X-Message-Number: 31447
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 20:08:43 -0500
From:  <>
Subject: Religion and Science do not mix: a personal view.

I used to think that there was an afterlife, a heaven and a hell,
and so forth.

My mother was diagnosed during the summer of 2007 with bile duct cancer.

During my search for alternative therapies on the web, I came across 
cryonics, and eventually did my research.

My mother eventually died a week before Thanksgiving 2007.

My family is aware of my wishes to be cryoporeserved
(I have since joined CI).  

My research, coupled with a number of conversations with
people of faith (Mormons, Catholics, Jews and Jehovah's
Witnesses, to name a few), led me to conclude that religion
is not for me. 

Centries ago, religion served a purpose: to asuage peoples'
fears of where they would go after they die.

However, as science has progressed, and as we have found out what really
happens to our bodies from birth to death, millions of people
still cling to supernatural rhetoric.

All religions, at least, in my view, are cults.

They have a charismatic leader, or have a long-deceased leader
(e.g.: Jesus, Mohammad) whose teachings have been adapted by successors
and have been communicated to followers throughout history.

They have hard and fast rules, and stories about those who followed or
disobeyed commandments and the results of their actions. 

To this day, religious leaders have been requesting and receiving
money to further their causes and as a means for followers to secure
their spot in heaven.

In many cases, religious leaders have abused their authority to
further their personal agendas and to enrich themselves (e.g.: Jim 
Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart).

And, in too many cases, religion and how it has been interpreted by some
have led to war and bloodhsed (cases in point: The Crusades (Christians vs.
Muslims), the Spanish Inquisition, and current tensions between the
Judaeo-Christian West and millitant Islam).

How can anyone of faith expect to go anywhere once breathing and heartbeat stop

and one's brain and body slowly shut down over the course of hours, if not, 
several days?

Once someone is declared dead and is s then disposed 
of through burial, cremation, or other forms of dissolution, 
it's the end.

There are no two ways around it. 

It's not that hard to figure out.

Yet people still would put their faith in whatever religious icon they
worship than, at the least, investigate the possibilities that exist
in the area of life extension.

As scientists continue to find answers to many of life's questions,
religious leaders must reform their movements to reflect these
discoveries, or they will lose followers.

I'm sure I'm not alone in my views.

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