X-Message-Number: 20659
From: 
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:12:41 EST
Subject: Pascal etc

--part1_45.207233e8.2b336619_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Yvan Bozzonetti has fascinating things to say about technology, but his ideas 
concerning religion are a bit one-sided.

It is by no means true that religon usually militates against technology. Few 
religions forbid the use of advanced medicine, and many productive scientists 
have been religious.

Concerning "unearned" rewards, almost all (and maybe all) of the rewards we 
receive are unearned, in the sense that we are accidents of history and did 
not design ourselves. Almost all tech advances have been made by a tiny 
minority, with the rest of us "undeservedly" sharing the benefits. We don't 
kill children for their mistakes, and we don't refuse responsibility for them 
under the pretext of allowing them "freedom of choice." 

On the level of religious slogans, you can take your pick. Remember "Praise 
the Lord and pass the ammunition"? Or, "God helps those who help themselves"? 
Remember Fyodorov, a devout Christian but a fervent exponent of physically 
reviving all the generations of the dead?

As for Pascal, ol' Blaise forgot that an argument similar to his could be 
used to opposite effect, thus: "If by logic you don't believe in God but he 
is real and merciful, you will be saved anyway, and will have maintained your 
integrity. If you do believe in God or claim to, and he is real but not 
merciful, you may be damned in spite of your belief or claim. If he is not 
real, the only issue is your integrity. Hence by refusing to profess a belief 
you do not have, you have nothing to lose and integrity to gain."

Robert Ettinger

--part1_45.207233e8.2b336619_boundary

 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20659