From: suzych@swcp.com   
      
   > There may indeed be an afterlife, but since it cannot be proven to   
   > exist (so far) by any scientifically verifiable method, I choose not   
   > to spend the effort to...well...care.   
      
   Hokay; your choice.  It actually doesn't matter one way or another   
   whether any of us "believe" or not.   
      
   > Put it this way...if an afterlife exists, I will be surprised and   
   > pleased. If one does not, I will have no consciousness with which to   
   > be disappointed. Either way, its OK because that is the way it is   
   > supposed to be.   
      
   Yup.   
      
   > People are just afraid to consider the fact that someday the sun is   
   > going to rise, and they will not be here to see it.   
      
   Nope, not all people.  This is a myth.  Lots of people throughout   
   history have been untroubled by this idea.  This is like saying that all   
   teenagers think that they are immortal.  No, they don't; the very   
   immature and inexperienced ones may; many others do not, yet people   
   always say that youngsters think they are immortal as if it were some   
   sort of law of nature.   
      
   > I'm not trying to convince you (or anybody). I'll admit that I   
   > sometimes envy people who do believe. If it gives people comfort to   
   > believe in an afterlife, I'm all for them believing. It is when the   
   > believe becomes abusive (e.g., "mediums" for money, a church selling   
   > of indulgences, suicide bombers motivated by after-death promises)   
   > that I get angry.   
      
   Like any sensible person!  Including the one actual "medium" whom I know   
   personally, who has been, er, mediuming for a small group of close   
   friends for upwards of 20 years now without taking a dime (except,   
   sometimes, travel expenses).   
      
   > Let's just agree to disagree....or not. I'm OK either way.   
      
   Best way to be.  Not every lifetime is designed to have its accent on   
   being spiritual, let alone spiritual in a positive and healthy way;   
   Muslim terrorists and self-styled "Christians" who blow up women's   
   clinics may be doing very "spiritual" lifetimes in which they are   
   learning about the karmic destructiveness of the rigid extremes of   
   spirituality (the abusiveness you allude to above is part of the   
   spectrum of the experience of "spirituality").   
      
   Me, I'm doing spiritual stuff part of the time, but have no problem with   
   the idea that I may come back as an atheist dentist in Fiji next time.   
   Eventually, like everyone (according to my understanding, anyway), I'll   
   finish learning what's to be learned here in the flesh and the world and   
   move on to whatever comes next -- and the sun will rise without me   
   seeing it, and so what?   
      
   SMC   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)