X-Message-Number: 25139
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 11:48:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Dan Hitt <>
Subject: Mormons are not a sect, and we could use a Henry Eyring

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for posting message 25131, about the inadvisability of
cryonicists being labelled as a sect:

> I beg of you: please don't. The last thing I want is cryonicists to
> be lumped in with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. If you go that
> route, you might as well start handing out Kool-aid, Nikes, and
> black shrouds.

While i agree that it may not be desirable to be in a sect, we could
do a lot worse than the industrious Mormons, who are an immense plus
to any area they are in (even if i think they may be on the wrong side
of the culture wars sometimes).

It would be terrific if there was some cryonicist scientist with the
stature of Morman physical organic chemist Henry Eyring
(http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/heyring.html).  (Maybe there is?)
(Eyring, by the way, might have gotten a Nobel Prize if he had lived
longer.)

And in fact, we already have at least one very productive Mormon
among us (and even if he's no longer a believer, which i don't know
at all, he emerged from that culture).

Thanks again for posting, it's good to air out these points.

dan

PS: Does anybody know about any scientists among the Jehovah's Witnesses?

I imagine such must exist because the conditions of religious devotion
yield a certain fraction of scientists as a side-effect: study
(including scriptural memorization), avoidance of drugs and alcohol,
strong family structure, etc.

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