barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry) (09/21/86)
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann): >In article <1309@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes: >>> (I wrote...) There is only one unique >>> thing about the Bible/Christianity that makes it any different than other >>> religions: Jesus. No other religion has a central human figure ('prophet', >>> whatever you want to call it) who claimed to *be* God. >> >>This remark is just silly. What do you think an *avatar* is? >>And much of Hindu thought is based on the concept of an avatar. > >However, I find it hard to include the Hindu idea of 'God' here, since as far >as I can tell, being 'God' is nothing unique: Self (atman) is the same as >Ultimate Reality (Brahman), and Brahman is the supreme Lord (Isvara). In other >words, we *all* are God, according to Hinduism (if we can only achieve the >true knowledge). How 'bout a possible compromise? According to Xians, Jesus claimed to be the *only* son of God; i.e., anyone else making claims to be divine is lying. To the best of my knowledge, this claim is, indeed, unique. Lots of folks have claimed to be gods, but I don't know of any others claiming to be the only case of god taking human form. And now for something completely different... >Is there evidence that we are >'improving' our lot as a species in the long run? Is there anything new under >the sun (new == real change for the better as people, not new==new and better >gadgets available to the rich of the world). I think you're being overly cynical about technology. Our scientific progress *is* the only evidence that I know of that we're improving with time. It has resulted in improvements in the lives of the poor as well as the rich, and increased the percentage of the population that can escape poverty. Of course, it hasn't improved us as people... yet. It appears the day may be coming when we will have the knowledge to alter our biological makeup, the very shape and function of our brains and bodies. This raises some interesting questions. Should we do such a thing, assuming we figure out how? Will we? If we try to improve the species, are we likely to succeed or bring on disaster? And if we don't so choose, could we even prevent long-term changes to our germ plasm, once the knowledge of how to do it exists? Our weird 20th century civilization wasn't planned out by geniuses of the Renaissance or Enlightenment; mostly it 'just growed', to no one's specifications. Our future biological evolution may end up being engineered in the same haphazard fashion. There are aspects of these questions which I think are relevant to religion, mostly those to do with "should we". Is the human body's design sacred, not to be touched by humans? What say the Xian, the Jew, the pagan, the skeptic? - From the Crow's Nest - Kenn Barry NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ELECTRIC AVENUE: {ihnp4,vortex,dual,hao,hplabs}!ames!barry