I fear that the more likely scenario will be the destruction of the human race by religious fanatics. We see the evidence of this every day with Islamic suicide bombers. They are taught to believe that they will immediately go to heaven and be with their god, and at the same time, reserve places there for their families. Even the mothers of suicide bombers give them encouragement to do so and make their families proud of the ?good deed? they will do.

Once self-replicating nanotechnology becomes readily available, in the next 30 to 50 years or so, much like cheap computers are now available everywhere, it isn?t much of a leap for the Islamic religious fanatics to be releasing a form of this technology on the world that will consume all life on Earth. They will have done the ultimate ?good deed? by sending all infidels to hell, or wherever infidels are supposed to go to, and all the ?good? Islamists to heaven to live there in splendor for all eternity.

Bill Joy, cofounder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, wrote an article titled ?Why the Future Doesn?t Need Us? for Wired magazine that appeared in the April 2000 issue. In it he addressed new technologies like nanotechnology and the resulting dangers facing us in this century. Joy was alarmed and appealed for caution in how these new technologies are developed.

Unfortunately, I believe even if all responsible governments put stringent curbs on these technologies, they will still be developed by rogue governments or groups such as al-Qaeda. I think it is going to take a lot of vigilance to monitor what is going on in developments such as self-replicating nanotechnology because of the threat by religious fanatics.

I am definitely not against new technologies and am, in fact, a strong proponent for technological advancements. And it wouldn?t matter one bit if I or anyone else were opposed to new technology development. It is still going to happen.

What must be controlled is religious fanaticism. What we need now is a ?magic bullet? to bring the religious affected to their senses as they were before being brainwashed with religion. We need to somehow have the insanity of religious belief done away with. We are in the 21st century; there is absolutely no longer a need for mythological religious beliefs.

I think religious fundamentalism will, eventually, fade away. As I’ve said before, the uprising (if you will) of atheists today should serve as evidence that the end is in sight. It means that people’s minds are changing away from the lifestyle that has been mainstream for so many years.

And remember: As dangerous technology makes advances, so does defensive technology.

Finally, I would also like to extend my condolences to everyone affected by the attacks in Britain.

Obviously you just don’t get it. One does not have to believe in a deity or deities to be religious. Religion is at it’s most basic component, a world view. Now I am very surprised to see athiests show such compassion for such an event as this. Your religion says that life has no purpose or meaning and that we are reorganized stardust, yet these victims lives of this horrible event all of a sudden have value? Talk about hyprocrocy! I realize events such as this give people like you an opportunity take shallow jabs at all people who put there faith and hope in god, but please don’t equate islam to christianity as so many ignorant people do. Mohammad’s actions were the direct opposite of those of christs.
I also get quite irritated at those who mock creationism. Ones belief in life’s divine origins is not going to retard their learning in biology and genetics. Either way, if I believe in darwinism or creationism, it is not going to effect my learning on how the human body works and how cells divide, and how to prevent (or kill) cancer. This is just another tactic used by evolutionary zealots to try and scare the gullable public into stearing clear of the subject.

I don’t know why I’m even wasting my
time typing this because I am sure it will get deleted. Otherwise flame me, I don’t care.

Steve Hanson
PE, Structural Engineer.

I don?t consider myself to be a philosopher or a doomsayer, that is, under normal circumstances. But when it comes to religion and the future of humankind, I tend to be a bit pessimistic. I hope you also are right and religious fundamentalism, and the irrational fanatics, do eventually fade away. I fear, though, that we are running out of time and the fanatics will win.

Although, religion in Europe is fading, it seems to me that in the U.S. there has not been too great a change over the last few decades. And if there has been a change, it may be illusory. Many years ago when I was young, atheism was pretty much in the closet. Now as atheism is becoming more accepted (I think), atheist are coming out and declaring their atheism.

So whether there are less religionist now (in the U.S.) than there used to be I?m not so sure. Also it seems that Islam is a fast growing religion. I don?t have specific data on any of this and I?m too lazy to look it up right now.

When it comes to religion, we cannot passively sit back, put our heads in the sand and be optimistic and hopeful that everything is going to just work out. Religion is not a benign concept. Religion has proven itself through the ages to be very evil and dangerous and its radical followers not hesitant to kill in the name of a god. In fact, there are passages in the Bible and the Koran that tell its followers it is their duty to kill nonbelievers. Religion is not the kind, peaceful organization it is made out to be.

With new technologies around the corner, religious fanatics will have devastating means at their disposal to wreak all kinds of havoc. Radical Islamic ideologies may come from the Dark Ages, but they are quick to latch onto and make use of new technologies.

I really don?t know if there is anything we can do about it, but I feel we must somehow be proactive and not go through life with blinders, letting religion consume us.

Finally, I believe that the great majority of the religious are well intentioned, just deceived and misinformed. It?s the radical few that are truly dangerous, and it only takes one to do great damage.

Welcome to the world of rational reality.

You may be surprised to see atheist express compassion, but that is quite the norm rather than an exception. We are compassionate, we care about others, we care about the world, and we are quite moral, we just don?t share some of your morals, e.g., where a god is concerned.

You also have a misconception about atheists having a religion. We simply have a disbelief in gods; no more, no less. True, we are reorganized stardust, but we do have a purpose, like all life on Earth, and that is to procreate and continue the species; nothing more, nothing less.

Hypocrisy is virtually nonexistent in atheism. But hypocrisy runs rampant in religion, i.e., those Christians that on a daily basis disobey the Ten Commandments to which they are supposedly committed, or Islamists disobeying the teaching of the Koran.

Also, we do put a lot of credence in evolution. It is one of the most well established principles of science, whereas creationism has absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support it.

Being a professional engineer, you obviously are an intelligent person. Why do you believe in your god even though there is no evidence to support your belief and yet there is a mountain of evidence to support science that contradicts what your religion teaches?

You are a better person than I am. When a ridiculous remark like: ‘Your religion says that life has no purpose or meaning and that we are reorganized stardust, yet these victims lives of this horrible event all of a sudden have value?’ is made I can’t even respond, I tend to assume that there is no way to deal with ignorance and shy away.

I also agree that we will not see the human race abandon religion in our lifetimes or anytime in the near future. World population has doubled in our lifetime and practically ALL of the increase has been in the poor ‘developing’ countries where religious fanaticism is most prevalent. Even in the civilized world, religious conservatives do and always have had more children than the non-religious.

I am afraid that, by sheer weight of numbers, we will shrink away. I hope I’m wrong.

I’m new to posting, but have been reading here for a few weeks. Lot’s of great discussion, on very important topics.

joelwe,

You’re forgetting one of the most important aspects of being an atheist. Evolution. I hope the fact that we are increasing our population, at an ever increasing rate, will only serve to further our evolution away from theistic beliefs. Just look at the number of people in here who once believed in a god and now are non-believers. Several even grew up in religious households. That makes me feel good to know people have the intelligence to look beyond and find the truth for themselves despite the attempted brainwashing they endured growing up.

ionfield,

Well put. You deserve a round of applause for what you said to Steve. He obviously has no clue what an atheist is, just what theist groups keep force feeding him. We are compassionate because that is human nature, and has nothing to do with a belief in a god. Bravo!