On 05 Sep 2014, at 22:41, meekerdb wrote:
On 9/5/2014 12:18 PM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 02 Sep 2014, at 19:40, meekerdb wrote:
On 9/2/2014 9:40 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 25 Aug 2014, at 21:04, meekerdb wrote:
Bostrom says, "If humanity had been sane and had our act
together globally, the sensible course of action would
be to postpone development of
superintelligence until we figured out how to do so safely. And
then maybe wait another generation or two just to make sure that
we hadn't overlooked some flaw in our reasoning. And then do it
-- and reap immense benefit. Unfortunately, we do not have the
ability to pause."
But maybe he's forgotten the Dark Ages. I think ISIS is working
hard to produce a pause.
I agree. ISIS, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, etc.
It is not Islam, in my current opinion, but I read the Hamas
chart, and, well, I have only read one half of the Quran for now,
and it is hard to interpret (I do think the hamas is inconsistent
with the surrah of the poets and the surrah of the table), but I
read entirely "mein kampf", and the chart of the hamas extends
mein kampf, and indeed those guys works hard and patiently to
produce a pause, may be one more millenium of obscurity.
Religion are like drug, the more you repress them, the more they
get solid. The christian era is already a consequence of the
attempt by the Romans to eradicate christianity from the empire,
we know the result.
I don't think that's right. The Romans were quite tolerant of
varied religions. It wasn't Roman repression that caused the
Christians to sack the Museum and murder Hypatia in Alexandria.
It was Christian intolerance and a drive to stamp out every
vestige of the Greek and Roman paganism - including their science
and art. Christian theologians emphasized faith; curiosity and
reason led to sin. You see the same fanaticism in the Taliban
and now ISIS.
Hypatia was murdered by Christians during a fight in between
Christians.
"During a fight" is misleading. It makes it sound incidental to the
feud between the governor Orestes (who was a Christian) and the
Christians community led by Cyril. According to what I've read
Hypatia was the deliberate target of a Christian mob incited by an
ally of Cyril and she was first kidnapped and then murder in the
most gruesome way by having her skin scraped off.
Although Orestes and Cyril were feuding, it was not a difference
between two Christian sects. Orestes, as the civil authority,
wanted to defend the Jews in Alexandria from the Christians led by
Cyril who wanted to drive them out.
Not just the jews, the christians too, and the (neo)platonists, like
Hypatia, too. Cyril was representing the "Hamas" or "ISIL" of the
time, who works hard to impose they own social-ruling interpretation
of christianity, and they will win, leading to the christian era.
Christians became the official religion of the roman empire, preceded
by years of christians and jews persecutions, but it ended also the
very rich variate forms of christianity.
In 300-400, christianism is in the course of being recuperate by
those who use "christinianity" to develop a christian states. They
were terrorists, or radicals, and soon exploited by the power in
place. The original christians seem to have been variated, and
sometimes well educated. Half of Hypatia's students in the course
on Plotinus and (neo)platonism were Christians. Many of them were
neo-platonists.
But that's the same "no true Scotsman" defense used to distance
every religion from the atrocities they inspire. I don't know who
the "original" Christians were, but the ones who founded the Church
(like Cyril who was sainted) were quite happy to destroy classical
pagan writings and emphasized faith as the only reliable source of
knowledge.
Like the communist did with Marx. All good or bad ideas can be
exploited by those who pervert them to get power. The problem is not
religion, the problem is the lack of genuine religion, or genuine
theological (re)search. If we were serious in the theological domain,
it would be known by everyone that theology is the domain where the
use of the argument per-authority is the *most* damageable. It is the
very idea of the blaspheme.
Brent
"I warn people not to seek for anything beyond what they came to
believe, for that was all they needed to seek for. In the last
resort, however, it is better for you to remain ignorant, for fear
that you come to know what you should not know.... Let curiosity
give place to faith, and glory to salvation. Let them at least be
no hindrance, or let them keep quiet. To know nothing against the
Rule [of faith] is to know everything."
--- Tertullian
Well, I would ask Tertullian what is it that I should not know.
Well, I am not sure. Could be risky. People can confuse my naivety
with provocation. That happens.
Bruno
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
send an email to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
