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...
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