X-Message-Number: 5866
From: John de Rivaz <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,uk.legal,sci.life-extension
Subject: Re: Virtue of suffering
Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 11:22:03 +0100
Message-ID: <>
References: <> <>

In article: <>  John Sharman 
<> writes:
> Serious Question: Does the Roman Catholic Church have an official line
> on cryonics yet?

I don't think they forbid it. I think if they thought about it seriously 
there may be some very interesting answers, and you may not like them.

They have always been very vehemently pro-life. They regard life as a 
valuable gift.

Suppose you have two sons and you give each a wonderful gift, which has 
cost you meany years of work to earn. One son bashes it around and after 
three score years and ten it is broken beyond repair. The other son 
cherishes it, looks after it, and spends many years of work and time on 
keeping it in tip top condition. In fact after three score centuries and
ten it is still as good as the day it was given. Need I go on?

If you read the "New Testament" you will see that Jesus goes around healing 
the sick and *raising the dead*. He told his followers to do likewise. I am 
not suggesting that any of this really happened, at least not in the manner 
it is suggested in the book, but nevertheless the intent is quite clear. 
Now the first half of a process that could "raise the dead" has appeared in 
reality. If the second part appears, then we have a total process which is 
doing exactly what Jesus is said to have told his followers to do. Jesus 
still has a lot of followers, and they won't drop to zero for many 
centuries yet, I suggest. They are being given the tools that enables them 
to do what their Bible tells them to so.

And don't say that cryonics and other immortalist technology is "against 
God's plan for heaven/hell" because it isn't. Immortalism is really a 
minsomer, because one cannot have immortality without invulnerability. 
Present statistics suggest that if fatal accident was the only cause of 
death, people would live on average to 600 years. With improved repair 
technology and other methods which we needn't go into here this can be 
extended, but not to infinity.

-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
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