Re: extropians-digest V2 #458
J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Fri, 24 Apr 1998 12:57:55 -0700
>
>Structuring your worldview solely to
satisfy your ideology strikes me as a
>dangerous project. Gods may or may not
exist at present. Most understandings
>of theology make the question utterly
unresolvable in a theoretic sense (thus
>encouraging principled agnostism).
Practically speaking, of course,
sensible
>people find it useful to assume that
gods do *not* exist, and to act like
>atheists in a day-to-day sense. But
none of that justifies embracing
>*theoretical* atheism from fear of the
anomie that could follow facing
>possible truths. Better, I think, to
cut the bluff and learn to live with
>limited facts.
>
>> And I shall continue as a quite
vocal atheist until someone can present
>> sufficient evidence of god's
existence and/or that this would not be
a
>> disaster for humanity and
transhumanists in particular.
>
>I take it that an atheist in fact
asserts that gods do not and cannot
exist--a
>claim that cries out for positive
proof. But, again, most understandings
of
>theology deny that scientific methods
will suffice to resolve the question of
>god's existence. Scientists typically
agree that they have little to add to
>theological disputes. Defending
atheism thus take more than mere
rejection of
>theism; it calls for the sort of proof
that, ex hypothesis, cannot obtain.
>
>I used to think myself an
atheist--until I decided that even
denying the
>existence of gods gives too much credit
to theology. I now cheerfully admit
>ignorance about whether gods exist . .
. though that does not prevent me from
>theorizing about what I might make
possible.
>
>Tom
Hi Tom,
I enjoyed your response more than any
I've seen so far. It makes me happy to
know that people such as you live on
this planet. I sure would like to meet
you if you ever happen to find yourself
in Northern California, please stop by
(no kidding).
Cheers,
J R