[ExI] How many current members of ExI?

Sun Apr 19 00:15:34 UTC 2020

Brent wrote:  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.

The problem with this is that we are going to overfill the world long
before we can establish colonies in outer space, which in any case will not
be able to reduce the overpopulation on Earth.  However, I support people
having more than two children.  In fact I support having a dozen or more IF
the couple has significantly above average IQ.  (Cheaper bythe Dozen -
first movie I went to by myself - oddly the main character was a
psychologist!).

Where is the local atheists choir, let alone local meeting place. That's'
what I want to know.

Aside from the fact that having atheists meet for anything would be
dangerous in many parts of the country, where is the reason to have a
choir?  Church people have hymns (except the Church of God, or is it the
Church of Christ?)  and thus have perfect reason to form choirs.  Or an
atheist bowling league?  Or knitting circle?

because I had him cryonically preserved.

Interesting that many people believe that it takes a body to be resurrected
when the world ends.  Cremated people cannot be resurrected, they think.

bill w

On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 5:36 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> Hi Spike,
>
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 2:17 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com>
>> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] How many current members of ExI?
>>
>>
>>
>> Just information for atheist trans humanists who can't organize, The
>> membership of the Mormon Transumanists Association
>> <https://transfigurism.org/> continues to grow exponentially.  I believe
>> they are now approaching 1000 members, and they are now actively involved
>> in their bi annual elections.
>>
>>
>>
>> You should definitely keep them in the loop for any transhumanist
>> activities, if you want to expand participation.
>>
>
>
>
>> Brent’s comments should be considered carefully in the context of our
>> focus here.
>>
> Thanks
>
>
>> 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.  And I've probably expressed all
> the below before, here, so just skip, if you've already heard.
>
> 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, let alone local meeting place. That's' what I want to
> know.  The closest you come are Universal Unitarian churches, I tried that
> a bit, but that is more proof that they can't organize, compared to any LDS
> ward, and their ward choir, home teachers, visiting teachers, a member in
> the ward responsible for the Marine's at Camp Pendleton near San Diego,
> driving out to Camp Pendelton every sunday to pick them up and take them to
> church, and serve them dinner!!! at a time we are VERY wordies about him.
> a meetinghouse in every neighborhood.........
>
> I tried to join "Atheists of Utah".  When I moved back to Utah, I found
> them meeting in a coffee shop.  I was so happy to find them, and was asking
> how do I become one of them.  They said: "I think you talk to that guy over
> there."  So I went up to talk to him.  He told me I just needed to donate
> $35, and I'd be in, and he gave me the PayPall address of the organization
> so I could do that.  I went home sent in my $35, and was so proud to be an
> atheist of utah.  That is, until a few months latter, I got a letter from
> PayPal saying there was nobody willing to take the money, so they were
> refunding the $35 back to my account!!  Mormons would NEVER have a problem
> taking you your money, and boy the things they are able to do with it.
>
>
>> but I do recognize that religion in general, and LDS specifically is a
>> religion that has its socially-redeeming qualities, such as promotion of
>> family life (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.
>
>
>
>> Second thing in SDA: that religion holds that when a person perishes,
>> they are on hold, no conscious existence in any form.  They exist as stored
>> data until they are re-assembled at a later time.  This notion turns out to
>> be perfectly compatible with cryonics.  The SDA people I talk to are very
>> open-minded to the idea of cryonics, generally more so than other
>> religions.  The SDA people recognize that a cryonaut is not going to be
>> re-created in the flesh, but rather are candidates for a future software
>> existence, such as Startrek Next Generation holodeck.  The SDA people can
>> see definite advantages to that: their holodeck avatar can teach their
>> great^5 grandchildren about their religion.  Shrugs, OK then.  Whatever
>> works for you.
>>
>
> 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.
>
> 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. Just a
> neuro, we had the body in a closed casket at the funeral.  In addition to
> having funerals in church buildings for almost anyone, the LDS Relief
> Society fixes dinner for the extended family, after the funeral, all for
> free.  But all this was conditional on not mentioning cryonic preservation
> (at least in that ward with their particular bishop).  That just ripped me
> apart.
>
>
>
>>  LDS: the theory has humans becoming gods.  I don’t claim to be an
>> authority on LDS, but that looks to me to be very compatible with the
>> notion of transhumanism.  Imagine… we find that most transhumanists come
>> from an LDS background and most cryonicists come from SDA.
>>
>
> Yes, very interesting observations.
>
> Brent
>
>
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