From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   I once read a Christian minister say that God must be re-introduced in order   
   to say no to humanity. I also heard a man from Louisiana say that mother   
   nature is unhappy about such things as genetic therapy and that it was going   
   to react against people.   
      
   These people are complete hypocrites. They have done nothing about real wrongs   
   done by people, such as burning the Amazonian rainforest or flooding the   
   atmosphere with CO2. Instead they attack the good things that people have done   
   – things such as    
   scientific knowledge and technological progress.   
      
   So we have any number of people claiming that things such as genetic therapy   
   is playing God. Meanwhile they do absolutely nothing to confront real wrongs   
   done to God – wrongs such as burning down and poisoning nature. It is fine   
   to destroy; it is not    
   fine to create.   
      
   This shows how far we have gone.   
      
   Should God be introduced to say no to humanity? That depends on what people   
   are trying to do. The name of God should be used to confront real wrongs, such   
   as destroying nature. It should be made to stand aside in light of scientific   
   and technological    
   progress. Such things are not playing God. They are making the best of man. In   
   particular, they make it possible to apply human intelligence toward solving   
   the world’s problems, improving people’s quality of life and correcting   
   damage that has been    
   done to nature by other people.   
      
   If you think that it is OK to destroy but not OK to create, then something is   
   wrong with you. And then it is you to whom one needs to say no. There is much   
   greater merit in doing genetic therapy or curing cancer or building artificial   
   intelligence robots    
   than there is in burning down the rainforest or flooding the atmosphere with   
   CO2. As for Mother Nature, she would be much more unhappy about us burning the   
   Amazonian rainforest than about us pursuing scientific and technological   
   progress.   
      
   The people who attack scientific progress while endorsing ruinous business   
   practices have no business claiming to speak for God. A man who truly loves   
   God would not be destroying what God has created. As for humanity, the worst   
   of it is not found in its    
   scientists and engineers. It is found in people who burn Amazonian rainforest   
   and flood the atmosphere with CO2. If one seeks to re-introduce God to say no   
   to humanity, it is to these people, not scientists, that he needs to say no.   
      
   The antipathy to science has gone on for long enough. People have their air   
   conditioning, their TVs and their trucks because of science. Their prosperity   
   is not only due to business; it is due to a much greater extent to science.   
   There have been many    
   places with market system, and most of them were poor. The reason we are   
   wealthier than Medieval Persia or Tsarist Russia is science.   
      
   Of course scientists and engineers can be foolish as well. There are many   
   people with scientific worldview who claim that religion, spirituality and   
   romantic love are irrational. This is a shortfall of these people. It does not   
   however discredit physics,    
   chemistry or biology. These are important fields, and we need them.   
      
   I have value both for science and spirituality. I also have value both for   
   civilization and nature. I want to see the best of all worlds, where both   
   nature and civilization are treated well. Both are amazing accomplishments,   
   and both deserve to be    
   treated with care and respect. This means, minimize harm and maximize benefit.   
   Stop ruinous practices such as burning the rainforest and flooding the   
   atmosphere with CO2. At the same time vigorously pursue scientific and   
   technological progress.   
      
   The people such as the ones I’ve mentioned above are doing neither of the   
   above. They are doing nothing to confront environmentally ruinous practices;   
   meanwhile they stand in the way of progress. Their stance is worse than   
   misguided. It is evil. And it    
   is to them that one needs to re-introduce God.   
      
   Ilya Shambat    
   https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatthought   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)