[extropy-chat] New article against transhumanism

[Spike]

> Damien Broderick
> 
> Heinlein called these the Crazy Years, and predicted a regime 
> in the USA of religious terrorism. He's been right on a few other
things.
> 
...

Of course the SDA prophetess Ellen White anticipated Heinlein
on this by half a century.  Her book "The Great Controversy
Between Christ and Satan" describes how the US government
will join with Catholicism and apostate Protestantism to
force the entire world to worship christ.  This might seem
a most curious thing for a christian prophetess to lose
sleep over, but the kicker is that this government will try to
force god's true people to do this worship on the counterfeit
sabbath, the day we call Sunday, instead of the true
sabbath, Saturday, and may god have mercy upon the souls
of any of his people who go along with it.

As a possibly unrelated aside, there was a most excellent
American Experience on this evening about Chicago, which
was having a devil of a time in the 1850s trying to deal
with immigration, for the newcomers did not share the
cultural values of the oldtimers (whose families had
already been in America for two or three decades).  

Particularly loathed by the old Chicagoans were two
groups: the Irish and the Germans.  The Irish were
caracatured as those who would go to the pubs after
work every day and devour copious droughts of whiskey
until nearly unconsciously drunk, then go home and 
inevitably get in violents fights with their families.
They at least had the decency to not drink at all on
Sunday, the day in which they would pray and repent
of what they had done during the week.  

The reprehensible Germans, on the other hand, would 
work like plowhorses and stay sober six days a week, 
but to them Sunday was a party day.  They would break 
out the beer barrel and the hearty oom-pah-pah bands, 
and just have a wonderful time.  On SUNDAY heaven
forbid!

Somehow they eventually managed to assimilate.

spike