From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Jun 19 2000 - 07:19:32 MDT
Madame Ubiquitous wrote:
>
> > Eileen,
> >
> > Are you aware of how some people around here feel about your beloved Mother Theresa?? lol!
> >
> > take care,
> >
> > John Grigg
> >
> Quite :) And as much as I disagree with him on many other things,
> Fabulich's comments on the matter were pretty much on the nose :)
Frankly I was shocked by the level of anti-catholic bigotry posted to the list.
I had thought such sentiments only existed in the venue of KKK, Chistian
Identity, and other radical protestant groups. While no longer a practicing
Catholic, my extropic ideas about the universe and our place in it originated
long before I heard of ExI, with ideas like Tielhard des Chardins' theories of
the emmanetization of the eschaton (the original Omega Point theory). Tielhard
was a catholic priest, BTW, and much extropic thought fits well with much
catholic philosophy.
As for the condemnation of Mother Theresa for her 'deathist' organization, I am
also shocked. While we extropes do hold attaining practical immortality to be a
goal, we also have equal esteem for self ownership and self determination. Every
right is only a right if its opposite is also a right: i.e. your right to free
speech is only real if you also have the right to not speak if you so choose.
Your right to keep and bear arms is only real if you have the right to not keep
and bear arms if it conflicts with your personal ethics. Consistently, your
right to life only exists if you also have the right to choose to not live. You
are the architect of your life, and only you have the right to determine when it
is to end. When it does end, you deserve to be treated in a humane and loving
manner by others, not as a cast-off, not as a leper, or a piece of human
garbage. It is to this end that Mother Theresa dedicated her life, and built up
her order: to give each person's death the dignity it deserves. At the present
time we cannot give every person immortality or the means to absolutely
determine when their life is to end, so the least we can do is give every person
their dignity when they die.
To insist that everyone who does not dedicate their life to acheiving
immortality to be a 'deathist' is narrow minded. I am not personally working on
immortality technology, only because that is not the area of my specific
interest. I'm more attracted to exploring the universe, and I trust and leave it
to others to deal with whatever areas other extropes strikes their own fancy. I
won't condemn anyone who does not work on space projects to be 'anti-space
exploration'.
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