X-Message-Number: 17283
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Relevance and self worth
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 11:41:22 -0700

In message #17273 Louis Epstein wrote:

"Compared to God, our existences are irrelevant.  WITH THAT PERSPECTIVE IN
MIND, let's extend them as long as we can."

I could not disagree more.

This is just another example of the self esteem trap.  Relevance to WHAT?
Measured by WHOM?

The importance of Big Ghosts (like God or media icons like professional
wrestlers) versus embodied ghosts (like the human mind or functional
software) comes from making the fundamental error of deciding that there is
some objective measure and comparison which needs to be imposed.  Which is
WORTH MORE is the implicit question.

My opinion?

God is totally irrelevant to whether or not I choose to extend my life.
This is NOT a question of Him or me.  This is NOT a fight to the finish.

But if it ever is, God will have to go.  ("There's not enough room in this
town for the TWO of us, Pardner!").

People can believe whatever they want (and they do) but if it comes down to
a life or death showdown between me and those I love versus ANY big Juju,
then I am fighting for my life, six guns blazing.  (God better be wearing
kevlar.  THAT would be relevant to HIM).

But guess what?  Despite the Zoroastrian theological invention of good Juju
versus bad Juju (the war in heaven reflected on earth), I truly doubt there
is any such grand conflict except in the minds of those who believe in it.

There is NO NEED to decide relevance (comparative worth) between Jujus and
humans (or cats and dogs).  That is an invented mental step which is
unnecessary in determining our choices for survival.

I attempted some time ago to point out this mental trap when I suggested
that IF we have to assign "worth" to life, then one potential immortal
person has more value that 6 billion living human beings.
I had suggested that this was (and should be) a very scary thought.

Calling that one immortal person "God" results in this same kind of
nonsense.  Now "God" is the "measure of all things" and thus you and I and
any other living thing can be happily sacrificed on the pyre of His Supreme
Value!  Or you can sacrifice yourself to any "higher" cause.

Baloney.

The problem STARTS with assigning a "worth" to yourself in the first place.

It is unnecessary and totally self defeating.  It creates conflict where
none exists.

Remove the ghosts from your mind and you can see through your eyes at the
world more clearly.

Just my opinion.

George Smith
CI member and sharpshooter

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17283