Blacknad wrote:

"I hope I am not hijacking this thread".

Hey. It's your thread. Fill your boots.

I suspect the answer to your question 1 above (will scientific progress will be a panacea for all human ills) is "no". But it might turn out eventually to be yes.

Regarding question 2, Science is the only way to understand the human animal and that an evolutionary understanding of ourselves is the best way forward. I believe there are still many misunderstandings as to how evolution works. Many of our ideas still carry baggage from Victorian economic ideas. It's not simply "survival of the fittest". Evolution works on whole populations. It is very seldom, if ever, the product of the expansion of some small, inbred group. But try explaining that to anyone who's philosophy is based on the Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Earlier you commented:

"The problem with these is that they are only unifying in as much as people decide to buy in to them. My current understanding of humanity tells me that this is entirely unlikely".

That may be true and I agree with The FallibleFiend and Samwik's comments regarding difficulties of people buying into a single philosophy. You added:

"The other problem is that they are global drives and seem to offer little to the individual, who is unlikely to be the beneficiary of any of them. I suspect that none of them are powerful enough to unify and will not stop us raping each other."

I think if we continually educate people to understand how their beliefs are being used to gain support for enterprises unlikely to actually benefit them individually we will eventually get somewhere.

P.S. Fallible. Liked the video. It ran smoother on our system than your one on Darwin for some reason.

Last edited by terrytnewzealand; 04/27/07 10:29 PM.