[extropy-chat] theobiology

[Max M]

The Avantguardian wrote:

> In my experience there are generally two types of religious folk. The 
> first are the brainwashed sheep that send off their cash to any 
> huckster with enough charisma to wave a 1000 year old book around in 
> front of them and tell them they are doomed if they don't convert.
>  
> The second kind are very bright skeptical people that have examined 
> the evidence thoroughly and made an informed decision that the 
> universe is governed by a living rational force or entity. Usually 
> these people are deeply spiritual although they tend to hold no stock 
> in the traditional organized religions as they recognize these to be 
> scams and tools of power on major scale. 


If they have "examined the evidence thoroughly and made an informed 
decision" they are either not very bright nor very sceptical...

Post modern self-invented religious views or no more correct than those 
in a 2000 year old book, unless supported by evidence.

There is simply no evidence that points in the direction of a rational 
force or entity.

That is why it is called "belief" and not "support of a theory".

 > Some of the most celebrated geniuses in history have been of the
 > second type

This is called "argument from authority", and is rather irellevant:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html

> This is because when you have a very high IQ you are good at seeing 
> patterns of information. When you see so much pattern in the universe, 
> so little of which can be explained by mere science, it engenders 
> faith that there is SOMETHING out there calling the shots. 

It might. Thought I would say that if a lot of random stuff happens, 
then there will allways be patterns. And the human mind being an 
efficient pattern recogniser will look for these patterns and apply 
useless meaning to them.



regards Max M Rasmsusen, Denmark