Things You Consider to be 'True'

Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I really think there will never be racial/religious harmony.

Too many deep wounds, too many who will never look ahead, and too many playing it for fame/money.

"Peace on earth" is a nice ideal, but human nature will never let it happen.
 
  • Agree
  • Disagree
Reactions: Holdek, Linako 2.0, RepQuest and 2 others
nad7155 said:
Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I really think there will never be racial/religious harmony.

Too many deep wounds, too many who will never look ahead, and too many playing it for fame/money.

"Peace on earth" is a nice ideal, but human nature will never let it happen.
Click to expand...

I like to think people can at least learn and recognise the pattern and tactics of those who use the past to get what they want.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Holdek and Marvin
nad7155 said:
Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I really think there will never be racial/religious harmony.

Too many deep wounds, too many who will never look ahead, and too many playing it for fame/money.

"Peace on earth" is a nice ideal, but human nature will never let it happen.
Click to expand...
In the United States, I think racial harmony is being held back mostly by economic issues. I think those issues are being ground down slowly. We're not there yet, and continual vigilance is necessary, but we're constantly making gradual progress.

And religious conflicts aren't a big problem here. Religion occasionally interacts with politics, but I think that's more of a cultural thing about conservatives than something inherently tied to religion. (i.e. being a god-fearing person is a buzzword, like being tough on crime and wanting to kick out all the illegals)
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Tragi-Chan, DuskEngine and DirkBloodStormKing
nad7155 said:
That's the thing.

They don't.
Click to expand...
Eh, that's not really supported by the evidence.

People are always improving. It might not seem that way from a really close up view of things, but if you look at the big picture, humanity is very consistently improving.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Holdek
I think we are good at solving problems, but I also think we are great at not managing the unintended consequences of those problems. The problem of racial inequality will be solved eventually, however I do not think that the solution will be a linear one where we plan for X and Y happens, because other factors will confound the path from X to Y. We see that when there is political, social and economic solutions employed. It has been 51 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and we are where we are now. It has been almost 147 years since the ratification of the 14th Amendment and look where we are. It will take a lot of old white people dying out and a lot of young black people stepping up for there to be recognition and acceptance of equality to the point where change is engrained into the system.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dial M for Misgender
I very firmly believe that there is an inherent justice to the universe. Even if justice is not served immediately (or even within the lifetimes of those who have been wronged), all is eventually made right. This isn't quite the same as karma in my mind, as the fulfillment of justice doesn't always directly affect those who do evil, and is largely informed by my religious views.
 
  • Agree
  • Disagree
Reactions: Dial M for Misgender, hard2heart2heart and DirkBloodStormKing
CuriousBystander said:
As an atheist I believe there will always be religion and we should accept that. The point at which humanity is completely rid of superstition is the point when we cease to be completely human.
Click to expand...
The word human when used in that way is completely meaningless and can be safely replaced with aiguguru without any change in the meaning of the sentence
 
autisticdragonkin said:
The word human when used in that way is completely meaningless and can be safely replaced with aiguguru without any change in the meaning of the sentence
Click to expand...

I think the predisposition to belief is part of our DNA. What I'm basically saying is we'd be a different species (sub-species?) if 100% of us were atheists because you'd have to change a lot about the way our minds perceive reality. We might even be cyborgs by that point. Not that that's a bad thing.
 
  • Agree
  • Informative
Reactions: DuskEngine and autisticdragonkin
CuriousBystander said:
I think the predisposition to belief is part of our DNA. What I'm basically saying is we'd be a different species (sub-species?) if 100% of us were atheists because you'd have to change a lot about the way our minds perceive reality. We might even be cyborgs by that point. Not that that's a bad thing.
Click to expand...
I would say that yes what you are talking about is transhumanism but that transhumanism has existed for millenia beginning in its first recorded form in greek philosophy. By using empirical data to determine our beliefs among other things we have already become very distinct from the earlier humans perhaps enough to to consider it a sort of memetic speciation. We are already posthumans who have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are humans
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Dial M for Misgender
autisticdragonkin said:
I would say that yes what you are talking about is transhumanism but that transhumanism has existed for millenia beginning in its first recorded form in greek philosophy. By using empirical data to determine our beliefs among other things we have already become very distinct from the earlier humans perhaps enough to to consider it a sort of memetic speciation. We are already posthumans who have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are humans
Click to expand...

The majority of the human race is still religious. You're talking about a very small percentage of our species. Even among those with access to the internet and modern science the religious groups are still dominant.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: DuskEngine
CuriousBystander said:
The majority of the human race is still religious. You're talking about a very small percentage of our species. Even among those with access to the internet and modern science the religious groups are still dominant.
Click to expand...
But the vast majority of the human species are not hunter gatherers. The vast majority of the human species do function under a legal system. Definitely there are some humans which are more posthuman than others but virtually all of us are very different from when we were hunter gatherers in social organization
 
autisticdragonkin said:
But the vast majority of the human species are not hunter gatherers. The vast majority of the human species do function under a legal system. Definitely there are some humans which are more posthuman than others but virtually all of us are very different from when we were hunter gatherers in social organization
Click to expand...

What does being hunter gatherers have to do with being religious? Are you denying that there are religious people in 1st world countries? Or that the only people without internet access are hunter gatherers? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding. :\

Come to think of it I'm skeptical of your claim that we're already transhuman. On a genetic and anatomical level we're basically the same as our ancestors pre-agriculture. I think that our discoveries of domestication and farming may have altered our brains in that we have better access to nutrition but that's not really a genetic difference. It's just our bodies operating normally under the best possible conditions.
 
CuriousBystander said:
What does being hunter gatherers have to do with being religious? Are you denying that there are religious people in 1st world countries? Or that the only people without internet access are hunter gatherers? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding. :\

Come to think of it I'm skeptical of your claim that we're already transhuman. On a genetic and anatomical level we're basically the same as our ancestors pre-agriculture. I think that our discoveries of domestication and farming may have altered our brains in that we have better access to nutrition but that's not really a genetic difference. It's just our bodies operating normally under the best possible conditions.
Click to expand...
I said that we were memetically transhuman. That is that although we share the same biology (I will exclude the nutritional aspect) we have evolved ways of using it that are radically different in function. That is that we have moved past our original limitations through technologies such as writing and the state.


transhumanism.PNG
it says physical or mental limitations and we definitely have evolved beyond our mental limitations
also our physical limitations if you count medicine

EDIT: this has gone off from the original topic of religion completely
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Dial M for Misgender
autisticdragonkin said:
I said that we were memetically transhuman. That is that although we share the same biology (I will exclude the nutritional aspect) we have evolved ways of using it that are radically different in function. That is that we have moved past our original limitations through technologies such as writing and the state.


View attachment 36024
it says physical or mental limitations and we definitely have evolved beyond our mental limitations
also our physical limitations if you count medicine

EDIT: this has gone off from the original topic of religion completely
Click to expand...
I still don't think we can overcome religious thought without a radical change in the structre of our brains. We're pattern seeking creatures to a fault. We're also driven to conform and seek social bonds, even if doing so requries us to behave irrartionally, and most of us are prone to emotional pleas and manipulation. Atheists are vulnerable to it, too. That's why I believe there will always be religion as long as there is humanity as we know it.
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Dial M for Misgender
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back