X-Message-Number: 7789 Date: Sat, 01 Mar 97 14:56:13 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Dave Pizer on Cryonics vs Religion [Note: This originally appeared in *The Venturist*, 1st Quarter, 1997. Dave Pizer asked me to post it since I can do the necessary reformatting, etc. more easily than he can.--MP] Challenge to Traditional Religions by David Pizer Traditional religions may be causing the very terrible thing they are trying to prevent--eternal death for their followers. Typically, such movements promise their followers that if the followers do specific things (believe certain dogmas, take part in certain rituals, hold certain attitudes, etc.) they will be guaranteed an eternal, heavenly life after legal and biological death. However, in light of new discoveries in science, and new knowledge in the history of how religions came about, this traditional religious approach may now be causing the followers to miss out on eternal life. *In a strategy for survival, as in other matters, the most important thing is to choose what is the truth and not just what feels the best. Choosing a false belief may bring a feeling of relief from the anguish of realizing that one is going to die someday but may distract the person from other actions that might really save his/her life and the lives of loved ones.* Following is a discussion intended to encourage those with traditional religious affiliations to rethink the promises of eternal life and what the consequences for the followers may be if these promises are wrong. In CHALLENGE TO TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS (1), I lay out the challenge in a very straightforward way. In SAVE THE SOUL (2), I discuss what the soul may really be. In THE POTENTIAL FOR BIOLOGICAL IMMORTALITY (3), I discuss new alternatives for biological immortality for humans. In NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN (4), I discuss a technology that is available now--cryonics--to help present-day humans get to the future and possibly achieve biological immortality. I present arguments that there is NO risk in trying for cryonics and a big risk in not. In IS THERE ANY REAL EVIDENCE FOR A HEAVENLY AFTERLIFE? (5), I discuss the prospect that there is not any genuine demonstration of a heavenly afterlife. In CAN MAN, ON HIS OWN, BECOME IMMORTAL? (6), I discuss alternative views that the universe is destined to end someday. And last in the CONCLUSION (7), I point out that it is the Truth that is important and that traditional religions have a history of being wrong. 1. CHALLENGE TO TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS My challenge to traditional religions depends on a newly-developed practice known as cryonics. By way of background, cryonics means freezing people at legal death and storing them indefinitely at low temperature in hopes that technology of the future will find a means to restore them to a functioning, healthy state. Some prominent scientists such as encryption expert Ralph Merkle are convinced that persons frozen under good conditions and maintained this way (generally at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, -320 F or -196 C) have a reasonable chance of eventually being successfully resuscitated. Cryonics advocates imagine that nanotechnology--the controlled manipulation of matter at the atomic level--will be important in the repair and recovery process. Literally it should be possible to repair freeze-damaged tissue cell by cell at low temperature, and eliminate all deleterious effects of aging and diseases. (These occur because atoms are misplaced, not because the atoms themselves are damaged or unhealthy. All the needed repairs and reconditioning should thus be doable, if necessary, by repositioning individual atoms, though such fine-scale work may not be required.) Eventually a careful warming process should enable the tissue to resume its functioning. My challenge can then be expressed as a very straightforward syllogism: A. Since there is a chance that traditional religious philosophy may be in error and there may not be any Heavenly afterlife after biological death for humans; B. Since cryonics may work and provide a means for humans of today to reach the future and obtain biological immortality; C. Since there is new evidence that the Heat Death and Eternal Return Theories of the fate of the Universe may be wrong and biological immortals may achieve complete immortality; The only logical conclusion is that religions that really want their followers to obtain eternal life should quit guaranteeing their followers a heavenly life for engaging in certain religious acts. Instead they should encourage the faithful to practice cryonics--that is, arrange for cryopreservation at their legal (but before biological) death- -as a backup plan in case traditional religious philosophy is wrong. Notice, that I am not asking religions to say that their traditional views *are* wrong, just that they realize that their traditional views *may* be wrong and they should not give a guarantee of a heavenly afterlife. They may continue to say they think and hope there is such an afterlife, but they should not guarantee one. When we review the history of religions, we will see that most (if not all) of them have been wrong on major convictions in the past. Some of them have admitted it and apologized. It is possible that they are also wrong on their hope for an afterlife. 2. SAVE THE SOUL Many people have a feeling that they have or are a soul. They feel that their soul is separate and distinct from their physical body. They feel that it is composed of something that is not the usual matter and/or energy that exists in the universe that contains their physical body. They may not know what their soul is but they think it will survive their biological death and live on, perhaps forever, in some other place called Heaven. Today there is another explanation for what a soul is. The other explanation is that the thing trusting people call a soul is in fact solely the complex workings of the human brain, and nothing more. Historically people were unable to explain how they had feelings of self-awareness, memory, and the ability to create ideas inside their heads. So for lack of a better explanation, the concept of the soul came into being. Today, neurobiology describes how the brain can do these things and produce certain feelings. Simply put, the human mind has the ability to provide a sense of personal, self- awareness or self-existence through the electrical and chemical processes that are produced and also sensed in the brain. Or put another way, the soul is the mind, which is the brain. Recent research on neurochemicals is beginning to show that chemical events in the brain are what affect brain, or mental, states. This work demonstrates that the feeling of selfness or of being a soul is modifiable from state to state by simply modifying the chemical activity. So if it turns out that what was once thought to be a soul is only the brain, people who want to survive eternal death need to figure out how to modify their brain so that it does not die. Many people think that in the near future, humans will learn how to end the aging process and keep their brain and body in a state in which it neither ages nor grows old. In the next section I will touch on how that might be done. 3. THE POTENTIAL FOR BIOLOGICAL IMMORTALITY If a person can keep his/her body and brain in a state of optimum good health and where one neither ages nor grows old, then that person has biological immortality. That person will live forever or until an accident or disease terminates them. At present we can not do this, but there is much evidence that this technique will be available to humans in the relatively near future. Even though it is not available, it is not of merely academic interest. For presently there is a technology, available to us biological mortals, to reach the future and become immortal; that technology is called cryonics. The new technology that promises to end aging and reverse it when needed is called nanotechnology. In the not-too-distant future, using nanotechnology to fashion tiny replicating assemblers, scientist-doctors should be able to build or repair anything from a brain to a computer atom by atom. It should also be possible to leave tiny devices in place inside human cells to keep these cells youthful and healthy indefinitely. In considering the relationship of the brain and body, it is the brain alone that is the essence of a person. The rest of the body is a support system for the brain. The cardiovascular system supplies oxygenated blood and nutrients for the brain. The legs provide mobility. The arms and hands make it possible to grasp objects and perform many useful tasks. The digestive system provides a way for the brain to get nutrients. The eyes and ears provide a way to accumulate data, and to learn. So in this way, each part of the body can be seen as a way for supporting the brain or helping the organism to reproduce. Until now, the meaning of life for humans was to live until the age of breeding ability and produce offspring, then live long enough to help them reach the age of breeding. However through nanotechnology, the human race is about to change the meaning of life for humans. The new meaning of life will be for the original organism to stay alive as long as possible. If this seems alien keep in mind that it is not so different from religious ideas of an afterlife, in which the human being attains a happy, immortal state. 4. NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN The way some people are planning to get their brain to the future where this lifesaving future technology will be available is through the present technology of cryonics. Cryonics, as we noted, is the practice of being frozen at legal death (but not biological death)--to be unfrozen and reanimated in the future when more options are available to humans. The brain with or without the body can be frozen. Those who choose the brain-only option (typically it is head-only rather than just an isolated brain, for better protection of the delicate organ) expect to be provided with a new body through future nanotechnology. (Nature makes a human body in about 20 years from the information in the DNA of a single cell; we should be able to learn how to do this too, probably in less time.) Having oneself frozen for future revival is not in conflict with religion. Nearly every major religion has tenets instructing the faithful to try to stay alive as long as possible. Cryonics is one way religious people can follow those instructions. If a religious person also opts for cryonics, he/she is multiplying his/her chances to avoid being dead forever. Either cryonics will work or it won't; Either there is a heavenly afterlife or there is not. The following are the four possible outcomes if one opts for cryonics: ONE: There is no God and cryonics works. In this case choosing cryonics saved you from death. TWO: There is a God and Heaven and cryonics works. If there is a God who is all-powerful, there is nothing man (cryonics, nanotechnology, science, medicine) can do to thwart God's will if and when God wants to call a specific person to Heaven. So there was no harm in trying for cryonics. And if life is a gift from God, the act of trying to extend that gift through cryonics would seem to be a demonstration of genuine appreciation for that gift. THREE: There is a God and cryonics doesn't work. Same outcome as TWO. FOUR: There is no God or Heaven and cryonics doesn't work. You are doomed. You didn't lose anything by trying for immortality and your attempt gave your life some meaning. No human can know God's mind. No human can really know if God and Heaven do or do not exist. If religious leaders claim they know everything for sure about God they are claiming to be God. On the other hand, if they admit they don't know all the answers then the only moral thing for them to say is that they think and hope there is a heavenly afterlife of some type but they cannot guarantee it. The concerned, ethical, religious leader will ask his/her followers to follow the religious tenets *and* sign up for cryonics. If it turns out that there is no God and no heavenly afterlife, then those who guaranteed their following an afterlife and caused the followers to reject cryonics will have done them the worst disservice possible. 5. IS THERE ANY REAL EVIDENCE FOR A HEAVENLY AFTERLIFE? People of the past were not stupid. But they did not have the tools to understand the universe as we are now beginning to. Many questions in the past were unanswerable at the time, so the causes of many things were said to be the work of God. As man came down from the trees and then out of his caves, he began to realize that he was doomed to die as all the other people in his tribe and all the animals around him did. The thought of one's death (without a possible afterlife) can be a gruesome thing. Realizing that one is going to cease to exist causes a pain or despondency that most people cannot bear. Hence early man would feel comfort with the concept of religion. All organisms instinctively avoid pain and seek pleasure. Today's religions are more fully developed philosophies. The basic justifications are revised versions of the old standards: the ontological and cosmological arguments, and faith in miracles, scriptures and religious leaders. I won't get into all the arguments here other than to say that a reasonable person will agree, after reviewing all the hard evidence, that the only reason to believe in a God or Heaven is faith. That does not mean that their God and Heaven do not exist, it just means that there is not the kind of evidence that we require in the field of science to declare something as proven. Before the advent of cryonics, there was no risk in believing in a God and Heaven as one's hope of trying to avoid eternal death as there were no other options. Now that one has the option of cryonics and future advances in nanotechnology one has fewer options if cryonics is not also included in one's total survival strategy. As mentioned earlier, it feels good to choose to hold a personal, religious belief of a heavenly afterlife rather than acknowledge no hard evidence for an afterlife and assume one's eternal death. Humans will often choose something that is very bad for them in the long run if it feels good now. Consider, for instance, how many nice persons get hooked on drugs. Young people with full and exciting lives often throw it all away for the pleasures of a fix. Another reason many people choose to believe in a God is that it feels good to submit to a higher power. Many people do not have the feeling of self-worth needed to give meaning to their lives and they feel much more fulfilled if they feel they are doing work for a greater being than themselves. However, it may be that protecting one's existence is the highest good one can do. 6. CAN MAN, ON HIS OWN, BECOME IMMORTAL? Even if we can obtain biological immortality, some people think the universe might end someday, so at most we would gain a very long life but not true immortality, i.e. death must eventually follow. They point out that the universe was created in the Big Bang and will be destroyed in the Big Crunch (when all matter and energy come together again and the universe is annihilated). Arguments like this cannot be dismissed, because there is much we still do not know. Some scientists now feel the Big Bang did not happen. Either way, our lack of knowledge means, not that immortality is precluded, but that it simply is not guaranteed. In fact there are several possibilities for immortality based on what we know and don't know. The case for the Big Bang cannot be considered closed--and even if it did happen, that is no guarantee that the universe must end in a Big Crunch (the evidence currently favors an open universe that will expand forever, which may allow immortality). It makes more sense to believe that matter and energy or some precursors have always existed and some form of these will always continue to exist, forever. It makes less sense to believe that the universe, or that something, was formed from nothing. 7. CONCLUSION The conclusion is we must accept what The Truth really is as the crucial element and not what one wants the Truth to be. Traditional religions may hold an answer for an afterlife, but they may not. No one can prove it either way. We do know that most if not all religions have made major mistakes in the past and had to reverse themselves and often apologize. The Church condemning Galileo because he felt the earth revolved around the sun rather than as the church believed at the time, that the sun revolved around the earth, is but one of many examples of how wrong religions have been in the past. One has nothing to lose by making arrangements for cryopreservation at legal death, and everything to gain under certain circumstances. So there is only one main reason why a person who longs to avoid being dead forever would not sign up for this option now. That reason is that their religion has guaranteed them eternal life with a mystical, heavenly, afterlife concept, and so they believe that cryonics is not necessary. Now is the time for all responsible religious authorities to inform their following that there may be some chance (no matter how small they think it is) that the religion may be wrong on the afterlife matter. They should then encourage their followers to obtain the additional protection of cryonic arrangements. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7789