X-Message-Number: 10553
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 10:52:32 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #10546 - #10552

Hi!

About religion and cryonics: the easiest way to think of cryonics
is that it is a disagreement about whether those who are suspended
(and previously declared "dead") are REALLY dead in the first place.
We are saying we don't know but strongly suspect they are not, while
normal medicine (the Declaration of Death is a religious act, not a
medical act) claims that those declared "dead" are, well, dead.

In this context, there is no conflict with religion at all, and
all the ideas about reviving the "dead" as a specifically RELIGIOUS
act should simply disappear. (Yes, I know very well that they do not, 
but that's because some people can't get it into their heads that
Declarations of Death do not mean someone is dead --- if you ask me,
one more sign that the D o D is a religious act). If we revive
someone then it just means that the guys who declared him or her
dead were wrong. It has no earthshaking significance at all.

I do believe that one major support of many (not all) current 
religions is that they provide a means for people to forget about
their mortality --- or to speak more precisely, believe that their
mortality is not a problem. I would be very interested in hearing
from Will Dye as to his ideas of other functions of religion (I am
sure they exist, and can even think of some, but as an atheist
I have no idea whether or not my ideas are right). One point I 
would make is that they may also help people deal with their 
finitude: even if we become immortal and acquire lots of powers
through our technology, we will always remain finite, and by
comparison with anything infinite it does not matter how big
you are, finite is finite. (To put that in less lofty terms, we'll
never be able to completely control the universe). 

When we revive someone from suspension, we're not reviving the
dead. We are healing someone who is alive but badly damaged, so
badly damaged that the medicine of their time totally gave up on
them.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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