Microsoft Word Kurzweil, Ray The Singularity Is Near doc

 
So, do you believe in God? 
R
AY
:
 
Well, it's a three-letter word—and a powerful meme. 

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M
OLLY 
2004:
 
I realize the word and the idea exist. But does it refer to anything that you believe in? 
R
AY
:
 
People mean lots of things by it. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
Do you believe in those things? 
R
AY
:
 
It's not possible to believe all these things: God is an all-powerful conscious person looking over us, making 
deals, and getting angry quite a bit. Or He—It—is a pervasive life force underlying all beauty and creativity. Or 
God created everything and then stepped back.... 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
I understand, but do you believe in any of them? 
R
AY
:
 
I believe that the universe exists. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
Now wait a minute, that's not a belief, that's a scientific fact. 
R
AY
:
 
Actually, I don't know for sure' that anything exists other than my own thoughts. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
Okay, I understand that this is the philosophy chapter, but you can read scientific papers—thousands of 
them—that corroborate the existence of stars and galaxies. So, all those galaxies—we call that the universe. 
R
AY
:
 
Yes, I've heard of that, and I do recall reading some of these papers, but I don't know that those papers really 
exist, or that the things they refer to really exist, other than in my thoughts. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
So you don't acknowledge the existence of the universe? 
R
AY
:
 
No, I just said that I do believe that it exists, but I'm pointing out that it's a belief That's my personal leap of 
faith. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
All right, but I asked whether you believed in God. 
R
AY
:
 
Again, "God" is a word by which people mean different things. For the sake of your question, we can consider 
God to be the universe, and I said that I believe in the existence of the universe. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
God is just the universe? 
R
AY
:
 
Just? It's a pretty big thing to apply the word "just" to. If we are to believe what science tells us—and I said that 
I do—it's about as big a phenomenon as we could imagine. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
Actually, many physicists now consider our universe to be just one bubble among a vast number of other 
universes. But I meant that people usually mean something more by the word "God" than "just" the material 
world. Some people do associate God with everything that exists, but they still consider God to be conscious. So 
you believe in a God that's not conscious? 
R
AY
:
 
The universe is not conscious—yet. But it will be. Strictly speaking, we should say that very little of it is 
conscious today. But that will change and soon. I expect that the universe will become sublimely intelligent and 
will wake up in Epoch Six. The only belief I am positing here is that the universe exists. If we make that leap of 
faith, the expectation that it will wake up is not so much a belief as an informed understanding, based on the 
same science that says there is a universe. 
M
OLLY 
2004: