From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Date: Thu Jan 30 1997 - 14:45:42 MST
AS> It can be argued that Extropianism per se doesn't make
AS> claims about divinity,...
The trouble with the divine is that nobody who wants me to believe
in it ever bothers to define what it is, or even acknowledge that
they should. Since they won't define it, I can only garner its
meaning from the context in which they use the words. As far as I
can determine, people who use the word "God" use it mostly to mean
"some entity that is the cause of all things I don't understand the
cause of." God is ignorance. If anybody can show me how this
concept is useful, any more than the concept of some sacred place
where lies each lost pen and unmatched sock, I'll join in too.
I am a bit less dismissive about planet-worshippers like the CAW
folks and other neo-pagans. Even though I imagine an extropian
future travelling space, I have to admit that for the moment I'm
stuck on this insignificant little ball of dirt, so I'd better
adapt to it. And its rich diversity of creatures do a great job
of teaching me about myself. How backward would the study of
genetics and evolution be without E. coli and D. melanogaster?
I don't see the use, though, of naming and personifying it, an
ascribing will to it. That seems to me like it would get in the
way of understanding what it's really like.
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