From: Marc Forrester (Tech@mharr.force9.co.uk)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2001 - 08:42:48 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com>
> > b) R causes T. Some philosophers and historians, for example, argued
> > that religion has influenced philosophy which in turn created modern
> > science (back in the early Enlightenment) which in turn created modern
> > technology. Religious aspirations to become more than human have
> > piggybacked along the way.
>
> It's not enough for a bunch of theologians to try and take credit for
> science; there has to be transmission of false or undesirable information
> from religion to science. Don't postulate; demonstrate; point out a
> specific example.
I recently read an article on this issue which I thought to be interesting:
http://www.reciprocality.org/Reciprocality/r6/design.html - Half way down,
'Religion Design 101'
The author's perspective is that humanity is suffering from a mimetic
disease that replaces much conscious thought with rules of thumb and ritual,
and that religions were created by gifted immunes as a long term cure. The
healthy payloads listed are:
Christianity - Individual recognisance and considering the merits of
individual cases.
Islam - The physical world is the creation of Allah, and should be studied
with reverence and diligence.
Buddhism - Concepts of circular causality and the internal self-consistency
of the universe.
A shame they weren't all together in one faith.
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