[extropy-chat] Re: John Wright Finds God

[Damien Broderick]

At 03:21 PM 12/12/2004 -0800, samantha wrote:

>This vision was very different in that I saw the "Supernatural" in terms 
>of the "Natural".   I saw why God would come to be if God did not exist 
>already.  I saw that if God came to be then God must transcend 
>space-time.   If in any conditions ever God could come to be then God 
>Is.    I saw how naturalistic science would lead to ever accelerating 
>technological change that would require we ourselves to transcend our 
>evolutionary programming or perish.   I saw that it led directly (if 
>succesful) to Intelligence Augmentation and the creation of every greater Mind.

This is the Stapledonian vision that seems to have powered John Wright's 
Golden Age sequence, and was proposed seriously by Sir Fred Hoyle in THE 
INTELLIGENT UNIVERSE. (And, I have to say, a year earlier by me in THE 
JUDAS MANDALA, although that was as an sf trope drawn from Julian Huxley 
and Teilhard.)

>Is it "overwhelming evidence" or overwhelming Experience of Meaning, Love, 
>Truth, Power, Knowing?    Why this over-the-top Experience but without 
>filling in the thought and reason and questions fully?

Quite so. Wright would say (has said, really, in his posts) that the 
Handbook is readily accessible: it's the New Testament. Luckily, had he 
lived in another culture, he would not have been forced to go without such 
guidance, though, for each of them has its own versions of the Rapture 
Handbook, most of them at odds with each other when it comes to practical 
implementation. Even those drawing upon the Gospels have been known to 
disagree mildly, hard though that is to credit. See for example the useful 
advice provided at http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/index.html

>This looks deeply suspicious to me.

Entirely suspicious.

>And yet please understand that I to this day feel like a lout to say so 
>after the Depth of what I have experienced.

As I said when I first launched this thread: Be careful. It could happen to 
you.

Damien Broderick