From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@uniserve.com)
Date: Sun Oct 31 1999 - 13:26:06 MST
Spike wrote:
>If we had a spaceship with a collection of rational thinking humans
>and no influence from earth, I suspect that 4 generations down the
>road, religions would spontaneously form, and would likely
>go thru the destructive phases described by Voltaire. {8-[ spike
Really? I'm not so sure about that. It all depends upon the level of
each person's respective objectivity. Since religions fundamentally have a
core of irrationality, it would take more than one "rational thinking
human" to compromise his/her views to create a religion. This begs the
question of whether rationalism is a learned trait (i.e.: can be taught) or
a developed trait. Could each generation feasibly teach their children the
importance of rational thinking, or would the children still have the
ability to jettison that rationalism for the sake of blind faith? I guess
we'll have to wait to find out...
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E. Shaun Russell Extropian, Musician, ExI Member
e_shaun@uniserve.com <KINETICIZE *YOUR* POTENTIAL>
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"The reason I'm involved with Extropy...is to end the carnage."
-Robert Bradbury, Extro-4
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