SecularFuture

Note: When I use the word religion, I am referring to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all of the other religions that hold to supernatural beliefs.

I am totally convinced now! Religion may be the sole cause for every damn problem on our planet today! Through religion – reason is replaced with magical thinking, inquiry is replaced with unfounded concepts, and unity is replaced with intolerance and violence. Through magical thinking we are left with the art of childish thinking, the art of jumping to conclusions, and blind faith-based decision making. Unfounded concepts take us away from the road that could eventually lead us to discovery and truth. And intolerance and violence creates too many subdivisions and categories and too little progress. And what is this… religion all based on? A few books that could have been written by anyone with a little spare time and some creative writing skills! Unlike real history books that describe events within a real world, biblical writings try to justify the existence of a supernatural world that can not be seen, and only believed. Isn’t it kind of ironic that “invisible and nonexistence look so much alike?”- Delos B. McKown. These people… these religionists are so gullible and afraid to live in a world without a divine governor that they surrender their reason and common sense to fairytales and brainwashing. The most repulsive fact of it all is that these religionists brainwash their babies into believing as they do, during the time when the child will believe anything anyone tells them.

Religion is killing everything! It’s killing our common sense, our science, our medicine, other countries, -- the list goes on. Most people believe that “God is the guider of their fate.” So what do most of them do when they have a problem? They do nothing! They either pray or get really depressed and start asking questions like, “Why doesn’t God like me?” Instead of trying to use their mind and common sense, most of them just sit around and whine. What do most of them do when they don’t understand something? They accept the “biblical fact” that not everything is meant to be understood, when in “reality fact” – if enough time and research is applied – everything can be within our understanding.

Transhumanism goes far beyond basic atheism. Theists obviously need something, because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t try to defend or hold so near-and-dear to erroneous beliefs that even most children have the common sense to question. Basic atheism doesn’t give them that philosophical filler that they require. Think about it for a moment. Why would someone want to give up a belief in god for a belief in nothing? Transhumanism, on the other hand, promotes all kinds of concepts that could help a suffering theists recover and convert to a more rational and secular way of thinking. It combines the philosophical grounds of Secular Humanism with scientific and medical interests that are required for our survival in the future. Transhumanism must be promoted as a replacement for religion.



“Religion is based upon blind faith supported by no evidence. Science is based upon confidence that results from evidence -- and that confidence can be modified and/or reversed by further observations and experimentation. Science approaches truth, closer and closer, by hard dedicated work. Religion already has it all decided, and it's "in the book. It's dogma, unchangeable, and unaffected by reality and whatever facts we come upon in the real world.”
-- James Randi



The Transhumanist Declaration
http://www.transhumanism.org/

(1) Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.

(2) Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences.

(3) Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it.

(4) Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical (including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.

(5) In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic progress in technological capabilities. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies.

(6) We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.

(7) Transhumanism advocates the well- being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non- human animals) and encompasses many principles of modern humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform.

Conchobar

Transhumanism is a very positive aspect for us as non-theists to focus. It seems that while my career is on a cutting edge of science, it is barely known by the average person especially America (Neuroscience and genetics).

I agree with the article you posted. I think that mankind's evolution was faster in the physical sense and the growth of the brain than the acquisition of knowledge. This was when mankind started to think abstractly and consider the mechanisms of the world around him. He had the sense of inquiry but the lack of tools to understand the complexity of nature. He lacked the technology to study physical phenomena, and mental phenomena. He also lacked the more advanced frontal rational circuitry necessary to solve these complex problems once his evolving technology got him the data.

So in the early days when mankind was striving to survive, magical thinking, mythological and imaginary explanations gave him perspective to view the world. He acted from myth, and from rituals (superstition) that he felt interfaced with the magic of the world. Religion is that magical thinking and superstitious ritual. As humans evolved not all people had the frontal circuitry to think rationally. Even today a majority of common people still lack that ability. This is why people reject Evolution, geology, plate tectonics, superstring theory, chaos theory, etc. It is because they cannot analyse the very complex. The Bible boils it all down into simple minded if childish faerie tales that the simple modern peasant can comprehend. That it is wrong is not important. It is a working memory to address day to day survival and largely works.

When in the Renaissance the more rational people began to think rationally and investigate phenomena despite the opposition of the Christian Church, they started a revolution of thinking that has never encompassed more than a minority of humanity. But that minority included the heroes of modern science today. They were Giordano Bruno who was burned for seeking truth. Galileo who was intimidated into denying his own factual findings. The list includes Newton, Huygens, Kopernik (Copernicus), Aggassi, Wallace, and Darwin. They braved the reactionary hatred of imbedded superstition with new ideas.

Today we can develop the technology to repair damaged retinas with lasers, image emotional and thought patterns in the human brain, the pathways of mystical experiences, the intricacies of the inside of atoms and quarks.

Yet 70-80% of humanity is conceptually not yet past the Middle Stone Age in rational thinking. They are still living in two parallel universes, the real one of energy-matter and the imaginary one of magical thinking, superstition, and mythology (Religion.)

It raises the question of why so many people seem trapped in the muck and mire of superstition and religion, and are incapable of understanding science when presented to them. I have tried hard to explain in simple English evolutionary principles, molecular biology, and biological neurobehaviour. But I can tell from the reponses that they are not hearing me. Are they simply a part of the genus Homo whose brain frontal lobes have not yet evolved to the level and degree of organisation and complexity to comprehend Chaos theory or Nucleotides coding proteins and actually directing cells developing in utero.

The Principle of Parsimony is that the simpler the explanation the more likely true. This was widely believed in the middle ages. So many people choose simple mythology over complex science. My variant of that is "to every complex question there is a simple answer. And it is wrong."

Thanks for the link to Transhumanism. It makes us more than simply Atheists or deniers of imaginary things. It gives us a more positive and pro-active agenda. The Middle Ages should end soon.


Conchobar

Tarnaak

Quite a bit of Science is performed by "religious" people.
Most people don't have the time or money to become one of the great thinkers or scholars as you obviously are...

It most certainly does. At least with atheists you know what they don't believe. With this transhumansim, its just another religion made to look like its not.

Obviously your trans people need something to believe in also...
Are those prophecies I see listed?

Isn't this what "cults" do?
Yep definitely CULT!

SecularFuture

Tarnaak,
Like what? The intelligent design notion? The 6,000 year old universe notion? Nothing in science supports or confirms anything that is of an invisible or supernatural nature. To believe in your bible in the first place, you require a blind faith in the supernatural, and a blind faith in the deity that you *think* inspired it. Your religious faith came before the evidence.

I understand that. And I’m sure that you realize that, unlike history books, your bible is trying to justify the existence of a world that you can not see. What kind of information do you gain from a history book? Information about events, people, etc. What kind of information do you gain from a bible? Magical stories, extraordinary claims, circular reasoning, and contradiction. Why should I believe in a book that says “magic exists” if there is no evidence to support the existence of magic?


“You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?”
- Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith


Just because a lot of people share an opinion, does not make that opinion a fact.

Not any of the really good science. Good science comes from agnosticism.

Lazy?

Transhumanism is a philosophy. It’s not a religion.

No. They’re ideas.

You’re not funny.

SecularFuture

Conchobar
Thank you for your inspired response.

Starboy

SecularFuture, I think you have almost hit the nail on the head. I think that one of the more important things that people seek from religion is guidance. Now of course the religious snake oil salesmen of the world have sold their adherents a bill of goods when they convince them that god will guide them, but it still doesn’t change the reason people are open to the pitch in the first place, they are seeking guidance. Any proposed replacement for religion that does not meet this need will be a complete failure. As far as I can tell transhumanism does not address this primary requirement.

Starboy

SecularFuture

Transhumanism, like Secular Humanism, can give people the philosophical foundation needed for self-help and self-thinking without having to rely on imaginary concepts. We need to help religionists realize that nothing good can come from believing in the supernatural, and that a secular philosophy, a philosophy built upon concepts of realism is the only alternative to tenuous beliefs.

Transhumanism also considers the science behind life extension and – possibly -- real immortality, whether it be here or on another planet somewhere in the distant future. Think about what the central theme to Christianity is, for example: "Jesus died for us so that we may have eternal life! They don’t want to die. They fear dying, and they want to have an “eternal life.” Transhumanism may, MAY give them that chance for a real eternal life. Maybe - and a maybe is a lot better than not at all.

Why do they fight so hard against secularism? Because they fear our thinking, and they fear the possibility that we may be right, and that our world is without order or guidance. However, if we find a philosophy strong and comforting enough to be a sufficient replacement for their beliefs, they may be willing to convert. Religionists are like children. We can’t take away their cake if we don’t have another piece of cake waiting for them.

If we don’t find a way to turn these people (religionists) to realistic thinking, or world is doomed! Our children’s children will not have a future if religion is still around, slowing the progress of unity, our medicine, and science.

Jinto

Huh. You know, reading this it looks like I've been a transhumanist all my life without ever realizing it. Fascinating.

SecularFuture

Welcome to the family.
You now have a category now.

SecularFuture