The Divine Lamp

No. However, the fact that a parasite called lancet fluke can infect an ant’s brain and make it a kind of mindless zombie is used by atheist Daniel Dennett as a comparison (and perhaps as something of a prop) for his theory about “wild ideas” such as religion. From COSMOS~LITURGY~ SEX:

Dennett “tells of an ant that climbs a blade of grass to no benefit of its own and in fact this makes it more likely for it to be eaten by a cow. He asks if this is a fluke and answers that, as a matter of fact, it is. It is a lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium lanceolatum) to be precise. You see, these flukes hijack ants’ brains and make them zombie ants. This gives rise to his hypothesis about what he calls “wild ideas” that can highjack the brains of people. This is the source of religion, untamed, wild ideas with no coherence to them. In this way, origins of religion need not be explained, just how they develop (very convenient). Now he doesn’t want believers to be offended in saying the religion is a parasite in one’s brain. After all, some parasites are beneficial. Of course, he never explain what the fact that flukes can disrupt the nervous system of an ant has to do with his claim that a particular type of “idea” (wild) can somehow “infect” the mind of humans; excepting of course, the “philosophers of the future”… or does it exempt them? I did not get to ask if atheism might also be one of these wild ideas.”

It’s funny that modern atheists would think themselves the philosophers of the future. Within philosophy there are well over two dozen arguments in favor of the existence of God. On the other hand, there is only one decent philosophical argument in favor of atheism and it’s not without its problems.

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