X-Message-Number: 11769 Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 17:43:00 -0400 (EDT) From: "B. F. Shelton" <> Subject: Re: Pascal, Shelton, recruiting the religious On Sun, 16 May 1999, Mr. Ettinger wrote: > First, I doubt that any cynical financial interest of church elders dominates > the thinking or policies of any religion or denomination. These organizations are generally not run by "church elders," but by boards who hire executives and administrators just like any other business. There are a few who make such positions appear to be synonymous with religious titles, but guess what would happen to one of the senior ones who decided it was time to make cryonics a part of the ageing ritual... > The upshot: I am more optimistic than Mr. Shelton about the potential for > help from people with strong religious beliefs. In any case it costs very > little, as the old song goes, to "accentuate the positive, eliminate the > negative." The examples you mentioned are a clear minority of religiously-oriented folks who have gotten their minds together on the possible compatibility of religion and cryonics. Whether they "go to church" or not, most religious people seem to have a very dedicated view of life which involves the inevitability of death, with only their particular religious beliefs to save them, whatever that might mean. Now that I think about it, this could easily explain a lot of why the "masses" have not jumped on the cryonics bandwagon - (1) most people have some kind of religious background such as the above, which at the least subliminally influences their thinking, and (2) these basic ideas in their heads usually keep them from even thinking seriously about an alternative to death other than the unphysical one provided by their religion. The great folks you mentioned have clearly gotten past that. How most would, let us know. This would be a positive, not a negative, thing, for cryonics promotion. B.F. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11769