X-Message-Number: 27410 Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 13:13:22 -0500 From: (John B. Krug) Subject: Dan Harper: Death and the afterlife will always be shrouded in mystery - - - December 4, 2005 Hi Cryonet List! I thought cryonet readers might be interested in reading this story from the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Imho, a well written exploration about grappling with mortality, a subject cryonics and life extention advocates are very well familiar with. Enjoy! ~JBK http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/December/04/local/stories/06local.htm Regards, John B. Krug December 4, 2005 Dan Harper: Death and the afterlife will always be shrouded in mystery When you're a kid in this society you rarely come in contact with death. Your parents protect you, society shields you. The closest I ever came to death as a young child were the accidental deaths of pets. Those were traumatic enough. Then, when I was 10, it all changed. A schoolmate committed suicide. Life suddenly seemed fragile and oh so temporary. Since then I have had close friends and family die. People of my age encounter quite a bit of dying. So what about death and the hereafter? Are those of us who live in Santa Cruz really living in heaven, as we like to claim? Or are we living in a badly disguised hell? What about those who live under the San Lorenzo River bridge and try to keep warm with pieces of cardboard — Santa Cruz may be their hell. How can the same place affect us so differently? Maybe heaven isn't about a place. Maybe it's a good day at work. Or a day when your car starts. Or maybe heaven is when all is harmonious at home. When I was a little boy I was never convinced by the preacher's descriptions of heaven. Who cares if the streets are made of gold? Gold streets don't enhance the value of heaven — they simply lessen the value of gold. Elizabeth Kubla-Ross described the various stages of death, but while she spent a lot of time talking about the light at the end of a tunnel, she never tried to describe what it was like after death. About all we really know is that we are here for a short time and then we die. We don't know what happens after death. Religious beliefs and faith take over from there. It was the novelist Somerset Maugham who said, "Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it." There is little or no evidence that we can return after death — as spirits — in spite of what mediums, clairvoyants and soothsayers might say. Hell holds no interest for me either because the descriptions of it never seemed believable. Do you really think we'll burn forever? Do you buy the story of a grinning guy with a pitchfork and tail? Puh-lease! Shouldn't the punishment fit the crime? The evil I've committed is banal and ordinary — am I going to have to make conversation with Joseph Stalin and that Russian crazy, Rasputin, when I'm in hell? Men like Hitler and Stalin should have to serve out eternity in their own special corners of hell. Just let me circulate among the ordinary sinners — those, like myself, who were just indifferent to the condition of their souls. Is there a case for reincarnation? Doesn't it seem to you that good people who have suffered all their lives should get another chance to live a life free of pain? If God is just, surely people who suffer horribly in this life because of illness, war or because they were stuck in a bad marriage, should have a second chance at life. And shouldn't innocent children, whose lives were terminated through illness, war or accident, be given a chance to start over? If I were God I'd give those children another chance. And finally who gets to decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? Do you really think accounts are being kept and sins tabulated? That just doesn't seem fair. Steve Martin, a very funny comic, once said, "What! You been keeping records on me? I wasn't so bad! How many times did I take the Lord's name in vain? One million and six? Jesus Ch...!" And while we're at it — don't you think a few pets will go to heaven, even thought there's no scriptural support for the idea? Some pets have given humans more pleasure than a busload of smarmy people. The whole notion of rewards and punishments doesn't make much sense to me. Death is its own punishment. We're all pretty glib when the other guy dies, but it's not funny when it happens to you or me. I doubt if I'll laugh at my own funeral — I may not even smile. Mark Twain liked to joke about heaven and hell. He reported "...the minister told him that each place had its advantages — heaven for climate and hell for society." I'm afraid neither place holds much appeal for me. Maybe someone will discover a third choice. Copyright (c) Santa Cruz Sentinel. All rights reserved. For more online stories from the Santa Cruz Sentinel visit: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com Home Deliver: Subscribe today, for more info visit: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/departments/subform.html Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=27410