X-Message-Number: 26661 From: "marta sandberg" <> Subject: Religion, me, new friends and the media Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:00:05 +0800 Religion, me, new friends and the media I have been off the internet for the last month and I am only starting to go through the backlog of messages, but the argument of religion has upset me so badly that I want to respond even if the topic have disappeared off the radar. Please, do not continue the attacks on religion and people who hold faiths. It is ill-mannered. There is no way anyone can use words like dogma , indoctrination and delusion to describe a persons faith without intending to be rude. It is also ill-informed. Please don t make judgement about people because of YOUR preconceptions about why they hold a faith. Faith isn t about living forever. Most people of faith (that I know) are not all that concerned about eternal life, that is mainly a faulty perception by people who look at religion from the outside. When outsiders make sweeping and faulty assumptions about cryonics, we tend to become indignant. Surely, we can learn from this. As I have reasonable high media profile in Australia, I get a steady stream of letters from members of minor religious groups, such a Jehovah s Witness. They are always polite and concerned letters and I always answer them equally politely by pointing out that I don t think I will live forever even if cryonics works just for a few centuries. This has lead to several (polite) letter exchanges and one good lasting friendship. In the end, we agree that there are some topics we will disagree on, but that does not have to stop us from otherwise enjoying each others company. In fact, I find it easier to talk about cryonics and death in general with people of faith, than with atheist. From these exchanges I have learnt a deep respect for people who hold a deep faith. On the whole they tend to be generous and involved people. Religion is not the main obstacle for the spread of religion. Think about it. There are only about a thousand cryonicists world wide. There are many, many millions of atheists. They are not queuing to sign up. Obviously religion isn t the biggest hurdle to accepting cryonics. I wish you a long life, Marta _________________________________________________________________ SEEK: Over 80,000 jobs across all industries at Australia's #1 job site. http://ninemsn.seek.com.au?hotmail Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26661