[extropy-chat] Intelligent Design: I'm not dead yet

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jan 26, 2006, at 7:34 PM, Al Brooks wrote:

> The Arab-Israeli conflict has been no paltry affair-- and is no  
> paltry affair at this time. No one can say how many casualties will  
> occur in the mideast; we know it will be in the thousands, it might  
> be millions.
>  It is even conceivable billions will ultimately die because of  
> what is brewing in that screwed-up region of political & military  
> quicksand.
>

The point was simply that compared to world wars and other things  
that could actually threaten Singularity religion based wars appear  
to be pretty far down on the list.  It is not conceivable that  
"billions will die" unless major armed states like the US and Russia  
start hurling nukes regarding local squabbles.  But then the real  
energy behind such a possibility is our continuing dependence on  
fossil fuel not religion per se.  An energy war is one very likely  
way we may never get to Singularity.   Only if we are pretty stupid  
will we see directly by force of arms opposing a religion (or all  
religions) as being worth possibly missing Singularity.

- samantha