[extropy-chat] that bad old internet

[Dirk Bruere]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Spike" <spike66 at comcast.net>
To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 2:14 AM
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] that bad old internet


> 
> > SDAs are, IMO, one of the most retard of Xian sects.
> > [Just thought I'd add that gratuitous religious insult to 
> > round off the discussion... Dirk
> 
> Be good to them Dirk, they may save your life some day.  Follow me:
> 
> A few weeks ago I referenced the hapless Baptists, who have a notion in
> their basic teachings that all goodness comes from god, therefore all
> legitimate ethical notions are found in the bible, therefore since
> slavery is not specifically forbidden in the bible, it must be OK.  This
> is among other absurdities that follow from the flawed premise.
> 
> The Seventh Day Adventist has a somewhat related situation. They have a
> long and specific list of taboos, revealed directly to the modern
> prophet Ellen G. White.  
> 
> But anything that is not on that forbidden list is allowed.
> 
> Over the years I have witnessed a number of attempts to add new taboos
> to this long and specific list.  I find it remarkable that *not one* of
> those attempts has been successful, not a single one.
> 
> This has some interesting consequences, for the SDAs have a modern
> medical facility: Loma Linda University in southern
> Taxifornia.  It is well known that if you have some wacky research idea,
> Loma Linda has a notoriously open-minded ethics board: they will allow
> anything that does not conflict with the previously mentioned long list
> of taboos.  An example is the Baby Fae experiment that you may recall
> from the 1980s in which a baboon heart was transplanted into a human
> infant.  Done at Loma Linda.  There is nothing in the sacred texts that
> specifically forbid it.  
> 
> This read-my-lips-no-new-no-nos concept results in the Seventh Day
> Adventists being the *only* xian church (that I know of) that holds an
> official pro-choice stance.  There are other churches that hold no
> position perhaps, but SDA stands alone in being officially and
> specifically pro-choice.  Good for them.  
> 
> Cloning?  Adventists stand alone among xian denominations as coming out
> officially in favor.  Stem cell research?  Sure.  Genetic manipulation?
> The more the merrier, for they do this research with calm confidence,
> knowing that biblical and Ellen-White-ical prophecy says nothing about
> the world being devoured by goo of any color.  The girl I dated before I
> met my wife is as staunch SDA as anyone you will ever meet.  She got her
> PhD in biology from Purdue and is now a researcher in genetic
> engineering, with no cognitive dissonance whatsoever.  Hey, the
> prophetess didn't say it was wrong, so it must be right.  Right?
> 
> Several of my computer science friends that went to SDA colleges were
> discussing artificial intelligence way back in the early 80s, before
> there was an extropian list or the internet.  We even discussed the
> singularity, even tho we did not call it by that name.  We speculated
> that computers would eventually reach human level intelligence and
> rewrite their own software, causing an open loop feedback system.
> 
> Loma Linda University follows the tradition of SDA Doctor John Harvey
> Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes and other vegetarian foods, who was
> always experimenting with new techniques to treat his patients.  Dirk,
> if you or I get prostate cancer, we can go to Loma Linda to be treated
> in their proton accelerator, which painlessly radiates the tumor,
> leaving us able to copulate and not piss on ourselves.  In my admittedly
> very limited statistical sample, the three prostate cancer patients I
> know personally who had their tumors cut out are all dead.  The two I
> know personally who had their tumors irradiated at LLU are alive and
> well.  Think about it.
> 
> As for being the "most retard of the xian sects", I think the better
> adjective might be the most *retro* of the xians.  This is
> understandable, for the 20th century was not supposed to happen, never
> mind the 21st.  There are plenty of good SDAs that are in some ways
> retrogressing to the 19th century,  for this century is not their home.
> In this at least, most of us here share their discomfort, for our
> extropian hearts and minds belong in the 22nd century.
> 
> SDA is your friend, Dirk.
 

Well, I'll just have to reappraise my view of the SDA.
It was based upon my experience of the type of people it attracts.

Dirk

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