XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.atheism, alt.agnosticism   
   From: brianf88@bigpond.net.au   
      
   "Meteorite Debris"  wrote in message   
   news:MPG.21f058c19f70a669898fd@news.ade.connect.com.au...   
   > Last time that great scribe Pro-Humanist FREELOVER    
   > chipped away at his/her stone these gems of wisdom for posterity ...   
   >   
   >>   
   >> ---   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > Nothing lasts forever so immortality is dead in the water before you   
   > even starts. Not a species, not a solar system, not even the universe,   
   > which is destined to chill out, lights out, expand at an ever increasing   
   > rate, and decay in an to infinitely sparse realm of electrons and   
   > neutrinos in 10^100 years.   
      
   So there will be nothing to go bang?   
      
   So much for theory.   
      
   Of course you are talking of "stuff" not life.   
      
   BOfL   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)