(June 16, 2016 at 2:50 pm)Losty Wrote:

(June 16, 2016 at 2:39 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: That's further than I care to go.  I think its s presumptuous to assume that something like god belief which has been around everywhere and for as long as people have been recognizably people will just be educated away.  To truly be respectful of others and their right to believe what they will I can't.  That doesn't mean there is a shred of doubt regarding my non belief.  I can also specify particular aspects of god belief which I find ludicrous and which I don't at all respect.  But I won't carry that prejudice into every encounter I have with a religious person.  I wouldn't want to be someone who has to carry that every where I go.

I didn't mean we should teach people not to believe. I only meant the more we educate people (just normal education) it will die out.

You may disagree but I would say human beings are now more intelligent than they ever have been in the past. I also think we will only continue to become more intelligent.

Boy I sure can't see any reason to believe that.  I can't see any connection between breeding success and intelligence.  The opposite is probably more likely.  But education can improve I suppose.

Really so at some point we will just stop making new scientific discoveries? Revert back to thinking the earth is flat and the stars are magical fairies maybe?

Just look how close we are to electing Trump. I don't for a minute think science will stop making discoveries. I just don't think the general intelligence will go up as a result.

My problem with it is that it invariably erodes critical thinking and human rights, and it informs the decisions these people make...decisions which could affect me.

I do not care that it comforts them, or that they use charity work as a way to cram their message. The cost is just too high.

I'm a feelin a skedaddlen.

(June 16, 2016 at 10:57 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: People should be respected until they prove that they don't deserve it. Beliefs should not be respected until it's proved that they do deserve it.

People deserve to be respectfully beaten around the head with their own beliefs tied to a stick until they agree with me.

Pretty much what you said

(June 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Redbeard The Pink Wrote: My problem with it is that it invariably erodes critical thinking and human rights, and it informs the decisions these people make...decisions which could affect me.

I do not care that it comforts them, or that they use charity work as a way to cram their message. The cost is just too high.

I'm pretty sure they likewise don't care if you care.  Like us they probably don't make all their decisions with the goal of maximizing the peace of mind of people who think differently than they do.

I think we will evolve to get smarter unless we develop computers and phones that do all our thinking for us and become fully dependent on them, in which case we will very very slowly devolve in intelligence I think. In the end we may be hairless chimps on a planet protected by machines that provide us all our desires and needs in a virtual reality.

Brave New World springs to mind.

(June 16, 2016 at 3:57 pm)Alasdair Ham Wrote: I think we will evolve to get smarter unless we develop computers and phones that do all our thinking for us and become fully dependent on them, in which case we will very very slowly devolve in intelligence I think. In the end we may be hairless chimps on a planet protected by machines that provide us all our desires and needs in a virtual reality.

Brave New World springs to mind.

Provided they give me back rubs, turn me over occasionally and hand drinks with umbrellas .. okay.

Haha.

In this crazy world we live in, we need more intelligence.

In a world where we didn't need intelligence to remain safe and happy I would happily forgo it so everyone could be happy. Ultimately happiness > intelligence but the thing is in this world intelligence > dangerous stupidity.

If all stupidity was harmless and healthy I wouldn't have a problem with it.