X-Message-Number: 10026 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 08:25:53 -0700 From: Peter Merel <> Subject: Mars, Lourdes, Reputation. George Smith writes, >Are you suggesting that we must BELIEVE those who proclaimed WITHOUT >LOOKING CLOSER that the anomaly on Mars CAN'T be artifical? He's suggesting that by associating cryonics, a fringe movement whose practice suffers greatly from public incredulity, with belief in artificiality of the "face" on Mars, another fringe movement, you must make it that much harder for cryonics to achieve practical acceptance. Most people in this forum take little or nothing on faith - they're as open-minded about the "face" on Mars as about the "virgin" at Lourdes and "Elvis" at the 7-11. There's plentiful evidence and no shortage of true believers for all of these, but that's not what's at issue. The issue is that conflating them with cryonics will be unproductive. Such association must be unproductive because it implies that, rather than accepting cryonics because we're rational, we accept it because we're credulous. Sure, logically this only makes us vulnerable to ad-hominem arguments, but in a broader sense it impugns our already coal-black reputation as charlatans and fools - and reputation is one of the biggest problems here. Peter Merel. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10026