[extropy-chat] RE: [wta-talk] The Vatican on Schiavo

[Emlyn]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:58:58 -0500, Simon Smith <simon at betterhumans.com> wrote:
> 
> "Nobody can assume the right to put an innocent person to death."
> 
> Is it just me, or does all this open the door to promoting life
> extension for people who actually *want* to stay alive longer? If the
> Church condemns *not* using science and technology to keep someone alive
> longer, must it not logically then support using science and technology
> to keep everyone alive longer?
> 
> The Schiavo affair is being used by the Christian Right as pro-life
> propaganda, but I think that it could just as easily be used by
> transhumanists for pro-longevity propaganda.
> 

Whether this is possible depends on your views I guess. Extropians
also support self-determination as probably more important than life
extension. Getting into bed with pro-lifers to promote life extension,
and sacrificing self-determination (which must extend to your chosen
guardian(s) in the case that you are no longer competent), is putting
the cart before the horse in my mind.

In all our musings about aligning ourselves with established religion,
it should be remembered that these people tend not to support the
concept of self-determination. Institutional religion tends to promote
the idea of subordinating yourself to the church, being a good member
of society, putting the needs of the group before the needs of the
individual, and, perhaps most important, putting the tenets of an
ideology before your own best interests.

Religions seem far and away to be static paradigms, usually based on
codification of rules and regulations that have no practical processes
for being re-evaluated, and removed/replaced when necessary. This is
in contrast to the system of scientific inquiry, for example, which
has (is!) an explicit mechanism in this vein.

Transhumanism may be broad enough to encompass a static worldview
while at the same time supporting morphological freedom (although I
think it's a stretch). Extropy, however, would appear to stand in
stark contrast to static philosophies, and should reasonably be found
to be incompatible with them.

-

Perhaps there is some possibility of using the arguments of the
pro-lifers to further the cause of life-extension with their flock.
However, this relies on using a moderately sophisticated logical
argument to point out the inconsistencies in their current set of
beliefs. You are talking about people who generally don't respond to
strictly logical arguments, who set their beliefs by gut feel and what
they are told by their religious leaders, and who aren't going to
appreciate having inconsistencies pointed out.


-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com   * blogs * music * software *