You "DO" have it wrong brother. The end of atheism .... is hopelessness.

 

Political type editing and tampering Senormac ................ dangerous stuff.

Hopelessness, nah, reality yes. Happy clapping and hail marys and some preacher reiterating the same old garbage whilst the conregation hang on every word and shudder isn't reality. Religion never saved anyone from unemployment, redundancy or death and miracles, well, they are for the Walter Mitty land.

 

'It's interesting to consider that as much as artificial intelligence and robotics continue to make advances, 'they' are still unable to achieve a humanlike or human-level intelligence. Consciousness is non-computable and as Alan Perlis once remarked 'A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God'. He, of course, was inferring that a failure to create a conscious machine lends more weight to the argument that we all have an immortal soul.'

Reading a good book right now by Mark Stevenson titled 'An Optimist's Tour of the Future' - One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" I think you'd enjoy it Offroad - he's hilarious. A quote from the dust jacket:

'The past is a foreign country. By my analysis it's a bit like France - in that I've been to parts of it and eaten some nice food there. But the future? The future is an unknown territory - and there isn't a guidebook.'

I have additional copies if anyone is interested.. PM me and I will send you one (yes, I will even send it internationally Offroad). We could start a book club! lol...

 

Have you not been reading any of my links. The singularity is exactly that point when silicone generated intelligence surpasses that of carbon based beings. We are racing towards that point and will likely achieve it during the lifetime of most of the posters on this bulletin board.

 

On the brain, religion and spirituality, we've moved passed the notion of a god spot but one thing I find fascinating is that brain scans have shown tremendous interested in the frontal lobe. In fact, the thickness of the frontal lobe has been found to be thicker on religious or spiritual people than on skeptics. The question of practice comes up in a number of studies. You know, it's along the lines of the joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice. In other words, does the activity in the frontal lobe cause the enlargement or thickening of the lobe or is the the thickness that causes the drive towards spirituality.

Here are a few links to articles that got my interest up:

What Happens to the Brain During Spiritual Experiences? - The Atlantic

Brains, Spirituality, and Depression | Psychology Today

 

Senormac, I really get that you cannot wrap your head around a life that does not exist for the exulation of a supreme being but this kind of post really does little to advance your position.

It sounds like your nuns read you Kierkegaard when you were a kid and they only focused on the darker elements of his writing without ever mentioning the possibilities for fulfillment in leading a life of true authenticity.

 

Read them both Paul. Pretty good. Pretty interesting. Sounds like both articles agree that there are health benefits to having a connnection/belief in God that affects many different areas of their being. Depression being one of them. I love doctors. They are fighting sickness with everything they can from the flesh side of the equation.

 

Theoretically this looks like interesting studies albeit transcending my neuro comprehension somewhat. It is interesting that repetitiveness expands the receptors within the frontal lobe activity but I'm not sure what that actually means. I often wonder whether this 'practice' or 'repetitiveness' equates to a similarity to 'brainwashing'.

I have to declare that I cannot knowingly admit to ever 'meditating' about anything and to a greater extent I am, IMO, a low reactor and to a greater extent a rather 'cold fish' with little or no apparent external emotions, neither ebullient nor depressive. However, I am very intolerant and short tempered for which I am regularly criticised and also self critical inasmuch as I cannot abide those who fail to grasp ideas and concepts rapidly. As far as spirituality, it has been and is something that never figures on my radar, to me the science of everything is either black or white, no shades of grey.

In stating that those who have religious and spritiual beliefs are less likely to be 'depressed' I find extraordinary being the way both guilt and threats of eternal damnation are heaped upon these people. Having said that it may be that religion brings interaction with others and solace to many whilst feeling collectively part of something or feeling they are better or above the other non believing rank and file. I sometimes think some are religious believing it's their 'ticket' to the hereafter whatever that means.

I once knew an Irish architect, he was a catholic, who attended church every Sunday without fail. In conversation along similar lines to this discussion I asked him why he attended church, his answer, for an intelligent man took me aback, he stated "if attending church every Sunday with my family buys me a place in heaven later it's a small price to pay" which to me was for all the wrong reasons. Maybe spritual religious people see this as a 'duty', I cannot say, the problem for me is the reasoning doesn't compute and I cannot understand why so many can unquestioningly believe in something without any answers or evidence. Maybe it's beyond my comprehension but I am not wishing to find out or be included as atheism, call it what you may, is not to me an alternative 'religion' or a different 'reasoning' it's just a name someone dreamt up to reclassify those who see absolutely nothing in spirituality or religion.

Back to the future. This to me is exciting, exhilarating and something to be grasped with both hands, it's the ultimate challenge of mind and matter in moving forward in a manner never seen before. It is something I would personally relish if I were 25 years old but unfortunately many won't because they will not take the time or risks to embrace the opportunities offered.

 

KD, have you ever played chess against a modern computer? now that's artificial intelligence at it's scariest. Years ago I used to occasionally (maybe 1:5) beat the Kasparov and Kaspersky programs but the new generation I'm still fighting with.

I'd be interested to read the book although I'll never be a convert to anything but I enjoy others thoughts and ideas. On this subject, I can say never as usually I never say never. On the balance of probabilities I would classify myself as the pessimist and certainly not an optimist apart from a couple of occasions in the past.

I'll PM you and we can communicate and you can then run me ragged on this subject .

 

I don't necessarily equate this statement with an endorsement of religion.

"Newberg believes everyone can benefit from some type of meditation practice. If one practice isn’t working for an individual, she should try something else. As a general rule, these practices lower depression, anxiety, and stress. He adds that at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he is director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, researchers have found that meditation can improve memory and concentration."

I take time using breathing exercises I learned from Vedanta philosophy to meditate but while the exercise may have been developed by a religious person, the actions, as they are implemented by me, have absolutely nothing to do with religion or spirituality. It is all about focusing the mind with breathing in an attempt towards relaxation and stress release. There is no praying or any kind of spiritual element to my meditation. It is about numbers and focus. Repetitive counting and concentration. That's it.

On Meditation, Newberg stated in the article:

"It’s debatable whether these practices are more effective when founded on religious or spiritual beliefs"

I don't think this statement jibes with your assertion about religion at all, Senormac.

"However, he says researchers are still investigating whether religious beliefs in general make healthier and happier people. He considers atheism to be a belief system as well, and says that a possible a mental health benefit of belonging to a religious denomination could be not just belief, but the built-in social network."

So much for that "one way" assertion.

"When meditation practices enhance a rigid, authoritarian belief system, Newberg said they can lead to more intolerance and violence towards those of different beliefs. "

How about achieving a transcendent state through vigorous ****ing???

"Newberg suggests in his new book that mystical experiences are described as blissful or ecstatic because they share many of the same neural pathways in the parietal and frontal lobes that are involved in sexual arousal."

I don't know, you and I read the same articles and came away with distinctly different takes. Sadly, what I get from your interpretation runs along the lines of "Ignorance is bliss."