Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> writes:
> > What is the utility served by theology in an extropian context?
>
> As much as I hate to admit it, humans seem to have an instinctive
> tendency to worship something. That is not to say that all humans
> have this, but many do, and I must admit I myself feel the pull.
I wonder what it is. The genetic explanation is simplistic and simply skirts the issue: what systems in our brains produce an urge to worship, and why? I can't see any obvious evolutionary benefit from worshipping, so it might be a secondary consequence of other features. For example, our ability to draw analogies and generalize, combined with our mammalian dependency on parents, might cause people to create the idea of a "being that is to my parents as they are to me" with the acompanying emotional and social implications. But this is pure speculation. What real evidence is there for an innate tendency for worship?
> Even now, I feel a vacuum in my life that extropianism does not fill
> (as intellectually fulfilling as it is).
As I see it, we need to find ways of making extropianism or transhumanism as emotionally fulfilling as it is intellectually fulfilling. I think it can be done, but it is an unusual (i.e. new) use for psychology and critical thinking to come up with it.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y