X-Message-Number: 26369
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 22:50:39 -0400
From: 
Subject: Re:  Ethics of Immortality

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Few religionists take "eternal life" seriously.

The Eastern religions largely teach that the goal of a spiritual journey 
and the outcome of death is to lose one's individuality into the collective 
consciousness.  It is enough to say that this is no more and no different 
than death itself, since there is no more individuality.

Western religions are mostly along the lines of the Christian view of 
"heaven," a place where one goes to "be with God."  The scriptural writings 
supporting this view are remarkably silent on what else, if anything, goes 
on in heaven.  For most Christians, death is feared.  That should not be so 
if heaven is such a great place to be.  Most Christians who welcome death 
do so not from itching to get to heaven, but because they are tired of life 
- its boredoms and sufferings.  The post-death goal of becoming "one with 
God" really has no more "eternal life" as an individual, to it, than the 
Eastern view of nirvana.  Some Christians speculate rampantly about what it 
will be like for them as individuals in heaven and, as Dave Pizer 
mentioned, some leaders teach and perpetuate such hopeful guesswork.

I just don't see very many places in the world, though, where more than a 
small percent of the people truly believe they will experience as 
individuals an exciting and meaningful afterlife.  What many have is merely 
a hope there may be something better.  After all, no one has given them a 
specific itinerary and agenda for their after-death trip.  All they know 
for sure is that they lose consciousness and after that, well, maybe what 
they hope for will come to pass.

So no, I do not buy into the notion that it is a deeply-held faith in a 
religious eternal life that is keeping the general public from accepting 
cryonics.  They do not accept cryonics for the same reason they also do not 
really solidly accept a spiritual life after death.  The reason is that 
there is no proof, so far, that either type of immortality is achievable.

With the exception of a few aberrations such as the Jehovah's Witnesses 
refusing blood transfusions, people all over the world readily accept and 
welcome medical advances that come along and are proven to cure disease, 
improve health, and extend life.   Even those who believe in an omnipotent 
deity do not, for the most part, rely entirely on that deity's believed-in 
powers and reject life-saving antibiotics, organ transplants, etc.

When a drowned child is pulled up out of icy water long after death would 
be assumed, and is resuscitated via modern methods, it is no longer even 
considered a miracle, and nobody insists that it is against the will of God 
and would they please insert the child back into the water.

When reanimation of a body which has been cryopreserved for many years, is 
demonstrated, people will believe and accept, because there will be 
proof.   Until then, some have hope in God, some in cryonics, probably some 
in other things.  Why don't more people believe in the possibility of 
cryonics?  The religious salve for the human experience has been around 
much, much longer.   It will only go away when a salve that actually works, 
comes along.

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