X-Message-Number: 14070
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 04:01:11 -0500
From: Jeff Dee <>
Subject: Re: Re: Coming back from the dead - comments
References: <>

> From: "George Smith" <>:
> 
> Ladies and Gentlemen, if we ever truly wish to expand the ranks of our
> membership in cryonics, I feel it would be wise to understand the beliefs of
> the vast majority of candidates out there.
> 
> For example, polls have indicated that about 80% of Americans believe in
> some form of afterlife for the human personality.  If the cryonics movement
> aligns itself with a rigid materialist dogma, we LOSE that 80% of the
> population immediately. I would suggest that this figure is actually much,
> much higher than just 80%, by the way.

I think there are real reasons to doubt that many of the 
people in that 80% are potential customers in the first 
place. Don't the vast majority of people who believe 
they've got a soul also believe that when they die their 
soul goes on to "a better place"? Unless you are 
suggesting that a marketing effort targeted at those 
people should include arguments against the existence of 
heaven, I think we should stick with the materialist 
viewpoint and just thank our lucky stars that ANY of the 
people who believe in souls are able to see a purpose 
for cryonics.

-Jeff Dee

-- 
"It is as morally bad not to care whether a thing is true 
or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to 
care how you got your money as long as you have got it."
-Edmund Way Teale, "Circle of the Seasons", 1950

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    * * * Knight of the BAAWA since 10/26/99 * * *

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