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Osho said that if you're instilled with fear or made to be driven by greed, one can lead you to whatever way one desires. That's what the politicians and the religious leaders do to get things done. Hell and Heaven are the prime examples of fear and greed respectively. Do you have a different opinion?

Noyi 6 Sep 17
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Can't say that I do. Hell and Heaven are popular symbols that drive fear and greed respectively. There's no greater fear for most people than the terror of mortality / annihilation and therefore no greater greed than the desire to live forever. This is the power source, if you will, of religious faith. Tell people you alone have the answer to their most deep-seated angst, and that you alone have the keys to the gateway out of this mortality dilemma (which you have just puffed up into something way more than it actually is by stoking the fear of death) and you have tremendous power over people.

Science has demystified a lot of things and greatly reduced the "gaps" in which gods "live". But its ultimate coup de grace will be to expand, even partially and imperfectly, the length of our "health-span". If people start living even into their mid-100s, I think a lot of religion's death-grip on the human imagination will be weakened enough to bring about a sea change. If science unlocks the key to biological immortality, then I think it will be a death-blow to religion, particularly if B.I. is affordable and widely available.

I doubt that life extension or biological immortality will be any real help to me as a diabetic 60-something, but I think it will factor into things in the next generation or two.

If heaven and hell are neutered in this way, of course, humanity's second-greatest fear will just become its greatest fear. I'd guess that would still be related to mortality, but it would probably take the form of being overly risk-averse. If illness and aging are basically eliminated then the only way you can die is via misadventure and I suspect that people will become risk-averse as a result, except, as always, for the young, to whom such risks never seem "real" even now.

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