XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.atheism, alt.agnosticism   
   From: prohumanist@ghg.net   
      
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   Up to now, religions have owned the immortality   
   promise. Their primary method, believe X (varies   
   from religion to religion) and get it (or at least   
   maximize your chances of getting it), disbelieve   
   or doubt X, and either don't get it -or- get it in   
   a very unpleasant way -or- get a chance to get   
   it, later, if you pass some post-death test.   
      
   What if everyone gets it, and what if immortality   
   is simply another natural part of a mysterious   
   natural adventure? What if immortality isn't neces-   
   sarily better or worse, but instead, is simply a   
   different naturalistic experience?   
      
   Certainly, selling immortality as the ultimate drug,   
   the ultimate high, the unltimate in pleasure, if you   
   jump through the 'right' religion's hoops, that has   
   enormous appeal. The threat side, not so much.   
      
   But, is religion really necessary for immortality?   
   What -if- immortality is as natural as any other   
   event in this particular naturalistic realm we are   
   familiar with, and it's not earned, and no one is   
   excluded from it, and everyone and everything   
   is a part of it? What if all that is natural is part   
   of some naturalistic realm in which a continua-   
   tion of possibilities is the ultimate reality?   
      
   Just a thought, for those of you who, like me,   
   find the immortality promise of religion to be   
   its most seductive feature, but who have been   
   taught that if you disbelieve or doubt, you either   
   get eliminated from existence forever, judged   
   and punished and eliminated from existence   
   forever, or judged and punished forever.   
      
   A naturalistic immortality, in my view, offers   
   a far more attractive alternative to religion than   
   has been posited 'til now, not only by religions   
   and their followers which equate naturalism   
   with oblivion, but also by disbelievers and   
   doubters who've bought into the religious argu-   
   ment that's it's their way -or- no way, dismis-   
   sing any possibility that a naturalistic immor-   
   tality is even possible.   
      
   Just saying, within the unknown realm of the   
   totality of that which is natural, pondering a   
   naturalistic immortality is a potentially power-   
   ful concept, and worthy of consideration until   
   or unless the totality of naturalism is known   
   to exclude the possibility of *any* immortality.   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)