[extropy-chat] Putting God to Rest

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 4/23/07, Anna Taylor <femmechakra at yahoo.ca> wrote:

This list is supposed to be about prolonging life, the
> use of technology, transhumanism etc.  If you believe
> God doesn't exist and have the right to say it then I
> would assume that a religious person may have those
> same rights and discuss the existence of God. (Which I
> believe will end up in a tug of war).  If the list
> does not wish to dwell on Religion then any and all
> comments that are in regard to God or Religion should
> not be made. If I have misunderstood and all
> Extropians are Atheists, then I think that should be
> made clear and concrete.


I don't know the numbers (it would be an interesting survey if it hasn't
already been done), but I would be surprised if the incidence of atheism
amongst those who identify as transhumanists isn't considerably higher than
in the general community, especially in the US. It seems to me that many
mainstream adherents of the Abrahamic faiths (Islam is in there with Judaism
and Christianity, for those who didn't know) would be horrified at all but
the mildest goals of transhumanism. It's one thing for scientists to simply
regard religion as irrelevant to their work, but when they start to talk
about transcending biology and living forever, that might sound to a
believer like a rerun of Satan's rebellion against God.

Stathis Papaioannou
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