[extropy-chat] Putting God to Rest

[Anna Taylor]

>But on this list, denouncing religion is just boring,
>because nearly all of us have long ago understood
>that the superstitious and irrational beliefs of
>religious traditions have no place in a transhumanist
>world view.

If Transhumanist is a world view then I have to assume
that within that world view are religious people
(unless everybody is an atheist).  I respect that and
don't see anything wrong with that. It doesn't really
matter if there are religious people that believe it
or atheists. Transhumanism is about one thing and 
Religion is about another.  I personaly don't care as
long as everybody believes in rationality and respect
towards the list and what that list represents. (Which
I was led to believe was about future technology,
Transhumanism, cryonics, etc.)

>That is true, and we also have to deal with sex, drug
>addiction, video games, sadomasochism, and all sorts
>of other social and psychological phenomena. But that
>doesn't mean we need to focus our discussion on all
>these various social and psychological phenomena.

I don't see how from my post you got the impression I
was going to go off in detail to what my beliefs are. 
I was simply frustrated with the lack of respect. I
apologize again, I clearly do not understand what the
fuss is about.

>>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.

>You have the right to say that 2+2=5 also, but if you
>keep repeating it to me I will start deleting all
your
>emails without reading them ;-)

I don't know where in my posts that I have made a
blatant false equation.  I don't know how to compare
an equation to a belief? It's comparing "I believe
that God doesn't exist because there is no known
proof" compared to "I believe in something that I
don't need proof for."  My point was about respect.

>Well, speaking for myself, I really do not wish to
>discuss religion; 

Then we agree, I don't recall in any of my posts my
wish to discuss religion.  

>and, I also don't care to discuss any philosophical
>issues with any person who is not either atheist or
>agnostic (and even "agnostic" is >iffy ... but this
>word encompasses a lot of different attitudes).

That's fine.  I find it very hard to discuss 
philosophical issues with any person who doesn't have
any clue or knowledge of religion. To each it's own.

>What I find scary is that so many folks in the modern
>world still actually believe in some kind of "god" up
>there in heaven deciding things about the world. 
>Egads!!  If people believe absurd things like that,
>how the heck can we expect them to think rationally
>about the Singularity???  

Scary as it may be, there are millions of people doing
just that whether I find it rational or not. How does
one have anything to do with the other?  Are you
implying that people can't believe about the
Singularity if they believe in "God"?

>I do think there is value in various spiritual
>experiences and altered states of consciousness.  But
>connecting these experiences with ideas about "god",
>gods, demons and the like is really about as silly as
>believing the Tooth Fairy takes your tooth from under
>your pillow and replaces it with a dollar in the
>middle of the night...

That's confusing for me.  If you value various
spiritual experiences and altered states of
consciouness how can you not understand that people
may label that with the idea of "God"?  If someone
understands spiritual experience and altered states of
consciouness they wouldn't need stories like the
"Tooth Fairy".

>You do after all have the right to believe in Santa,
>and even to discuss your belief ... but the topic
>will start to bore a lot of us on this list pretty
>quickly...

I would like you to tell me my beliefs as I don't
recall mentioning them.

I don't mean to be so straight forward but I feel like
i'm going around in circles.  I still haven't got a
clue how this became an issue about whether I believe
in God or Religion and whether it is right or wrong.

Anna







  




      Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail at http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/try_beta?.intl=ca