Flavors of Eternal Life (was Extropy in the Personal Sphere)
Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Mon, 11 Aug 97 11:22:24 CST
Brent Allsop wrote:
If people could just hear the rational truth instead of all the
twisted logic propaganda. Religion is the one that tells them science
means death, but this is now a lie. Successfully communicating the
truth and remove this single "one-up" item and I bet the tables will
quickly turn for many people. "Don't give up in despair and accept
that there must be death and suffering even when there is an all
powerful God, have faith that, with a bit more power than what man now
has, death and suffering, as we know know it, can be eliminated!"
Rick Knight responds:
I suppose it has a parallel to the modern Christian Scientists who
have been known, in certain devout situations, to withhold themselves
(and their CHILDREN!) from practical and available medical attention
and instead chose prayer, laying on of hands etc.. Even when I was a
practicing Christian, this seemed ludicrous (the notion being that I
should at least be able to empathize with them since they were calling
upon God for aid). But I also chose to believe that if a divine
influence was working in the world, it didn't work exclusively in a
supernatural/miraculous way. Being a physician, a specialized one at
that, is no cakewalk and requires not only intellect but devotion (a
little generalization in not acknowledging quackery). That's not
miraculous!? With all the dregs that are more ballast for humanity
than they are contributing elements, it seems very extraordinary.
If one DOES believe in God, would one deny themselves available
medical treatment? Hmmm, this actually gives me a different spin on
cryonics. I'll continue pondering the viability. My stop gap is
still not that I don't *care* whether I die, I just have this very
deep conviction, intuitively, that I am more than a biological
computer. This seems to be the "given" in embracing cryonics and I'm
just not there. Though that may defy logic in the eyes of some, I use
more than one internal organ to determine my actions (note to the
left-brained: I'm being metaphorical).
At this point, cryonics is about as viable as mormonism <G>. Yet the
level of intellect on this board suggests there must be some further
studying to be done and there must be compelling evidence that
cryonics has a good chance of working. The logic of "even if it's not
very likely (reanimation), it's better than rotting in a grave" sounds
suspiciously like "if you don't accept Jesus, you'll burn in hell." A
personal trigger for me.
Rick