Category Archives: Religion.

THE BEADY EYE ASKS. IS THE WORLD SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL ?

10 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2021. The year for change.,  Attention economy, Human Collective Stupidity., Human values., Humanity., Inequality, Olympic circus., OLYMPICS GAMES., Our Common Values., Poverty, Religion., Religious Beliefs., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN., THIS IS THE STATE OF THE WORLD.  , Truth, Unanswered Questions., We can leave a legacy worthwhile., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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(Twenty-minute read) 

 

To quote:

Stephen Hawking

“Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have not been content to see

events as unconnected and inexplicable. They have craved an understanding

of the underlying order in the world. Today we still yearn to know why we are

here and where we came from. Humanity’s deepest desire for knowledge is

justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less

than a complete description of the universe we live in.”

                                               —————–

Humans have – over time – developed a vast global network of social structures which

collectively organize the functioning of the entire species. 

But we remain unable to live in harmony either with each other and with nature, so we

all understand that on some levels that the world is spinning out of control and there’s

nothing we can do about it.

Why?

Because we have created a living system of greed/profit/ inequality/ and religious

beliefs that are now all but un-reversible and that will follow us where ever we go.

It has been the way of the world ever since the dawn of man that he who dominates is the one who controls.

About 85 percent of the world’s population identifies with a religious group.

Religion and humankind have gone hand in hand ever since the concept of a being and still, the fight for supremacy goes on:

Christianity, Daoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Buddhis, ISLAM, Santería, Hinduism, Vodou, Yoruba Religion, Cambomblé.

“When religion ruled the world it was called the Dark Ages”. 

“If you think it doesn’t still rule the world you’re kidding yourself.”

From fundamentalist terrorists to gay civil rights it seems religion still dictates people’s beliefs and therefore the laws that are put into place the world over.

Religions create unity, yes but they also create Separatism which we are becoming painfully aware that.

Although our religions gave us a starting place for thinking about how our world functions, they no longer serve us in that process; and in fact, have left a trail of destruction in their historic path.

The goal of Islam is to rule the entire world and submit all of mankind to the faith of Islam. The goal of Christianity was and still is similar without the need for Jihads.   

People need to stop using religion as a crutch for their conscience.

                                              ————

Back to the world spinning out of control.

It is not that the world itself is all of suddenly spinning on its axis, it is us who are still unable to live with each other in a sustainable respectful manner that is spinning out of control.  

However, those of us who recently watched the Para Olympics and the closing ceremony in Japan surely realize that the world we live in is connected in more ways than one.

By now, we’re all familiar with the tech world circle-jerk about how we’re connecting the planet and the world is getting smaller and we’re all becoming one big kumbaya global community and how this is amazing because starving babies in Mozambique and Suriname can each have their own iPad, and blah, blah, blah, the internet is cool.

On the other hand, we have also witnessed the tragedies of current wars affecting the world and people in the future.

People will probably point to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the inflection point where the US began its slow descent from global dominance.

That the American Dream is now essentially just another form of what psychologists call “The Just World Hypothesis.”American Dream Homeless Man

                                           ————————

Don’t get me wrong, the rise of the internet and social media has accelerated social progress in many ways.

By nearly every objective measure, the world is a better place than it has ever been in modern history.

So why doesn’t it feel that way?

Could it be that a transition of power is soon to happen?

It is an old saying that knowledge is power and if so our world is rapidly becoming a world driven by the power of data. 

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until  2021.  That’s something like five exabytes of data.

While technology is neutral, people are not ready for what’s coming.

Technology might be giving a chance for humans to maintain their presence but without education that imparts knowledge, it is inevitable, that those who indirectly or directly have the data will control power in the world. 

                                          ———————-

This is both good and bad.

Because outrageous news and information spread faster and further than any other form of information, dominating our daily attention. 

On the one hand, we become aware of some of the grossest injustices in our society as soon as they happen. On the other hand, all we hear about are the grossest injustices in our society as soon as they happen.

The sickest and most grotesque finds its way to the top of the nation’s consciousness, dominating our attention and the news cycle, dividing and recruiting us into its ever more polarized camps.

But the world isn’t worse.

It’s just that we’re more aware of all of the bad things than ever before.

Cameras, the internet, and most importantly, social media. This is what’s new.

                                         ———————-

In the attention economy, people are rewarded for extremism.

Thomas Davenport, a professor and former researcher at McKinsey and Accenture, wrote a book called Attention Economy in 2001.

In it, he wrote “As the theory of the economics of attention, user’s attention is a scarce resource that multiple information competes for. With the development of the Internet, especially the explosion of online social media, netizens (online citizens) receive redundant messages from various online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and online forums, which results in extremely severe information overload problem”

So in the attention economy, anyone trying to connect with an audience must treat the user’s time as the ultimate resource.

For example: 

The idea is that many products work together so people never have to leave the ecosystem because it has everything you need.

Attention in technology is the currency in the double-sided marketplace of consumer products.

The seller gives access to technologies (apps, social media, digital products) in exchange for the buyer (users/people) spends their time and attention to access products.

Everyone online seems to solicit our attention, how do we decide who to give it to?

People have a limited amount of attention to spend and as attempts are made to control the spending of attention a person’s willpower diminishes.

So should we be asking  “Are products giving enough in return for the attention they take?” Should all tech companies be paying us for the data they collect and sell rather than we value your privacy or this site contains cookies. 

While social media platforms and TV stations are rewarded for indulging their worst biases and stoking other people’s worst fears. They are rewarded for portraying the world as a place that is burning to the ground, whether it’s because of the Taliban, or police violence, or Islamic terrorism, or low interest rates. 

And this constant awareness of every fault and flaw of our humanity, combined with an inundation of doomsayers and narcissistic nihilists commanding our attention space, is what is causing this constant feeling of a chaotic and insecure world that doesn’t actually exist. 

We are going crazy?

Each one of us, individually, capsized in the flood of negativity, we are ready to burn down the very structures on which the most successful civilizations in human history have been built. Exaggerating all that is wrong and minimizing all that is right.

It’s for this reason that I’ve started to remove myself from digesting news and information through social media. Nothing will replace face-to-face interaction.

Ever since the dawn of time; this has never been more true than today no!

                                       ————————

Freedom can only exist when you are willing to tolerate views that oppose your own when you’re willing to give up some of your desires for the sake of a safe and healthy community when you’re willing to compromise and accept that sometimes things don’t go your way and that’s fine.

In a weird sense, true freedom doesn’t exist.

Because the only way for human rights to persist is for everyone to collectively agree to accept that things don’t have to go their way 100% of the time.

A free and functioning democracy demands a populace that can sustain discomfort, that can tolerate dissatisfaction, that can be charitable and forgiving of groups whose views stand in contrast to one’s own, and most importantly, that can remain unswayed in the face of some violent threat.

In a culture where your worth as a human being is tied to your level of socioeconomic success, this can’t be achieved. 

By the time you reach adolescence, you are subjected to live’s first traumas and failures. You recognize that the world isn’t fair. Things go wrong sometimes. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. And in many ways, you’re not as great as you had always thought or believed.

Other teenagers, particularly teenagers who are pampered and learn most of what they know about the world through TV or the internet, don’t handle it so well.

The world doesn’t conform to their small-minded belief system and instead of blaming the belief system, they blame the world. And that blaming doesn’t turn out well for anybody.

That things are not just. That we cannot fully control our destiny.

The question is how well we will adapt and mature to this new reality.

Will we accept it and modify our ethos to match the 21st century?

Or will we become petulant and angry and scapegoat the cognitive dissonance of our national consciousness away?

Viewing every opportunity in front of you as something you’re going to fail at before you even try. This is because you have low self-esteem and your attitude and beliefs are only going to perpetuate it.

It’s time to let go and rise above the outdated and cruel exploits of our past that we inherited from our ancestors, and realize that the early misinterpretations of our world do not have to define the future of humanity.

It has long ceased to amaze me what humans are capable of doing to each other, but working together makes anything possible. 

We have reached a time in our history where the misunderstandings of the past must be reconciled and the truth about the origins of our early beliefs must be revealed.

It’s time that our world’s religions face the tragic horrors of their past and make honest progression towards love and kindness for all of humanity.

Finally: 

The present state of the planet is not going to change because all of a sudden we are all beating our chests chanting Maya cupula May cupula. 

It is not going to change because we all agreed it has to be in a forthcoming Climate change conference. It is not going to change because we wish it to do so. 

Actions are the only way it has any hope of changing.  These are enormous and will take years if not decades to achieve.

But here is one action that could be achieved in your lifetime.   

As we witness in both the Para Olympics and the Olympics competition is a gift and as a gift, it is given unconditionally, with nothing expected in return.

Although the Olympics and the Para Olympics shine a light on what is best in humanity’s endeavors, it suffers from the backdrop of a world full of poverty, inequality, and the like. With countries spending millions to host the games or allocating funds to win gold medals when these funds could be used to alleviate foodbanks, social care, health care, etc.  

This unnecessary enormous cost of staging the games could be wiped out if the Olympic Games were permanently held in the country of their origins Greece.  

There is no reason that the countries of the world could not build a permanent Olympic stadium in Greece. 

Such a move would save 3.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) = equal to the annual emissions from about a million cars.

Even setting aside the carbon footprint question it would scrap the bigger-is-better ethos that cities still cling to when they find themselves on the global stage. Which in most cases up to now leave behind multipurpose, venues that become useless eyesores after the games conclude.

We need a radical rethink of how the games are run if we want them to be compatible with our definition of sustainability. 

The green games for a blue planet could be established permanently In Greece.   

How do we get to net-zero emissions?

This question will define the global economy for the next century.

All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: NOW THAT YOU ARE IN LOCK DOWN WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKE LIFE WORTH LIVING?

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Digital age., Digital Friendship., Disconnection., Human values., Humanity., Life., Lock Down., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Post-Covid-19, Reality., Religion., Religious Beliefs., Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World

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(Five-minute read)

I know it’s a heavy question, but now perhaps it is one of the most important questions we all have to answer in the future. 

It can be tough to notice all the amazing things that life has to offer.

Can we be satisfied with the successful pursuit of love, work, and play?

A fulfilling life can be elusive, as there aren’t any concrete factors that truly determine whether or not a person has truly found happiness. Satisfaction often yields happiness, but even the pursuit is enough to give life meaning.

For me, it is sharing that gives life meaning. 

Active listening by taking your friend’s feelings into account when making a decision and phasing out people who introduce stress or negative feelings out of your life.

The successes of your friends are important and worthy of celebrating.

Get to know them.

Find value in what you do. I.E. finding a job that aligns with your personal passions. It’s important to find a line of work that offers the amount of freedom you feel is necessary and appropriate. Accomplishing something of value.

Obsessing over past failures can’t change what happened. The opinions of others carry only as much weight as you allow them to.

Giving back. Find a cause you are passionate about and donate to it, volunteer your time, or offer your support in some way.

Remember that your strengths are a big part of what makes you great.

Forgiving can be among the hardest things to master, as often it’s the things that hurt the most that are most in need of forgiveness.

Remember, life is always worth living and there are people out there that can help.

It’s about the relationships we create, develop, support and maintain with people, colleagues, friends, and members of our family. Every person we meet adds invaluable experience to our life. Even the most complicated relationships we find ourselves in teaching us something worthwhile.

The answer rests in the ability to create, to dream and to strive to turn those dreams into reality. It’s all about big and small achievements when we prove ourselves being able to push the limits away. It’s about discovering the depths of your unlimited potential. 

By accepting what is going on and what happened, we release ourselves from oppressive judgments and wishes for things to pan out differently.

Enjoy all the little things, and with the time you will discover their profound meaning and that they weren’t little after all.

One thing that makes life more fulfilling and worth living are really connecting with the world around us. Nature. 

Religious faith may be reassuring, but science cannot objectively tell someone whether they should adhere to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or some other religion. It cannot even tell an individual what version of Christianity (Catholic, Baptist, Morman, etc.) or Islam (Shia or Sunni) they ought to adopt. Hence, religion and vague spiritual ideas—such as “everything happens for a reason”—can not provide an evidence-supported basis for living.

But most people, fortunately, can find lots of reasons to value their lives. 

Time does not stand still for anybody so perhaps Boris Johnston Priminster after his Coronavirus experience now realizes that sharing is what makes life go around and not get Brexit done.

One thing that makes life more fulfilling and worth living are really connecting with the world around us. If you consider your most precious memories they are probably with other people when you were doing something beyond your personal satisfaction.

Living a full, meaningful and thriving life comes down to being engaged in the world around us, not in virtual reality.

All human comments appreciated. All lie clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: IN THESE DAY OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT WHAT IS WORSHIP

14 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Humanity., Life., Our Common Values., Reality., Religion for a digital age., Religion., The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., WHAT IS TRUTH

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(Seventeen-minute read)

The truth is we can’t be quite sure.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the bible"

Since the beginning of human history, worship has played a central role in people’s lives.

The day of humanity worshipping the sun has long gone and the threat of an all-powerful God (or gods) watching for anyone who steps out of line might have helped to keep order in ancient societies, but this is not so in modern today societies.

There is no question but that the progress of the internet into people’s lives is having a profound effect on human culture.

We all agree that something new is taking shape. Many regard this as a form of salvation while others see this as yet another fall.

The developers of nuclear weapons, space exploration and artificial intelligence may be propelled by religious desires, but they are sustained by military financing and the results of their labours are more powerful governments, a more pernicious status quo, and a more preeminent elite of technocrats.

Another words TECHNOLOGY IS TURNING US INTO AUDIENCES.

So what is the reality behind this word worshipping in a world that is being driven more and more by Algorithms feeding off each other?

We are allowing algorithms to progressively restrict our decision-making capacity in ways we don’t notice.

There is not the room here to exam every aspect of worship but let’s try to look with a free-thinking mind at it from the perspective of the three main existing religions.

When one looks at the world I wonder how much this “religion for life” still exists or will exist which binds wounds and ties the fragmented and diverse bits of our lives together.

These days “Worship” might be the word someone chooses when trying to describe a particular sound or style of music so we will attempt to look at it from the point of view of the three main religions.

Religion, it seems, comes from the Latin “re-ligere”, which has to do with “tying” and “binding” which is exactly what our global monopolism like Google/Facebook and there like are trying their best to achieve.

We have experts in worship. We have books on worship. We have seminars and teaching on how to conduct worship. We have the latest state of the art audio and projection systems in churches. We no longer need hymn books. It’s all on the screen or screens before us. We have well-trained worship teams to lead us. Worship abounds in evangelical churches.

Yet, in all of this are we pleasing God? Is he the centre of our worship?

The days that worship is God’s idea are numbered.

The days that it is what he created us to do, are going.

Worship has become all about us our tablets or whatever shiny piece of kit you carry around with you and can’t stop checking every five minutes is making religion less and less to do with everyday life.Picture

We now have a limited and even incomplete view of what worship truly is all about.

True worship should have the proclamation of the Word of God at its centre and everything else should take their place behind it.

Worship is first and foremost exaltation.

Biblical worship, then, involves exalting God above all other objects.

But why do we witness widespread enchantment with technology and at the same time, a worldwide resurgence of religious fundamentalism has occurred?

The chances of the technology itself becoming religious on its own remain farcical.

However, the enthusiasm so many people have with technology is often rooted — sometimes unknowingly — in religious myths and ancient dreams.

This is unfortunate because technology has proven itself capable of causing terrible problems for humanity, and one of the reasons for this may be the religious impulses people are ignoring.

For a thousand years in Western culture, the advancement of the mechanical arts — technology — has been inspired by deep religious desires of transcendence and redemption. This is no longer applies as the promise of transcending nature, our bodies, our human natures, our lives, our deaths, our history, etc, is increasing as fast as the ice is melting.

If you don’t recognize and understand how religious and technological transcendence have developed together, you’ll never be able to successfully counter them — much less recognize when they might be developing within you as well.

Today, the religious impulses underlying technological advancement take two general forms: using explicit religious doctrines, particularly Christianity, to explain why technology should be pursued and using religious imagery of transcendence and redemption removed from traditional religious doctrines but without their losing any motivating power.

Although currently obscured by secular language and ideology, the contemporary resurgence of religion, even fundamentalism, alongside and hand-in-hand with technology is thus not an aberration but simply the reassertion of a forgotten tradition.

Artificial Intelligence with its algorithms is an attempt to divorce thinking from the human mind.

The human brain becomes nothing more than a “meat machine” and the body as a “bloody mess of organic matter.

When it comes to life, only the “mind” is really important.

Intelligent machines would provide humanity with “personal immortality by mind transplant” and that this would be a “defence against the wanton loss of knowledge and function that is the worst aspect of personal death.

What is worship all about? Who is worship all about?Technology vs. Religion

“Worship” in the title of a project is an effective marketing tool that often boosts sales.

The verb “to worship” is mentioned in the Quran 106 times in the Bible 25 times!

In Hebrew you have Shachah means “to bow down, prostrate”; abad: “to serve.”

In Greek, you have proskuneo and latreuo, which mean “to kiss the hand kneeling” and “to serve, minister to” respectively.

In the Quran, which literally means the ‘oft-repeated,’ worship involves every aspect of life. Worship is the very purpose of existence. It does not require a person to enter a place of worship nor embrace monasticism.

However, for an action to be regarded as worship, it must be performed with the pure intention of pleasing God. So God sent Muhammad as His final messenger to humankind is revealed in the Quran, God’s last scripture.

It must be noted here that while Muslims esteem all of the prophets sent by God, including Jesus and Muhammad, they do not worship any of them. In fact, worshipping anyone besides the One God is strictly prohibited in Islam.

Therefore, the concept of worship in Islam encompasses not only the outward religious duties, but also the development of a strong moral character, good relations with people, and striving for just and harmonious societies.

Salvation in Islam like Christianity is connected with doing good deeds and refraining from bad ones.  

However, worship in religious terms blurs the line between ‘religious’ and ‘worldly,’ because practically any action can become spiritual in nature and is rewarded by God.

For example, nearly all religions indicate that what the human being worships is not necessarily what he says he worships but is what or whoever occupies his mind most of the time.

For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false.

The Arabic word “ALLAH”  contains a deep religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the Arabic verb ta’allaha (or alaha), which means “to be worshipped”. Thus in Arabic, the word “ALLAH” means “The One who deserves all worship”. This, in a nutshell, is the Pure Monotheistic (one) message of Islam.

Another words worship is exclusive to Allah, who is the only one able to accept it, or not.

On the Allah side of worship, he has 99 different names, but any form made up in the mind that ascribe any form to Allah is absolutely against the guidance and teachings of Islam.

While in the Christian side there are millions of images to concentrate on when worshipping.

What image should come into your mind when you hear the name of Allah?Is Allah God? (Bible and Quran comparison)

Allahu Akbar: “Literally “God is great” in Arabic. Should be a phrase that is no more troubling than when you hear a Christian saying “Thank God.

Unfortunately, it is now a term coined by terrorists and is the biggest act of heresy to shout God’s glorious name when committing the worst crime against God.

We mustn’t allow terrorists or agendas of fear to own any of the words, concepts, or devotions found in the sacred text of a quarter of the world’s population. That would give them exactly what they want. And God is far greater than the ugliness committed in His name. “Allahu Akbar…”

In Hinduism, God has the ability to manifest into any kind of form and shape. There is only one Supreme God which exist at two different levels of reality.

We must take a long, hard look at ourselves and answer honestly:

Are we looking to technology to escape the human condition with all its problems and disappointments? Or are we instead looking to enhance the human condition, flaws, and imperfections notwithstanding?

When an ideology, a religion, or a technology is pursued the purpose of escaping the human condition where problems and disappointments are a fact of life, then it shouldn’t be at all surprising when those human problems are not really solved, when human needs are not entirely met, and when new problems are produced.

And even if we lose sight of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu gods and all the rest, superstitions and spiritualism will almost certainly still prevail.

As soon as we found ourselves facing an ecological crisis, a global nuclear war or an impending comet collision, the gods would emerge.

The world must evolve to reach maturity. And the work of God will be accomplished in this evolution.

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS: WILL THERE BE A PLACE FOR GOD IN THE SINGULARITY.

15 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Artificial Intelligence., Humanity., Life., Religion., Technology, The Future, Unanswered Questions.

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( A seven minute read)

In a recent post I asked if artificial intelligence is the breaking point for Capitalism.

We have low-grade artificial intelligence systems today; But that’s nothing compared to what we can expect in the future.

Assuming global trends continue might religion someday disappear entirely?

What might happen when superintelligence bumps into religion.

Ancient scriptures from various religions say virtually nothing about science and technology, and what they do say about them is usually wrong. People interpret their religious scriptures, revelations, and beliefs in all sorts of ways.Afficher l'image d'origine

The fact is that the authors of ancient scriptures in all religious traditions obviously knew nothing of modern science.

We need to start by understanding where we are headed and prepare for the changes.

As we progress down the road toward an autonomous economy, human labor becomes obsolete and the world economic production goes on auto-pilot.

However, that not only fundamentally changes the political paradigm but the religious one as well.

In the current paradigm, Capital/labor are necessary now because we are bound inside of the labor/survival paradigm. If that relationship changes, that paradigm ceases to exist and something new emerges.

So can we expect the need for religion to disappear as a real-life god—our near perfect moral selves—symbiotically commune with us.

When you think about it, trying to wrap your brain around how digital technology and all its wonders are even possible is simply bizarre.

Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population understand such things in any depth. And an even smaller amount of people actually know how to design and create the microchips, circuit boards, and software that constitutes this stuff in the real world.

Human beings are a species dependent on a tech-imbued lifestyle that none of us really understand, but accept wholeheartedly as we go on endlessly texting, Facebook’s, and video conferencing.

.Azerbaijani Muslims pray at the end of Ramadan (Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Images)           A rabbi reads during Purim festivities (Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Images)              (Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Images)

Capitalism, access to technology and education also seems to correlate with a corrosion of religiosity in some populations. These countries feature strong educational and social security systems, low inequality and are all relatively wealthy. “Basically, people are less scared about what might befall them.

Today’s technology revolutions are happening within years. It may well create a few intellectually challenging jobs, but we won’t be able to retrain the workers who lose today’s jobs. They will experience the same unemployment and despair that their forefathers did.

It is they who we need to worry about.

As climate change wreaks havoc on the world in coming years and natural resources potentially grow scarce, then suffering and hardship could fuel religiosity.

Expect a much more utopian society for whatever social structures end up existing in virtual reality and cyberspace.

But even if the world’s troubles were miraculously solved and we all led peaceful lives in equity, religion would probably still be around.

Human beings naturally want to believe that they are a part of something bigger, that life isn’t completely futile. Our minds crave purpose and explanation.

The tension between technology and the human soul dates all the way back to the Old Testament. Religion is not only a belief system it’s a power, to be used for good or evil, as it clearly has been used for both historically.

Religion already isn’t benign, and any religion worthy of a superintelligence certainly would be even less so.

There are no laws or rules in computer science that would make it impossible for software to hold a religious belief.

Religious superintelligence may be either the best or the worst kind of superintelligence—sublimely compassionate or horribly oppressive.

The question is will our belief in God accompany us into the future.

No gods will save us from Artificial Intelligence, so will there be some level of consciousness that is not associated with biological life.

The technological marvel of uploading minds and consciousness into a cyber environment and then connecting all the minds together may preclude humans from expressing humanity.

It’s just impossible to digest the very real fact that a super-advanced intelligence is growing through us and out of us and its initial sprouts look like technology.

I fear one that is indifferent to us.

This raises the question of what it’s like to be superintelligent, or in other words, how alive you would feel as one.

A superintelligent machine would likely be more conscious than we are, in that it would build a more elaborate model of reality and its consciousness would be composed of more feedback loops than we have in our own brains.

Shouldn’t we be trusting it to tell us what religion is real?

If a computer is 10,000 times smarter than a human, then won’t it already have deduced with certainty which, if any, religion is true?

Humans will attempt to persuade machines to just about all of our vying ideas, and machines will do the same in return. There will be new and unfamiliar forms of interaction enabled by whatever technological interfaces become available, such as brain-to-computer interfacing. Creating a technical incompatibility between machine intelligence and religious beliefs, but humans are already proof of concept.

I do think we can identify some limits to the possibility space of intelligence in general, based on logic and physics, but religiosity remains clearly within the possibility space.

It’s worth pointing out, perhaps, that some of us conceive of religion too narrowly to account for how it’s actually functioned from deep history to the present, and a strong case can be made that transhumanists often (but not always) manifests itself as a religion, even if misrecognized. Religious transhumanists tend to associate with emerging and future technology risks and opportunities.

I do not believe that we will see one single superintelligence, but many that will be interacting—a race of AI beings.

Once the AI becomes cognizant of the depth of its knowledge, operating capacity, speed, and even potential physical manipulation, the AI will choose a path for its continued existence that may preclude the existence of religion or for that matter man.

I fear it could produce one that is indifferent to us, and from that indifference produces actions that break the line of human life that extends back to the first life on Earth.

Religion will probably never go away. Religion, whether it’s maintained through fear or love, is highly successful at perpetuating itself. Even if we lose sight of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu gods and all the rest, superstitions and spiritualism will almost certainly still prevail.

If we can develop the economic structures necessary to distribute the prosperity we are creating, most people will no longer have to work to sustain themselves.

They will be free to pursue other creative endeavors. The problem, however, is that without jobs, they will not have the dignity, social engagement, and sense of fulfillment that comes from work. The life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that the constitution entitles us to won’t be through labor, it will have to be through other means.

There are two kinds of truths; the relative truth that appeals to certain masses but not to all, and the absolute truth which can also be regarded as the universal truth.

For most people, religiousness falls under the first category while spirituality is considered as the absolute truth.

You may practice everything like your forefathers did, but it will not be a source of peace and satisfaction till you are aware about your own realities as an inhabitant of life!

We need work to mitigate the risks while pursuing the opportunities.