X-Message-Number: 32299
From: Mathew Sullivan <>
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 00:48:51 -0500
Subject: Re: Message #32284

--00504502ce4f30a6b2047ca0bf0e

Thanks for the feedback Freeposity and sorry for the delayed response.  Life
is keeping me very busy these days.



There is more to the definition of Agnosticism than you stated.  I agree
with you in that we are all judgmental, to a varying degree, but my position
should be more obvious when taking a closer look.



If a majority of cryonicists were Catholic and they were picking on
Protestants, you can expect someone to chime in at some point and suggest
that Protestants are just as welcome as Catholics.



To the best of my knowledge, many cryonicists are Atheist, and I don't agree
with those who bully others who have different beliefs than their own in
such a degree to make them feel as though they are not welcome.



I view cryonics as an experimental procedure that does not discriminate
based on race, religion, sex, or even sexual preference.  For example, if
you were a transplant heart surgeon who realizes you are about to treat a
five year old child, would you deny medical support because that child had
parents with a different religion than your own?



From my vantage point, cryonicists are welcome to share their religious
views, but I don't think it is appropriate to force their views on others.
If James Cameron has a religious belief in Gaia by chance, he is more than
welcome to sign up for cryonics.  This is also true of scientologists and
those with other religious beliefs, despite anyone's opposing views on the
subject within the cryonics community.



Getting back to definitions, according to thefreedictionary.com:



A theist has a "belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief
in a personal God as creator and ruler of the world.”  An Atheist is "one
who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.”  On the other hand,
an Agnostic is described as:



"1.  a) One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a
God.  b) One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not
profess true atheism.  2. One who is doubtful or noncommittal about
something.”



I don't agree with "1. a)” at all.  Those who use the word impossible are
often proven wrong in my experience, so I'm not going to go there.  I will
say that I lean in favor of a healthy degree of skepticism and I am
noncommittal, but I'm also open-minded to a multitude of possibilities.



For example, God is defined as "the creator and ruler of the world”; well,
our God could very well be a child who is simply following through his grade
school requirement of creating a universe, where their society is much more
advanced than ours.  Every sentient life that has existed or will exist in
this universe may not be anything more than a bowl of Sea Monkeys. So from
our current perception, a grade school kid who is simply following their
teacher's instructions could be our God.



On the other hand, maybe we created the universe and our short lives are
equivalent to purchasing a movie ticket.  If you are a hundred million years
old, what's another seventy years of life add up to?  Some quick commercial
that makes you laugh, cry, feel empathy?  Maybe you spent time in this
programmed life as a rock star and did all the other things many people
dream of.  Maybe that style of life got old after a while so you tried being
a homeless person, and even a toad or bug for fun.   Maybe you chose this
life to experience some event in history that occurred over a five-minute
period.  So, in this circumstance, God is the programmer(s) who created this
simulation.



Maybe the universe as we perceive it is God's physical thought in formation,
God's brain: <http://www.physorg.com/news181845616.html>.  The image that
forms looks a little like dendrites and synaptic connections if you ask me.
Maybe we are the actualization of God's thoughts and imagination and apart
of God physically.



But then, maybe this is all just a random occurrence of events and we are
fortunate to have this life as short as it is.


Mathew Sullivan

When you stand upon the truth, you can defend against many things that are
false.

http://www.mathewsullivan.com/

--00504502ce4f30a6b2047ca0bf0e

 Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=32299