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. 


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