RE: Re[2]: META: Sept. 11 and Singularity

From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Thu Sep 12 2002 - 17:36:50 MDT



> Although I remain somewhat mystified by Eliezer's criteria for asking
> people not to post, rereading GK's latest message one _could_
> interpret it as potentially trolling for an evangelical thread
> ("If there is a Being" [...] "it stands to reason that He *may*
> have something to say about this dream of Immortality we have..." --
> note the capitalization).
...
> --
> Cliff


Remember our thread on spirituality & religion & the Singularity, about two
months ago?

During that conversation, one list member e-mailed me privately and shared
with me some of his thoughts on the matter. He is a Christian and said he
did not feel comfortable sharing his thoughts with the list, because he felt
that in this group, admitting his Christianity would be uncomfortable for
him, and would cause his opinions on other things not to be taken
seriously.... His thoughts were interesting and the list would have
benefitted from them, I think. Of course, I can't say who it is because he
asked me not to mention his name ;) He is not one of the 20 top posters,
though.

As I have said before, I am not religious and I have a strong personal
emotional reaction against the superstitious & conformist aspects of
religions. However, I have a lot of respect for individual & collective
spiritual experience, and I feel that individuals who are experienced in
this way may have a lot to contribute to our thinking about the Singularity.

In order to get at this contribution, however, it is necessary to be
reasonably tolerant of differences in language and style. Sometimes I find
myself dismissing a statement made by a religious person, only to find,
through ongoing discussions, there is a variant of their statement that
*they* find basically equivalent, but *I* find much more agreeable...

-- Ben G












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