X-Message-Number: 26440 Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:33:02 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Religion References: <> David Pizer, #23638: >I want the religions to act more responsible and no longer *guarantee* >followers eternal life. I think, though, that such guarantees are essential features of traditional religious belief, and cannot be changed without doing away with religions as they are presently constituted. Consider the famous passage John 3:16 (NKJV): "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." It appears we would have to water this down to something like "For maybe there is a God who so loved the world that ..." But this would no longer be Christianity as we know it, and to try to bring about this change through legal action as has been proposed, would amount to restricting religious freedom in a drastic way. The issue I think Dave is confronting, which is certainly a severe moral dilemma for him and maybe many others in cryonics, though not everybody, is that traditional religions with their guarantees of eternal salvation are keeping people from thinking that cryonics is something they need to take seriously, so they don't make the arrangements. Then they die and, since their brains disintegrate, they suffer eternal death then and there, whereas with cryonics they would have a chance of much longer life and possibly even eternal life. But this is not the only possible view to take with cryonics, even for doubters of the supernatural (as many readers should be well aware by now). If it were, then it might be said that one would have a moral obligation to do all in one's power to change the character of traditional religions which, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, are leading people to their deaths with their sweet tunes of empty promise. Even then, though, it can be doubted that a frontal assault through the courts would do more good than harm--I for one am extremely doubtful it would. So I think we will have to accept and work with the traditional believers rather than attack their belief systems. Cryonics for them will never be the only possible road to salvation that some others see in it, but as a possible life-saving and life-enhancing measure it could still be seen to have value, the same as medicine in general. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26440