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1 #+title: Self Deception
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2 #+author: Robert McIntyre
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3 #+email: rlm@mit.edu
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4 #+setupfile: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org
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5 #+include: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org
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6 #+html_head_extra: <link rel="stylesheet"
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7 #+html_head_extra: type="text/css" href="../css/ideas.css" />
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8 #+options: num:nil toc:t
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9
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10
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11 I used to be a fundamentalist Christian. I truly believed that God was
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12 real, that Jesus died on the cross to save humanity from their sins,
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13 that the world was only 6,000 years old, the whole shebang. There was
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14 a point in my life when I would have died for Christianity. Back then,
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15 one of the things that really bugged me was how my fellow Christians
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16 didn't seem to /care/ about serving the Lord and trying to become more
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17 Christ-like. They believed that they had the answers to how the world
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18 was created, what happens when you die, how to ensure that they went
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19 to Heaven, and the consequences for being judged without Jesus'
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20 attoning blood! Knowing all this, how could they dare to live "normal"
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21 lives that and not honor Jesus by their every action? It seemed like
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22 people lived in a haze, without meaning or purpose to their lives.
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23
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24 #+BEGIN_QUOTE
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25 The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the
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26 easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that.
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27 After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other
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28 scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after
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29 that. --[[http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm][Richard Feynman]]
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30 #+END_QUOTE
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31
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32
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33 Xanadu (Ted Nelson)
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34
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35 M22, Cryonics (Dr. Greg Fahy, Robert Ettinger)
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36
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37 AI Risk (Eleizer Yudkowsky)
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38
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39 Creation Science (Dr. Nathaniel T. Jeanson)
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40
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41
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42
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43
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44
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45 What if all the work that I've done for brain preservation research is
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46 just an excercise in self deception?
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47
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48 I resolved not to be like the "casual christians" and devoted myself
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49 to living a godly life. Lives were on the line! If someone died
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50 without being saved, they would suffer in hell forever! How could I
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51 not work to save as many people as possible, especially when Jesus
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52 himself had assigned Christians their first and most important duty to
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53 go into the world and spread the good news?
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54
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55 I wanted to become a great Christian apologist and win souls for
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56 Heaven. Every day of inaction meant more people who would be lost
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57 forever in hell, and only the body of Christ could help lead lost
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58 people to a better eternity.
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59
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60 So I poured myself into studying the Bible and learning the rules of
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61 my religion. I made a special focus on learning how to explain
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62 Christianity to people who didn't believe. I took these things very
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63 seriously and by the time I was 12 I had already read the New
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64 Testament twice and spent a lot of my time on
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65 http://www.answersingenesis.com/, learning how the natural world
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66 confirmed the truth of the bible with overwhelming evidence. I prayed
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67 every night to become a better Christian so that I could help
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68 people be saved.
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69
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70 I wanted with my whole heart to not be "casual", to be a good
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71 Christian, to help people... But it was this very desire that led me
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72 to lose my faith.
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73
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74
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75
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76 I'm just a zealot, and all I've done is trade christian salvation for
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77 technological salvation.
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78
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79 And even worse, I'm a heretic. I'm just going to get disillusioned
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80 with mind uploading the same way I did with christianity.
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81
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82
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