In a message dated 11/03/1999 12:13:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, cyberlee@earthlink.net writes:
> M. E. Smith wrote:
>
> > --- Jonathan Reeves <JonathanR@mail.iclshelpdesks.com>
> > wrote:
> > > "infinity" may be useful - "God" is not
> >
> > If "God" wasn't useful, people wouldn't use it.
>
> I guess we can say the same for war, child abuse, rape, torture, drugs,
> genocide, and devil worship. If they weren't useful people wouldn't use
> them. That doesn't make them a good thing just because idiots use them.
>
> Get a clue, the God concept is the most distructive concept ever
> unleased on man by man.
>
> Lee
If Extropianism or TransHumanism's basic tenant is merely atheism and an obsession with concepts of the deep future, I guess that it will have a self-limiting impact. Perhaps I am under-valuing its cultural significance; I know that Mr. Bard appeared on a prominent daytime chat show in Sweden (Bard identifies himself as a Zoroastrian). Playing Devil's Advocate I could say that the emphasis on material solutions to spiritual problems will never be solved by this World-View, that reduces humanity to nothing more then a mobile central nerbous system..and so forth.