Jonathan Silverlight wrote:

In message <bg7494$lea9r$1@ID-140514.news.uni-berlin.de>, Tony Sivori
<TonySivori@yahoo.com> writes:

I'd like to think that religion is a passing fad. I certainly can't see
it surviving the third (Christian) millennium, and it's only been a
serious handicap for certain faiths and only the last 5 thousand years
or so.

Most of us need to believe that death is something other than oblivion, and
that the injustices and misfortunes experienced in life will be redressed in
an afterlife. I don't thank that will change any time soon.

That may be the usual pattern for technologically advanced intelligence:
a few thousand years of glory followed by self-inflicted extinction.

Trouble is, you have to assume that _every_ technological race does
this. It only takes one to escape, in the last 5 billion years or so.

Or it could be any other barrier that was not overcome, such as economic,
motivation, or the physical barrier of distance.

-- 
Tony Sivori