your comment MickC

Hi Richard, thanks for your comments and analysis. I'll try to bring in some of your points into the Dorset Humanists Bournemouth debate next Saturday.

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more bile from O'Connor: http://hassers.blogspot.com/search/label/Cormac%2...

Hi Neal, thanks for commenting. I like 'free spirit' instead of spirituality. I'm warming to the idea of a dictionary of slippery words that have been sequestered by religion for their own nefarious purposes. So for HASSNERS the synonym to 'Spirituality' might be 'holistic' or 'humane' or 'free spirit'.

Can you think of any other words like this?

http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/humane/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym

or the HASSNERS antiviral?

thanks Richard. I studied Microbiology for 2 years, so The God Virus idea resonates with me!

I've added a title and a few labels to your post.

from 2) God Virus weakens over time in the infected mind and requires constant reinforcement ie collective worship i was reminded of http://hassers.blogspot.com/2008/02/church-of-eng...

At www.churchmodel.org.uk they model church attendance. They use a virus metaphor: http://www.churchmodel.org.uk/ResultsSummary.html

- Enthusiasts are believers who make contact with unbelievers so that those unbelievers are converted.

- The 'quality' of an Enthusiast is their ability to reproduce themselves or their reproduction potential.

- The quality of enthusiasts (infectiousness of virus) rather than their quantity (number of viruses) determines the size of the church.

- Reproduction Potential is how many enthusiasts one enthusiast could potentially make. Viruses bud off to exponentially create other viruses

- It is not how many converts they make that determines long-term growth but how many enthusiasts who will go on to make more enthusiasts.

- Enthusiasts are spiritually infectious

Renewal, not Evangelistic Methods, is the Key To Church Growth

- Enthusiasts attempt to create "renewal" which means a spiritual change in a person so that they become spiritually infectious, ie become Enthusiasts.

- Evangelists (infectious virus) convert non-believers (healthy cells) to believers (dormant virus). Believers can be triggered by 'renewal' to become Evangelists.

Renewal (a trigger that turns a dormant virus to become infectious) can make up for an inadequate reproduction potential, helping a church to avoid extinction or even see revival growth, provided there is a critical mass of enthusiasts.

The Alpha Course is an attempt to create Enthusiasts out of Believers.

Atheists (healthy cells with antibodies to God virus)

Active Atheists (Virologist Atheists who can give the Atheist Antibiotic against the God virus)

If the churchmodel.org & God Virus models are valid, Active Atheists could act to block the renewal of believers to become Enthusiasts, on Alpha Courses and elsewhere, by application of the 'Atheist Antibiotic?

Hi Bruce,
I'm going to try to persuade my daughter, who is now 14, to attend Camp Quest 2010. I've bought 'SuperSense' and will read it soon.

thanks Roz. I like your metaphor of a 'walled garden' which can support solutions at another scale. Do you have any suggested books to read?

hi Dave, I'm speechless!!