X-Message-Number: 24715
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 21:52:12 +0200
Subject: Re: Narcissistic Cryonicists
From: David Stodolsky <>

On Friday, September 24, 2004, at 06:45  PM, Brian Wowk wrote:

>
> David Verbeke wrote:
>
>>>
> And why do these religious politicians perceive cryonics as an attack 
> on
> religion Mr. Wowk?
> <<
>
>     Because everytime you self-righteously proclaim that you are going 
> to
> "bring people back from the dead and make them immortal" you are 
> messing
> with their turf.  Immortality and afterlife are the right and proper
> subjects of religion.  They have nothing to do with cryonics.

While this is correct, cryonics is today's technology of life 
extension. Thus, it can be considered a representative of new 
technologies which promise to disrupt traditional views on death. Such 
a change would likely lead to changes in behavior that traditions from 
thousands of years ago could find unacceptable.


> Cryonics
> isn't going to bring anybody back from the dead (by definition).  Nor 
> will
> it make anybody immortal (last time I looked, glycerol has no 
> cosmological
> effects).  Religious people perceive cryonics as an attack on religion 
> not
> because of anything intrinsic to cryonics, but because of arrogant
> cryonicists who depict cryonics in a manner that attacks religion.

Considering the reactions to IVF and therapeutic cloning (not to 
mention abortion and contraceptives), I doubt if the arrogance of 
cryonicists has much to do with opposition to cryonics. The church has 
traditionally regulated both birth and death.

Recently, we have seen traditional funeral directors, directly or 
indirectly, pressing cryonics organizations to 'conform'. This responds 
to a practical concern that cryonics may effect their business.

Similarly, life extension technologies could loosen the traditional 
churches monopoly on dealing with death anxiety. Thus, it could be seen 
as cutting into their business. Cryonics plays a key role, since it 
redefines the concept of death as informational.


dss


David S. Stodolsky    SpamTo: 

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