On 06 Dec 2014, at 10:37, LizR wrote:
On 6 December 2014 at 19:25, Samiya Illias <[email protected]>
wrote:
On 06-Dec-2014, at 11:15 am, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote:
On 12/5/2014 9:56 PM, Samiya Illias wrote:
On 06-Dec-2014, at 10:25 am, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote:
On 12/5/2014 3:16 AM, Samiya Illias wrote:
As a person who takes the Quran literally, I'm not at all
surprised as it is stated that the ancients had been given much
more, and we haven't been given a tenth of what they had.
Samiya
Well then you must be surprised that our computers are much
faster and more accurate than the ancients.
That's an assumption
It's much less of an assumption than the assumption that the
ancients were given a superior calculator, since the ankythera
device has been reproduced and tested and found to be less accurate
than astronomical calculations by modern digital computers.
So why aren't you surprised that Allah's gift to the ancients is
inferior, contrary to the revelation of the Quran?
Look at all the ruins of the ancient civilizations - you think they
were inferior?
That's a curious question. The ruins and record indicate that there
was no ancient civilisation that had anything like the knowledge or
resources of modern day technology. For example, no ancient
civilisation discovered the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power.
One could argue that these things aren't in fact good for modern
civilisation, but since we don't know how things will work out that
would be presumptuous.
For the nuclear resources, I follow you. For the use of petrol (dead
plants), arguments (in favor of Hemp, 'course) already mentioned that
it was not sustainable, and that it would disrupt life equilibrium in
the middle run (a point made already by Henry Ford).
However, we can almost certainly say that no civilisation prior to
ours measured the age of the universe to an accuracy of around 1%,
or discovered DNA, or was able to prolong life through medicine and
surgery, or could cure mental conditions through the use of
synthetic drugs, or construct buildings a kilometer high, or fly, or
explore the Moon and planets, or discovered the nature of matter, or
invented recorded sound, images and TV and films, or intelligent
machines, or reliable contraception, or machines able to free the
population from everyday household drudgery, or the ability to feed
billions of people, or have lights and heat available at night and
all the year round, or send messages almost instantly around the
world...
(...how long have you got?)
The fact is, all but the poorest people in the Western world has
things that would have been unimaginable to the richest people of
the ancient world. I would say that this does make our civilisation
superior in important ways;
It makes us more competent, but plausibly less intelligent.
I would certain prefer to be alive now than even 100 years ago.
May be. May be not. It is very hard to evaluate. There are no absolute
point of comparison. People from that period might get very depressed
if living in our urban cities for a while.
Indeed 100 years ago the routine gall bladder surgery I had a couple
of years ago would have probably killed me (always assuming I'd
survived childhood illnesses, childbirth and so on).
We are better for the survival, but we might be astonished for the
quality of life, even of the poors. It is very hard to judge. We have
much more depression and suicides, we have much more elderly people
abandoned by their family. We have much more fake conviviality and
superficial happiness. We have new fears and new subject of despair
(like atomic bombs, pollution, prohibition, ...). I just mean that I
am not completely persuaded that the technological progresses made us
more happy. The 20th century has also been a peak of inhumanity,
notably through genocide, very cruel wars, including the cold one,
rise of unemployment, etc. So I am not sure, I dunno, may be we can't
really answer this.
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.
