[extropy-chat] Religion: A discussion

[Jef Allbright]

Brent Neal wrote:
> The point: Scientific literacy isn't an action, its an attitude as
> well as a thought process. No Christian church, Catholic or
> Protestant, has it.

If only the differences between scientific and non-scientific world views
were so black and white, progress would be faster, although perhaps less
diverse.

As Bertrand Russell said, "Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a
cloud of comforting convictions which move with him like flies on a summer
day."

A difficulty, within the extropian and transhumanist communities as well, is
that each person perceives and processes new information in the context of
their pre-existing beliefs and knowledge base.  It is remarkable how easily
we can fit contradictory and discordant information into our existing
structures and continue on our merry way -- eventually to run into the hard
edges of reality (or not).

A key to effective communication accross such gaps is to recognize that each
person's point of view seems consistent and essentially complete to them.
Recognizing this, we can strive to *enlarge* the context of the discussion
to include both points of view within a larger whole.  *Enlarging* the
context is generally more effective (and extropic) than attempting to reduce
the other person's point of view by pointing out seeming errors in their
thinking and view of their world.

- Jef
http://www.jefallbright.net/belief