Thread: The Singularity
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Unread 10-28-2013, 05:03 PM   #29 (permalink)
Dent
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It's good to see Christians getting into transhumanism, It will be interesting if they get set up properly.
I haven't came across a religious person spouting "destiny to achieve godhood" before, and I think there is a conflict, one is a death cult.

Two edit : three quotes from here, i'll read the book sometime.
Conflict Between Traditional Religion and Transhumanism ? At Any Cost...
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Transhumanist Wager Guide
While there is plenty on the transhumanist wish-list cited above to support a religiously inspired charge of "scientists playing God," it actually may be the effort to dramatically increase life/health-span, once it approaches an extreme level, that intrudes most seriously and fundamentally upon something that was once thought to be the exclusive domain of religion: immortality.
And to make matters worse, transhumanists are promising PHYSICAL immortality without the need for faith in an afterlife nor the necessity to die. This strikes at the heart of many religions' greatest selling point. If transhumanists can offer the world's people the possibility of immortality without the paradoxical need to die to obtain it, traditional religions will be seen as obsolete by many pragmatically-minded people, which brings us to…
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Transhumanist Wager
“The Wager is the most logical conclusion to arrive at for any sensible human being: We love life and therefore want to live as long as possible—we desire to be immortal. It's impossible to know if we're going to be immortal once we die. To do nothing doesn't help our odds of attaining immortality, since it seems evident that we're going to die someday and possibly cease to exist. To attempt something scientifically constructive towards ensuring immortality beforehand is the most logical solution.” (58-9)
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Transhumanist Wager Guide
In the book, there is a heated discussion between the leader of the transhumanists, Jethro Knights, and the leader of the religious opposition, Reverend Belinas:

Belinas declared, “That's so typical of your overman breed, of which you are its chief architect and philosopher. Your problem is that you're not an atheist; you're not even an antitheist. You're an apatheist—one who doesn't care to find out if he should know God.”

“That's true,” Jethro answered simply. “It's just not an expedient use of my time. I have too much value in my own life for the need to consider, or want, anything else.”

“You've never been fearful you might be wrong about that? You’ve never been afraid you might miss out on knowing the Creator of the universe?”

“Nope. Never.”

Last edited by Dent; 10-28-2013 at 05:09 PM.
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