[kipita]

Good question. His simplicity is one of ignorance to the actual complexity, not the distilling of complex reality. His God is a machine whose feasibility is locked in the distant future, if ever. That machines/AI software will be so great within his lifetime is his faith.

Excellent summary.

This post, Kurzweil, along with Anthony Flew's admission in December 2004 (A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature) and many more folks are expressing similar thoughts in specifically different ways. Maybe the human mind and soul are derivatives of a higher deity we don't know and may never know.

I think I'll seek an understanding of people and manage relationships based on Weinberg's "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion" and try to live the life Jesus would live.

[jdhighness]

Very well. We've reached a good understanding.

If you are seeking to tenatively define your beliefs, maybe you could give the arguments on my website a try. They basically intimate that the design of the universe and history show Christ to be the representative of God.

http://jdhighness.tripod.com

I also do not believe there is reason to believe there are "good people" if not for their parallel behavior to Christ's. I will be very honest, if I did not fear eternal failure to meet the Creator, I would attempt to maximize my pleasure here on earth, even at other people's expense. Of course, a year + of trying very hard to live a Christian life has changed my natural tendencies, so I no longer think so selfishly as much as I did. Still, without Christ as a motivator that black box atheists/agnostics call "human nature" is not enough to compell me to sacrifice.

I am interested in your thoughts on both my website and my question about moral choice, if you have time.