SweetFreedom Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Why should it be infected by this virus rather than that?
What does "that" refer to in "why should it be infected by this virus rather than that"?
Background info:
The general theory of religion as an accidental by-product - a
misfiring of something useful - is the one I wish to advocate. The
details are various, complicated and disputable. For the sake of
illustration, I shall continue to use my 'gullible child' theory as
representative of 'by-product' theories in general. This theory - that
the child brain is, for good reasons, vulnerable to infection by
mental 'viruses' - will strike some readers as incomplete.
Vulnerable the mind may be, but why should it be infected by this
virus rather than that? Are some viruses especially proficient at
infecting vulnerable minds? Why does 'infection' manifest itself as
religion rather than as ... well, what? Part of what I want to say is
that it doesn't matter what particular style of nonsense infects the
child brain. Once infected, the child will grow up and infect
Background info:
The general theory of religion as an accidental by-product - a
misfiring of something useful - is the one I wish to advocate. The
details are various, complicated and disputable. For the sake of
illustration, I shall continue to use my 'gullible child' theory as
representative of 'by-product' theories in general. This theory - that
the child brain is, for good reasons, vulnerable to infection by
mental 'viruses' - will strike some readers as incomplete.
Vulnerable the mind may be, but why should it be infected by this
virus rather than that? Are some viruses especially proficient at
infecting vulnerable minds? Why does 'infection' manifest itself as
religion rather than as ... well, what? Part of what I want to say is
that it doesn't matter what particular style of nonsense infects the
child brain. Once infected, the child will grow up and infect
Top answer
If I rewrote it: why should it be infected by this virus rather than a different one ?
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If I rewrote it: why should it be infected by this virus rather than a different one?
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SweetFreedomWhat does "that" refer to in "why should it be infected by this virus rather than that"?It leaves out the following word "virus". "this virus rather than that virus" Why one and not another?
Here are some other examples of this turn of phrase. It should be easy for you to see which word is missing after "that", now that you know the pa
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