X-Message-Number: 31430
References: <>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 06:56:31 -0800 (PST)
From: 2Arcturus <>
Subject: Re: A Robert Ettinger quote for our times.

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> But "religion" acts as a catch-all term for a lot of disparate  
> beliefs in different cultures. Many religions lack beliefs  
> considered essential in the Abrahamic traditions, including an  
> eternal afterlife or even eternal gods.


Religion in a broader anthropological, and humanist, context includes one's 
overarching world view, one's highest values in life, one's way of understanding
the world, and one's way of life in the context of one's perceived sense of 
purpose.


It seems clear to me that in this sense religion obviously can play a role in 
people's perception of such an important act as signing up for cryopreservation.
But one danger is oversimplification, oversimplifying how 'religion' in this 
broad sense can affect any particular person's perception of cryonics. There are
as many personal appropriations of religion as there are religious people, and 
'atheists' usually practice a religion in the broader sense, e.g., having an 
overarching world view, even if they don't articulate it.


When we are talking about life and death, about the possibility of living into 
an amazing future world, about the possibility of immortality, etc., we are 
talking about things that fall within the scope of what most people consider 
religious issues. At the very least, they may fall within the broader sense of 
'religion', because making such big decisions usually fall within the scope of 
someone's world view. Signing up for cryonics for most people wouldn't be as 
casual as buying some wallpaper or a tube of toothpaste, and it probably 
shouldn't be.  


Robert Ettinger has been right, I believe, in placing cryonics in the context of
what is generally called "transhumanism", with its broader sense of the future 
and its possibilities, which is the backstory and context in which cryonics make
the most sense. If the future were to be miserable, or repetitious, or fixed by
supernatural interventions, etc., then cryonics would make no sense. "Man Into 
Superman" or something like it is the good news, not cryonics itself.



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