X-Message-Number: 11424
From: 
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 02:27:38 -0500
Subject: Icing celebrities

On Tue, 16 Mar 1999 16:21:38 Daniel Ust wrote:

>I agree with Gary on this approach.  Those who attempt to do this
>should also choose a scientist who seems to fit the profile of a
>cryonicist - especially, someone who is an atheist.  The prospect
>should be handled carefully to avoid creating a "celebrated opponent"
>of cryonics.

Daniel,

I take exception to your suggestion that atheists are somehow particularly
suitable. I am not an atheist and yet I am positively effusive over the
extraordinary achievements of 21cm. I think the key here is that a 
suitable candidate should possess an unfettered desire to seek the
truth (i.e. a scientist), sound judgement, an enlightened recognition
of the enormous possibilities that the future holds, a love of life and 
most importantly he/she should have a keen sense of beauty. I use the
expression "sense beauty" to mean that emotion which comes from the 
recognition of an elegant way of tying together many seemingly desparate
threads of understanding into one simple explanation that follows
naturally and inevitably from a chain of simple arguments emanating from 
a few principles. I believe that a sense of beauty gives meaning to life and
would motivate one to seek its extension.

NB: Just because I am a theist it doesn't mean I subscribe to the popular
conception of God. People are wont to embue the deity with human 
attributes such as vengence and they create myths involving the notions 
of atonement etc. to explain away other silly notions such as original
sin. This is pure unadulterated claptrap and the product of infantile minds.
In my view, God is the sum total of all the mathematical and physcial laws
of the universe. I do believe that there is an order and consistency to the
application of the laws of the universe (i.e. an isotropy) and this
constitutes my concept of God... but I'm off topic...
However, suffice it to say, we should not neglect theists!

/gary

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