X-Message-Number: 29027 From: "Beth Bailey" <> Subject: My brief pro-cryonics "rant" Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:30:48 -0500 My response to Blogspot's resident 93 year old blogger ( http://dontoearth.blogspot.com/2007/01/it-bothers-me-that-i-have-to-go.html ) is as follows: As several others have commented, if you truly do not want to "go" and if you are at least willing to entertain the scientific possibility of coming back, visit Alcor.org and cryonics.org As a Registered Nurse, I believe that life and what humans perceive as consciousness is a function of chemical and electrical activity that takes place in the body and brain. When those chemical and electrical impulses cease to the point where they cannot be restored, death occurs. Death results in oblivion. There is no soul, nor is there any spiritual or supernatural afterlife. Philosophers debate about Pascal's Wager: "Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is." - Blaise Pascal I believe that God exists, and I believe that God wants every human to live up to his or her full potential, using all of the skills, talents, abilities and intelligence they are able to marshall. However, when you die, it's "Game Over." There is no heaven or hell, except the one that you create and experience for yourself while you are alive. Therefore, I consider cryopreservation a worthy gamble. Let's compare the pros and cons of betting that cryopreservation upon legal death succeeds. If your remains are buried or cremated, you have no chance of being revived, but if you are rapidly placed in biostasis while your mind still remains intact, science and technology may progress to the point where your body can be revived and healed or replaced. Thus, if the procedure works, you live. If the procedure doesn't work, you simply remain dead. The oft quoted line from pro-cryonics literature states, "Being frozen is the second worst thing that can happen to you." Lastly, life is worth living at any age... Kind regards, Beth Bailey "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing." - Benjamin Franklin Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=29027