X-Message-Number: 4584
Date: 30 Jun 95 23:44:36 EDT
From: Michael Riskin <>
Subject: Evolution and Religion

 There are unpopular/minority beliefs and behaviours among humans to deal
with death. Such people as cryonicists and the suicidal fall into this
category. The majority of humans however, appear to both attempt to cling
to life at great cost, and, keep religious salvation as the fallback
solution to dying. Fear is a fundamental motivator. To truly contemplate
the reality of death is to know ultimate fear (from a survival of the
species POV). Without God and religion to save us, suicide becomes the
rational mandate in order to maintain self control over our destiny. Being
out of control with our own death along with deaths reality is a cosmic
combination punch. In order to avoid the only apparant responsible option
of suicide, and to keep up the evolutionary press to exist, it seems
pretty reasonable to hold fundamentalist beliefs. Got a better solution?
The human mind understands perfectly well that death, unless dealt with, is
a permanent end to ones existence...while also understanding perfectly well
that one has no current means of avoiding it. What a dilemna.."I'm gonna be
dead forever (I know that for sure) and I can do nothing about it (I know
that for sure also)". Hard core cryonicist are among the most frightened
people I know. And, also among the most tending to depression. The fear
stems from seeing the spectre of death clearly. The fear drives the commited
effort to make cryonics work. The fear drives despair and depression when
one feels overwhelmed by the task, and underwhelmed by support from even
their own cryonics community. 
 So...to the evolutionary reason for religious hereafter beliefs. Most
religions have a peculiarly similiar set of moral imperitives. The ultimate
hook is that if you follow the rules you get to go to heaven. Thats a pretty
good survival of the species and evolutionary aid. Why? Well, to go to
heaven, you cannot harm other people, steal their property, screw with their
wives....Thats particularly good news for the weak ones...and good for 
the population in general. Yes... there are plenty of weak ones and plenty
of general population getting bumped off by bad asses as it is. Ok...so god
aint perfect, but I bet there are plenty of other lives that are being
saved. Just ask the right to lifers. Now, how does this fit in an evolution
scheme? Well...humans on the one hand have the ability to kill just for the
hell of it. Now...the older, powerful, rich.....who got the women and who
got the comforts and got access to natural resources may find it useful to
regularly bump off contenders. Not so good for a species to evolve. But, if
enough of us believe we dont get to go to heaven if we violate gods law,
then the species is safer from frivolous or mean spirited killings.
 Fear motivates. We may be afraid of dying...but we are more afraid of not
coming back. Makes sense to me. The latter is a hell of a lot longer than
the time frame we lived before we died. Fear motivates, but as I said it can
also lead to despair. It also makes people angry...agressive...stupid...
obsessed....and sometimes compassionate. The very thing that avid
cryonicists  often have in common...fear... is the same thing that on
occasion makes them bear arms against one another. Why there are actually
cryonicists, by golly, who believe that other cryonicists hinder the way to
freezer immortality. Some have even hinted that their own life would be
enhanced by the untimely demise of the others.
 So, while Mike Darwin in an earlier post referred to the general set of
religious beliefs as "crap" and pondered the basis for the craps existence,
I dont think it is crap at all, if the definition of crap is "useless,
meaningless, or incorrect information". The really bad part of the crap in
this case, is that its' promise is so great, its requirements so few, and 
the consequences of violation so great, that ideas such as cryonics that
also, philosophically, serves the identical survival of the species and
evolutionary purposes as religion is a hard sell and a hard belief.
Cryonics wont work because one is moral and follows rules. It will work for
the same reason antibiotics and bypass surgery works. Seems to me
there once was alot more mystics and faith healers. Especially in the west. 
Well, the benefits of medicine and surgery have been damn hard to ignore,
and the failure of prayer alone has been damn hard to ignore. Cryonicists
have said that we will be "popular" when we can demonstrate that it works.
I think cryonics will be popular when the people come to know that religion
doesnt work. Its' the fear thing. Want more sign ups? Want more research
donations'investments? Got to strike the fear of god into them,  which
translates as strike the fear of cryonics immature technology into them.
We are in a rotten situation. When talking to a fundamentalist religious
advocate, the standard fall back position is always "can you prove god doesnt
exist..."or its' equivalents of other negatives one cant prove.They are not
put to the proof test. On the other hand, because we are rational and
scientific, we dont ask "can you prove cryonics wont work?". Instead, we say
"I dont know if it will work" when challenged. 
  Well...it is frightening not to know things...especially when the things
involve ones own existence. Lacking knowledge, it feels better to make up a
reason. Before we knew about the solar system, we had a god of the rising
sun...or of the crops..or rain...The most important things in life occur
without us knowing how. Cryonicists are an evolutionary aberration for now,
the missing link as the future will describe us. Some cryonicists are the
most aberrant (or advanced..take your pick). These are the leaders, the
inventors, the innovaters, the investors, the genuinely hard devoted workers,
the ones that day in and day out struggle with the obstacles in all its
forms, and love or hate their fellow aberrants who are ironically more
similiar to them thanselves than different. You know who you are and maybe
dont like being put in the same pot together. Fair enough but you may end up
in the same dewar together someday. 


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