X-Message-Number: 4048
Date:  Sun, 19 Mar 95 23:38:50 
From: mike <>
Subject: Venturism and cryonics "religion"

There has been some discussion recently on Cryonet on the theme of 
"cryonics as religion." John de Rivaz (#4041) said of the Society for 
Venturism (SV), a cryonics-promoting organization:

>It is registered as a church and can perform marriage etc. as any
>conventional one.

Strictly speaking, the SV is not registered as a "church" which requires 
holding regular meetings that qualify as services, etc. (We don't have enough 
members in one place for that to be practical yet.) It is, however, recognized 
by the IRS as, among other things, a "religious" organization and does have 
authority to perform marriages. The U.S. courts take a lenient view of what 
constitutes "religious belief." Quoting from the Supreme Court's decision in 
U.S. v. Seeger, 1965, "a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies a place 

in the lives of its possessors parallel to that filled by orthodox beliefs in 
God 

is, in effect, a religious belief." Although cryonicists cover a wide spectrum 
of 

attitudes and beliefs (and lack thereof) clearly there are those whose feelings
about cryonics and what it implies for a future life would qualify as 
"religious" by this standard, yet believe in no God or supernatural power. (I 
think it fair to say that I am one of these people.) Calling one's position 
"religious" and what one adheres to a "religion" can have advantages, e.g., 
with signing a religious objection to autopsy. On the other hand it invites 
misunderstanding from those who view "religion" as necessarily involving 
some mystical beliefs.

In the early days of the SV (when we called it the Church of Venturism 
though, again, it did not have the legal status of a church as defined by the 
IRS), we proclaimed our movement as "the religion of physical survival," etc. 
However, calling ourselves a religion in this way did not always further our 
cause, due to the way many people think of "religion." So more recently we 
have been more discreet about this terminology, though still retaining our IRS 

status, and the privileges it confers. In closing I'll mention that recently 
we've 
acquired the use of some property that we intend to rent to cryonicists. One 
advantage of our "Ventureville" will be, we hope, that cryonicists can 
deanimate near a cryonics facility (one is 10 miles away) and be attended by 
fellow cryonicists. This should be one way of improving the quality of a 
suspension, and there will be other advantages as well.

Mike Perry,
Society for Venturism 

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