Singularity

Reading about the singularity here and there and mostly feeling its approach, I was reminded of an idea I got, the day after they cloned Dolly the sheep. I was wondering where could all this lead?
I remembered reading that when Jesus was asked when this world would end, he replied soon, before the passing of this "geneea" (generation). I always wondered what he meant.
Maybe by "geneea" he meant the step in the evolutionary ladder we are in now. Homo Sapiens. Maybe with all this new bio-technology we will be able to "improve" our spieces and by doing that we will have passed this "gennea".
All this can happen very soon. On December 2012. The Mayan calendar as intrepreted by Ian Xel Lungold and Dr. Calleman that describes cycles of the evolution of consciousness has that date as a change of era. Maybe we will get in an era of peace, prosperity and co-creation that will last a thousand years.
Or maybe I am just another crackpot. :-)

The end of the world is not that important. It happens to everyone the moment he dies. It's the end of the world for that person.

Procreation and some religious ideas

I believe most points of view can be presented logically and seem valid and correct. Even contradicting ones. 

I don't claim that the arguments presented here are the absolute truth or are in harmony with the will of God.
They could be, I don't know. 

These ideas are what I chose to believe as true and these are the arguments I often use to remind me that my choices and philosophy make sense. 

Procreation and religious ideas. 

In the past I thought that not all people are suitable to become parents. I observed people and came to that conclusion mainly when I saw how they treated their children.
After observing many people and studying the evolution and prospects of our society throughout history my view on the subject has become extreme.
I now believe that anyone that has decided or has already being a part in the act of birth of another human being has committed an error. 

I see no really good reason to procreate, and doing something without a really good reason is at least waste of energy. But the subject is more complex than that. 

Some of the arguments in favor of procreation and my response to them. 

1. To have someone close at your old age. A selfish reason. That someone will probably have a family of his/her own and would not like to be bothered by the old you. He will most likely eventually put you in a nursing home. However this plays out you will be a burden. I don't like to burden anyone. When you get old, you can have a partner, friend, a pet or the way things are going an android. 
2. To advance the numbers of our kind, religion, ethnic identity. Another selfish reason. In this global village I don't see how it matters anyway. It seems like pointless pride. 
3. The animal instinct for the survival of the species shouldn't apply to humans. Our species is on the top of the food chain and our survival is not threatened by any other (besides ourselves through overpopulation environmental destruction, war etc.) Besides, why is extinction considered bad? 
4. Ensure that your DNA/name/lineage continues. That falls under the pride sin. My DNA is better than yours, so mine should survive and yours should peter out. Another animal instinct that if we followed to its extent, we would kill the offspring of others so our own would have more resources. Selfish and primitive.
   (Sidenote: The survival of the fittest idea takes place to some extent. Many ugly, fat, unhealthy people do not procreate. On the other hand humans' power over matter, help some overcome many obstacles and fulfill their drive for procreation. This can be done through artificial insemination, plastic surgeries etc. Practices which cancel out the survival of the fittest idea. But that is another story.)
5. Some consider procreation a natural instinct. Killing your enemy is also a natural instinct. Following your natural or emotional instinct isn't necessarily moral. Animals and insects do it. So it's not something special. 

The continuation of ones name or lineage is also vain. One most likely wont be able to observe, influence or reap any benefits from ones descendants.
Some will say that the experience is too rich to miss. Selfish. "I want to live this, so I'll put another poor soul through life". It's like saying, "I like to experience how it feels to kill someone, so I'll kill the first person I meet". 

 It is an action you can not undo if you change your mind. One must think of the hypothetical person that he/she will bring into this world. All the hardship the offspring will suffer, the growing pains and the plain pains. The fears and disappointment that this world will serve him/her. "But this life is more than that". There are occasional rewards but from what I've seen, life is mostly pain and fear of pain. There is also hope of rescue from God. There is hope of that person becoming enlightened. I can not be certain of that outcome, and the risk is unacceptable.
Let me try to explain this better. (My frame of reference is religion and in specific, Orthodox Christianity, that I try to follow.)
The equation is this. Every person that comes in to this world has a risk, however slight, to end up in hell. Nothing is worst than ending up in hell for all eternity. The obvious (to me at least) conclusion is that not existing is better that eternal existence in hell, therefore not bringing a person into existence by giving birth is the best you can do for that hypothetical person. [Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 (2. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. 3. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.)]
This of-course makes sense if we accept that the person does not exist before birth, which I think is what Orthodox Christianity teaches.
Jewish faith believes (if I am not mistaken) that there is a well of souls (the Guf) where souls sit and wait for a birth, so one of them can enter a body. If that's the case, you can argue as to why should I, (by giving birth) should put this soul at risk and not leave that task to someone more qualified. Someone equipped better with more resources that can raise, educate and endow with wisdom a person with more chances to go to heaven.
Or, why not leave the souls where they are? Is there a mandate that we should bring them here, to the place of our exile where we somehow pay for our original sin that expelled us from heaven?
We were put in this exile and we somehow have the need to bring relatives so they can suffer with us? Why?
Maybe this exile is not punishment but a preschool for what is to come in the afterlife and the afterlife is so cool that the risk of hell is acceptable.
I believe hell is something that should be avoided at all costs and to me that means the risk is not acceptable. Even if it was, who am I to force my views and beliefs on this hypothetical person?
I always saw that I coulf not distinguish between right from wrong when the complexity of the situation was even slightly above elemental. The 'what if' and alternate scenarios I tried to calculate were increasing in number as my minds' complexity increased. I concluded I do not possess the processing power to predict the effects of even simple actions, therefore I could not declare them right or wrong. I can not even predict a chess game with all its' combinations, how could I predict real life which is far more complex. I now try to do the right thing by analyzing the situation to the best of my ability given the time that I have available, praying that my actions or in-actions are guided by God. 

After reading some religious texts I gathered that the original sin has to do with the fruit that Adam and Eve ate. The fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So they thought that by eating the fruit they would be able to know right from wrong without the help of God. Probably that's why God send them off to this world, to prove to them that they can not tell right from wrong without His help. In order for the circle to be complete -in my extreme view- the population must be reduced to a man and a woman and then this world can end.

Religion

I believe that religion is like an uncompiled operating system.
Every person has different hardware, brain setup, chemistry etc.
Mind you that the line that separates hardware and software in humans is very fuzzy.
When a person takes that religion package, he/she compiles it for his system. Due to hardware limitations and differences the compiled operating system doesn't look or act exactly in the same manner as it does on another platform/human.
So we get to have fanatic muslims/christians or easy going muslim/christians etc. They all got pretty much the same source but some parts were incompatible or did't compile well in their system and perform poorly.

I call myself a Christian Orthodox but that doesn't mean all Christian Orthodox people are like me. So I must stress that what I say shouldn't reflect on the Christian Orthodox church. My interpretation of scripture is all mine and my wetwares' limitations.