Tabula Rasa Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 (I don't know if this is the right forum for this. Mods, move if neccessary.) First,a couple of quotes from Genesis: Genesis Chapter 1: 22 Then the LORD God said, "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- Genesis 11:1-6 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Now we now know that all of this is mythology, but it got me to thinking; If humanity was able to set aside it's differences and work together toward a common goal such as in the Tower of Babel story, might it be possible nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. . But to get straight to the point, with enough solidarity, knowledge and effort, could mankind not only overcome hunger, disease, and old age, but death itself? Going even further, if we conquered death, could humanity eventually become Gods; that is capable of manipulating the laws of nature, or even completely ignoring or rewriting them? We're on the threshold of finding out quite a bit about how the laws of the universe work if the planned experiments with the Hadron collider they're planning to start testing in August yield any good data. What do you guys think? Could human beings become like Gods? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnceConvinced Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Well considering that man created God, then yes, we can become like them. Those men who created God I mean, after all are they not the true "Gods" of the bible? lol. Of course if we did become like them, we would have to go back to being superstitious and ignorant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 This is actually the postition of the Eastern Orthodox Church today: St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, “God became human so humans would become gods†(On the Incarnation 54:3, PG 25:192B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis The idea is very attractive. It was not found in the Baptist Christianity I was raised in. At one time I thought it was so attractive, along with the icons, I almost went into the Russian Orthodox Church. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astreja Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I say yes, unequivocally. The "key to the kingdom" is data... Specifically, the ability to remember it and apply it. Most of us already possess abilities and knowledge that would awe our ancestors. I also suspect that the gods of ancient times were legendary proto-scientists who improved their communities and became legends in their own time. Now, with neuroscience starting to explain the intricacies of our brains, I suspect we're in for another leap forward in capability. On a related note, I picked up an interesting book on Saturday: The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiderwire Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Entertaining thoughts of being gods seems kinda trivial when heterosexuals hate gays (and vice versa), blacks hate whites (and vise versa), Catholics hate Protestants (and vice versa), Muslims hate Jews (and vice versa)... hell, I could go on and on. The amount of hate mankind is able to muster staggers the mind! I'm certainly not insinuating that what you're saying isn't possible, but we have much work to do as common, ordinary human beings first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 What do you guys think? Could human beings become like Gods? The problem is: what is a god? Some religions believe we are gods already. If a "god" is something stronger, better, faster, smarter than human, then we can never become gods, unless we become non-human. (You see the problem of definition?) If we become cyborgs with "superpowers", like flying, lifting 2 tons of steel, see through building, hear an ant 50 miles away etc, and this was something all humans got... then are we humans, or are we our own gods, or will we simple redefine a "god" to be a being with superpowers that can fly in space, lift 5 tons, see through mountains and hear an ant-whisper 5,000 miles away? Basically, if the definition stay as: something that we are not. Then by definition, we are not gods, regardless of what we can do. But on the other hand, if a "god" has a definition which we can achieve, then yes, we could become "gods". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gradstu09 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Of course. I already am. This is why xtians emphasize the flawed and worthless part of human nature. If you think you are Nothing, you will follow the rules of anything you believe to be Something. But when you realize you are Something yourself, you will follow your own rules. That idea scares the shit out of xtians. Being your own god is nothing more authentic self-esteem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Majestic Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 I really think we could. But we probably won't. Human beings are just so fucking short sighted. We concern ourselves with trivial shit; race, religion, class. If we keep focusing on that crap we'll likely blow ourselves to hell before we achieve godhood. I think if we can overcome all this we would earn the right to be gods. But if we continue like this and destroy ourselves...well then we deserve that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavenslaughing Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Something like this is also built into Mormonism: As Man is, so God once was; as God is, so Man might also become. Kinda nifty, and I did like the idea of God having led a mortal, flawed life just the way we did, and eventually growing wiser. Mormon church lessons never focused on that in my experience, though they did make God into more of a parent who wants to watch his children grow into gods themselves. If humanity could unify, I absolutely believe we could accomplish most anything we wanted to. I'm not sure we could do away with death or otherwise radically change the human condition through technology--this is one of my main divergences from the likes of Kurzweil--but I do put a lot of faith in the human capacity to create a world we imagine. What would be the criteria for becoming godlike? Creating a world of our own with people on it? I do believe we can become more than what we are today, not by changing what humans are, but by changing how we relate to each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
par4dcourse Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 It also matters who our subjects are. My dogs already think I'm gawd. I touch the wall, and the light comes on. I touch the sink, and water flows. My cat, however, is sorely unimpressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RankStranger Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Could human beings become like Gods? If by "like Gods", you mean 'nonexistent'... then yes, I reckon it's possible that humans could become extinct at some point. But I doubt I'll live to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 25, 2008 Super Moderator Share Posted July 25, 2008 Par4 was channeling me on that response. I am the Dog God too. The cats could give a shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Broke Free Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Something like this is also built into Mormonism:As Man is, so God once was; as God is, so Man might also become. Kinda nifty, and I did like the idea of God having led a mortal, flawed life just the way we did, and eventually growing wiser. Mormon church lessons never focused on that in my experience, though they did make God into more of a parent who wants to watch his children grow into gods themselves. I only last two years in the Mormon Church, but I must admit that the idea of man becoming like god made more sense to me then traditional Christianity. Hell, you are going to be around for eternity, you certainly have the time to achieve something beyond kissing god’s ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Religion Destructor Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Man created God in his own likeness. We concern ourselves with trivial shit; race, religion, class. Just like the Christian God. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 I was pondering this a few weeks back We have unravelled DNA, a "man" has given birth, we can grow organs out of cells. Someday we may be able to create cells from their chemical constituants. Thats creating life. If life is conciousness, then will computers or robots ever acheive a sentinence? They already have faster computational ability after only 40 years of existance. They outpaced our 150000 years of evolution with 40 years of our designing. Could we chemically construct soil? Build a massive machine that took elements from space and generated soil, rock, plants? All this seems stupid. Or stupidly far away. Like going to the moon for those living 200 years ago. Totally impossible. It's my assertion that given enough time, mankind could create all the conditions for life and we would be this lifes creator. Their "God". And we may leave them to it after a few million years. And they may come looking for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sexton Blake Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Stalin almost became like God (a madman who murdered lots of innocent people) but he did not have sufficient time to make up the numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sexton Blake Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 This is a critical time for Artificial Life,' said Dr Seth Bullock at ECS, the conference chairman. `The field is on the verge of synthesising living cells, a feat that the Artificial Life community could only dream of when it started out in the late 80s. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80806194601.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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