Inside a religious body you get sects and hierarchies, inside an information network you get bazaars and cathedrals, it is the same, call them what you like. They survive by pointing the finger of blame at each other.

Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.

Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.

The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.

If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny.

If we can abstract pathogenicity and hygiene from our notion of dirt, we are left with the old definition of dirt as matter out of place. This is a very suggestive approach. It implies two conditions: a set of ordered relations and a contrevention of that order. Dirt then, is never a unique, isolated event. Where there is dirt there is a system. Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements.

It seems true that the growth of science and secularism made organized Christianity feel under threat.