How true…
Religion and crime should never be organized, nothing good ever came out of either.
But if we think a little about Raymond’s Open Source movement and Stallman’s Free Software movement… Isn’t believing in greatness of things that these two promote, or better, hold as sometnig greater that all should follow, just a little too similar to the way different churches promote their religion? I think there are more than a few parallels:
* buildings where people that think alike gather (churches for religions, hacklabs for F/OSS)
* preachers that people listen to and follow (priests in religions, famous hackers for F/OSS)
* representatives of the greater good, that preachers listen to and follow (for example Pope for Roman-catholic church, Stallman/Raymond for F/OSS)
* fanatics or those who would do everything to be like the people who they look-up to (for example, in roman catholic religion people would walk bare-footed or on their knees just to feel the pain that Jesus did; in F/OSS hackers would start a software project just to get approval of other hackers)
* ordinary man who is following the specific “religion” or is using a specificly licensed software because he can profit from it or use it in the way he likes.
There are more of similarities, but you can see where I’m going.
A question that follows form all this is: Can you believe in F/OSS and still say you are an atheist?
And of course: How is F/OSS “movement” a better “church” than any other?
I used roman catholic church and religion because I know it better than other religions, but I’m sure that these parallels apply to them too. Besides that, I may be totaly wrong in any described aspect, so you are free to crucify me - or write a software that does it :)
December 2nd, 2005 at 22:22
well… it’s all about ideology - that is a set of beliefs, which are accepted as-is in a given community. You are completely right about the similarities, and your questions aren’t easy at all.
The first one could be paraphrased to: “Can you believe in anything and still say you are an atheist?” - What distinguishes religious beliefs from all other? Some say that it’s a special emotion, which can only apply to an experience of god or divine. When we believe in FLOSS, we share an ideology and a hope of future development and progress. I think there is no divinity involved here.
And I think this also answeres the second question - it’s a better church, because it’s not about preaching divine statements, but it’s about preaching practical knowledge / ideology. Why is this better? Because it allows dialogue, whereas in the field of the Sacred and Belief, there is no place for alternatives.