[extropy-chat] Engineered Religion

[ben]

john-c-wright at sff.net schreibt:

 >And I owned my teapot-shaped hat long before I became a Christian. I 
have not
 >yet received any orders from the Papal Mind Control satellite to go 
kill anyone.
 >In fact, my last instructions from the home office were to turn the 
other cheek
 >when struck and give my money to the poor. I will check with HQ and 
get back to
 >you on that whole killing thing.

"Orders"?
"Instructions from the home office"?
"Check with HQ"?

So do you regard yourself as incapable of making these kinds of 
decisions, and have to
take someone else's orders on how to behave?

How do you decide who to listen to?
Do you turn the other cheek?
Do you give money to the poor?
And why?
Is it 'cos the pope said so, or 'cos _you_ think it's a good idea?

If the pope did say you must murder non-catholics, presumably you'd 
rebel, right?
But what if the pope said it's wrong to eat cheese on a thursday? And 
that this came straight from god?
Seriously, there's some mysterious, not-understandable-by-you, even in 
principle, reason for not eating
cheese on a thursday. And that's what god wants, according to the pope.

So what are you going to do?

ben