Micah Redding wrote:
>Not to say that most religious people aren't ignorant, but it's not
>justified to condemn all religion based on its adherrents. You couldn't
>dismiss extropianism, for example, just because no one has been
>completely extropi[c].
The reason that religion often gets "bashed" on this list is because most list members have high regard for reason, rationality and absolute values. It is rare for a religion to possess any of these facets at the core of its value system. Beliefs in gods and unprovable acts and histories seems as absurd when there is a plethora of evidence to prove otherwise. As to the idea of learning all about a particular religion before condemning it, I will say that *all* religions (to my knowledge) have the lowest common denominator of belief in the unprovable...there are far more tangible things to spend time learning about.
By the way, I would not say that no-one has been completely extropic: it took someone whose existance is provable to formalize the philosophy, and many others to agree with it.
E. Shaun Russell Extropian, Musician, ExI Member e_shaun@uniserve.com <KINETICIZE *YOUR* POTENTIAL> ------------------------------------------------------- "The reason I'm involved with Extropy...is to end the carnage." -Robert Bradbury, Extro-4