X-Message-Number: 18079 Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 11:49:26 -0800 (PST) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: wow [William Henderson] > I'm very much aware that science > is a religion and its fundamental adherents can be > as fanatical as any > religious zealot seeing alternative ideas as > blasphemy, 'burn those > heathens!' First of all, I m not prepared to argue for or against the validity of Kirlian photography, but I ve decided that I AM going to speak up every time I hear someone say that science is a religion. It is most definitely NOT a religion. In fact, the more dedicated one becomes to the tenets of science, the less dogmatic and fanatical one is likely to be. I won t belabor this point since there are many resources online and elsewhere that make the differences between science and religion quite clear. But I will advise against trying to legitimize the argument you seem to be making that the claims of scientists are no more valid than those of the paranormalists and therefore the enlightened approach is to be equally open-minded to both. On the contrary, there is good reason to be more skeptical of the poorly substantiated claims of religious and paranormal systems of belief. Those who are excessively open-minded end up with their brains falling out. Healthy skepticism, reason, and evidentiary support, is a more epistemologically sound approach, AIMALTHO (all in my admittedly less than humble opinion). By the way I was discussing this issue with a couple of colleagues just yesterday, saying how I might be interested in developing a course on the topic when they said, Well aren t you into that cryonics thing and aren t they making pretty outlandish claims? I pointed out that at I, at least, certainly make no claims that cryonics will work. I simply believe that (1) it is the 2nd worst thing that can happen to you (death = #1), and (2) that my chances for reanimation decline precipitously if I am buried and allowed to decompose, and (3) that the cost is miniscule compared to the potential rewards of an indefinitely extended lifespan. They admitted they could not argue with the logic, but they also did not express any interest in getting more information or signing up. It s another topic really, but deathist memes seem to be equally intractable regardless of cultural, vocational, or educational background. I realize that several cryonicists are theists but, as I understand it, there are considerably more non-theists than theists among us. Doesn t this suggest that overcoming religious memes is an important precursor to overcoming deathist memes for most of the people that we can expect to become interested in signing up (once again, not in every case)? Is it safe to assume that marketing efforts targeted at non-theists will be more effective than other target groups? **Update - I just got off the phone with a marketing professor who has agreed to include cryonics among his suggestions to his students next semester for marketing projects. He will also bring it up with the other profs in his department. Others on this list may want to contact a marketing professor in your local area and run this idea by him or her. We could have bright young minds with marketing expertise supervised by professors developing innovative and effective marketing plans for us ... for free! Scott Badger __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18079