[ExI] How many current members of ExI?

Sat Apr 18 23:22:23 UTC 2020

From: Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com> 
…

Note that I am not making any commentary or inquiry on Brent’s religious views, (and encourage others to not ask (for that is poor form))

>…I disagree with this, please ask away… Brent

Likewise here Brent.  I don’t want to volunteer your system, but mine is open to examination.

I'm a "Mormon Transhumansit Atheists", if anyone is asking.  I keep the best of the beliefs, and chuck the obviously absurd junk in any of it, including atheists' inability to work together on anything.  Where is the local atheists choir…

Ja.  There are plenty of atheists in the choir, for you and I are not the only ones who have recognized the benefits of religions if you can get over the obviously false components.

>…  Mormons would NEVER have a problem taking you your money, and boy the things they are able to do with it…

It is very impressive.  I have been back to Salt Lake City twice to do genealogy (back in the old days before the internet.)  Marvelous accomplishments there.

>>… (note that I am definitely not promoting over-breeding (keep it to two or less.))  

>…I disagree with this also,  How are we ever going to fill the galaxy with life, without having LOTS of children?  I have 3 great adult kids, and consider not having more the biggest mistake of my life…

Brent I recognize that those who are emotionally well-suited for family life should do family, by all means.  I am also one who recognizes we haven’t reached any kind of equilibrium on our planet and do not have reason to expect we will given the current population.  Ideally I can envision humanity leveling out at about 5 billion people as we move us all forward together.

>…Interesting.  I didn't know you had this much to do with SDA.  Yes, I think the Jehovah's witnesses have this same belief about nothing after death.  I'm doing my best to convert the LDS to this doctrine, that is really hard for me.  Can you imagine dying, then being a ghost in some neither world of the dead???  There is no way, being separated from the living as a ghost could be anything other than eternal damnation.  Yet everyone just completely ignores that necessary truth/fact and appears to receive so much warmth and joy from the idea.

SDA and JW came from a common root.  The two split over education: SDA wanted colleges and hospitals, JW argued there was no time for college degrees and hospitals, the job at hand was to get moving now, go knock on doors, harvest the sheaves before the apocalypse.  In that sense, JWs were harder core more fundamentalist than those who went with SDA.

Keith’s notions on evolutionary psychology might be interesting here with regard to people of common origins who split over something.  My notion is that they intentionally emphasize that area of contention in a way that shapes culture.

For instance: the Celtic Scots and Irish came from common roots with a common language.  For some reason I don’t understand, the two cultures split hard on the propriety of frugality.  The Scots went toward austerity and self-sufficiency, whereas the Irish was more toward generosity and extravagance.  Both cultures took pride in the way their side did things, and both exaggerated the difference.  Now… the upland Scottish culture and the Irish cultures are very different.

SDA and JW doctrine is very similar, but there was a definite split in the area of higher education.  The emphasized the difference.  Today JW is culturally very different, having eschewed higher education, whereas SDA embraced it.  So now there are a lot of SDA professionals, hospitals and universities (such as Loma Linda University where tumor treatment with proton accelerators was researched.)

>…They almost didn't allow us to have my father's (a long time dedicated truly believing member and good friends with everyone in his ward) funeral in their ward building, because I had him cryonically preserved…

Ja, you wouldn’t see that problem in an SDA funeral.

>…just a neuro…  Brent

I had an idea I will hold until a later post, to see if Keith wants to comment on the notion that cultural splits (Scottish vs Irish Celts) could possibly have anything to offer to the field of evolutionary psychology, or if the cultural split is too recent to have had any useful contribution (I think it is.)

spike

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