> > On 4/4/99, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> >
> > > In an effort to stamp out or co-op the holidays of the old religions,
I
> > > want to wish all here a happy Cryogenic Reanimation Day. The official
> > > animal of Reanimation Day is the teddy bear, due to the bear's
> > > hybernation abilities.
> >
> > How about establishing and holding this holiday on Bob Ettinger's
birthday
> > instead of Easter? It would be a nice tribute to the father of cryonics
> > before he deanimates.
>
> Well, while the sentiment is well placed, it doesn't do what I'd like it
> to do:
>
> a) expropriate the jesus resurrection myth and the alleged date of its
> occurence, which is the foremost western mythical instance of
> resurrection.
Yes, this sentiment is also well-placed. What I did on Easter Sunday was attend a service provided by the North Texas Church of Freethought < http://church.freethought.org/ >, a group of atheists who meet on a regular basis for fellowship. They're the largest group of their kind in the nation. The guest speaker that day was a previous Lutheran minister, author, and atheist named Art Ides (That's right. I met Mr. Ides in March :^) )
Anyway, his presentation focused on the specific biblical discrepencies relating to the resurrection and the similarity between the resurrection myth and other earlier myths. I ordered and am eagerly looking forward to receiving his most recent book on the subject.
The regular speaker and co-founder of the "un-church" also gave about a 10-15 minute presentation and I was quite pleased to hear him address the human desire to preserve one's identity and the problems with that concept. He even mentioned cryonics! Lordy! I asked our "pastor" after the service how I might go about identifying those in the congregation that might be interested in transhumanistic memes, and establishing a discussion group which could meet after the regular service. He seemed open-minded and I'm in the process of writing up a sort of proposal for him to look over.
> b) this is about reanimation, not one person being born. If you want an
> Ettinger holiday, call it Ettimas or some such.
Hmm, doesn't quite have the right ring. But you're right, I wasn't trying to connect Ettinger with the Easter holiday.
> c) this is about memetic social engineering in the general populace, not
> within the cryo community.
Right.
> d) it makes the connection of jesus' death and resurrection with current
> day issues like right to die (jesus knew what was gonna happen and he
> let it happen, he refused to avoid it), and a theological basis for
> crygenic suspension.
Long life,
Scott