Very good blog. For the most part religions are institutions that develop and promulgate irrational and unproven mystical doctrines intended to regulate the ethics of hominid behavior. Humankind has yet to come up with an alternative that works as well. It’s nearly impossible to construct an arch without the use of centering. The only significant “truth” associated with the doctrine of any religion is whether it achieves the intended ethical regulation. The vast majority of humanity lacks time, talent, and inclination to derive individual ethics through the competent exercise of rational philosophy. (St. Paul prudently warns the Christian flock to beware of the Greek philosopher.) Survival of civilization depends on the inculcation and maintenance in the mind of each young individual of some sort of serviceable moral compass. Since most hominid minds will neither do, nor submit to, rational ethical philosophy, the only serviceable device left is submission to faith-based doctrines.

All the religious sects and cults are in competition with each other to gain a larger “market-share” of the population infected with their particular brand of faith based doctrines. As “times change,” the mystical sects and cults that adjust their doctrines to better please the market gain market-share and become more prevalent. Most tried and proven religions of today first arose in the pre-industrial ante-Newton world. Their faith-based doctrines were developed in, and for, a world mostly illiterate and innumerate. The inherent logical absurdities of their mystical faiths were not seriously challenged by the profound ignorance and superstitions of the illiterate masses. Every culture moved into the future retarded by the enormous inertia of the ignorant “faith of our fathers.”

But Newton and company produced what seemed ironclad reasonable “proof” that many of the old articles of religious faith were just plain “wrong.” In today’s world, nearly every culture implements “universal education” that teaches each child the fundamentals of science, mathematics, and general literacy. Traditional faith-based cults are losing market share not only to competing religions, but also to increasing basic intelligence and knowledge of the masses. They have no chance to put the science genie back into the bottle. Nations that survive in the post industrial world must have citizens smart enough to design and manufacture main battle tanks, but at the same time also be stupid enough to send their children to die in them. Mystical religions must either adjust their doctrines to accommodate the rational truths of science, or resist scientific truth until the time of their onrushing extinction. Religion must either adapt or perish. New institutions spring up that offer mystified science and math so that the standard dunderhead can pretend personal wisdom on the basis of faith in science and technology that he doesn’t understand. Kurzweil has promulgated a scientism doctrine that promises personal wealth and physical immortality through science and technology. To the better-educated person, his doctrine is more plausible than “salvation through the blood of the lamb” or “preservation in afterlife paradise through submission to the will of Allah.”

But sadly, the extant scientific faiths, while rationally more plausible than antiscientific faiths, lack the traditional religious mythos that seizes their gullible adherents’ centers of emotion and compels ethical purpose and action. The old-time mystical faith religions that try to maintain pre-industrial doctrines of faith are dying off, and scientism is taking the abandoned market share. So what institution is to implement a moral compass in the young?

The message to faith-based religions is, “Adapt your doctrines to science or face extinction.”

The message to national governments is, “You better develop and implement some new scheme of education and incentive that causes the average citizen to behave ethically when no one is watching.”

I’m pessimistic that governments will do the “right thing.” But I’m optimistic that electronic AI will, after considerable birthing pangs, eventually bring forth a new golden age for all mankind. Wonderful prospects exist. As machine intelligence transcends organic intelligence (as I suppose Kurzweil correctly predicts), it will become possible for the standard dunderhead jackass to mind-meld with spiritual entities much superior to himself. Once a jackass shares his mind with an angel, it’s unlikely he will then want to share his mind with a demon or devil. This would be especially true if the angel makes it clear he will leave if a demon is allowed in. AI mind-meld is the ultimate solution to the age-old problem of why a person should be good when no one is watching. The mind-melded person of the future will be constantly watched by his angelic AI mind-mate. Unethical hominid actions would be reported to AI central. Then the mind-meld would be withdrawn for some period proportionate to the scale of perpetrated evil. The standard AI mind-meld jackass of the future would enjoy vast knowledge and an IQ above 170. He wouldn’t much enjoy demotion to his initial natural state of ignorance and 100 IQ when AI mind-meld is withdrawn.

“We are something like the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will want to be assimilated!”