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