X-Message-Number: 10473 Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 09:01:50 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #10468 - #10472 To George Smith: I would prefer that cryonics increase through rational argument with individuals. Moreover, cryonics is NOT a form of religion. Our central point is not that we can revive the "dead" (whatever that word may mean) but that we think that a high proportion of those now declared "dead" according to current criteria actually are not "dead", retaining some possibility of eventual revival. By cryonic suspension we are trying to keep that possibility of eventual revival alive, while burial or cremation (the two most common treatments of those declared "dead") take someone WRONGLY CONSIDERED "dead" and turn them into someone who is genuinely dead, by our criteria as well as the comon one. However the possibility always exists that cryonics will face legal discrimination and attack. A "theology of cryonics" has merit as a backup in such a case. And it may very well help to develop that theology in advance, at least in skeleton form. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10473