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 Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 19,921
Loc: underbelly
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 A Dangerous Idea.
#8398282 - 05/13/08 08:16 PM |
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THIS IS ALL THERE IS
"The empirically testable idea that the here and now is all there is and that life begins at birth and ends at death is so dangerous that it has cost the lives of millions and threatens the future of civilization. The danger comes not from the idea itself but from it's opponents, those religious leaders and followers who ruthlessly advocate and defend their empirically improbable afterlife and man-in-the-sky cosmological perspectives.
Their vigor is understandable. What better theological franchise is there than the promise of everlasting life, with deluxe trimmings? Religious followers must invest now with their blood and sweat, with the big payoff not due until the afterlife. Post mortem rewards cost theologians nothing-I'll match your heavenly choir and raise you seventy two virgins.
Some franchise! This is even better than the medical profession, a calling with higher overhead that has gained control of birth, death, and pain. Whether the religious brand is Christianity or Islam, the warring continues, with a terrible fate reserved for heretics who threaten the franchise from within. Worse may be in store for those who totally reject the man-in-the-sky premise and its afterlife trappings. All of this trouble over accepting what our senses tell us--that this is all there is.
Resolution of religious conflict is impossible, because there is no empirical test of the ghostly, and many theologians prey intentionally or not on the fears , superstitions, irrationality and heard tendencies that are our species neuro behavioral endowment. Religious fundamentalism inflames conflict and prevents solution; the more extreme and irrational one's position, the stronger one's faith. When you are in possession of absolute truth, compromise is not an option."
Robert Provine , professor of psychology and assistant director of the Neuroscience Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore Country. He is the author of Laughter: a scientific investigation.
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
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 Oweyervishice
You're Vicious
Registered: 05/07/08
Posts: 170
Last seen: 1 month, 1 day
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The danger is the conflict, indeed. If we all had the same beliefs we would be more peaceful, I suppose, but stagnant.
On whether or not the "here and now" is all there is...it is strange to think back to my earliest memories and realize that in all the time that supposedly passed before I was born, there is no memory. Then suddenly I am born and there is EXISTENCE! Wow.
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I was taught a month ago
To bide my time and take it slow
But then I learned just yesterday
To rush and never waste the day
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 19,921
Loc: underbelly
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yup
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
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