[ExI] Striving for Objectivity Across Different Cultures

[Anne Corwin]

--- On Thu, 8/21/08, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:

> In other words, most opponents will *not* regard healthy
> life as an 
> unconditional good. And they have their reasons for this
> that can't 
> be budged just by saying, "Yes, but look, life is
> better than death!" 
> Not if death is the pathway to heaven, or another chance to
> start 
> fresh, or blessed surcease.
> 
> Damien Broderick


Note as well that this kind of attitude isn't unique to the explicitly religious. I've encountered people with decidedly secular worldviews who see human death as important for the sake of "furthering evolution".  That is, we all need to die by a certain time or else we risk hindering the natural emergence of a "superhuman" species at some point off in the distant future.  

(This attitude is so common that it's become a pop-culture trope: it figured prominently in the series "Stargate SG-1" -- essentially, most humanoid creatures in the universe were capable of "ascending" if they followed "natural" evolution (which involved each generation dying off in a timely manner), but there was one species incapable of ascension primarily because they'd put their medical resources into preserving individuals over long periods of time.)

- Anne

"Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"
- Meg Murry, "A Wrinkle In Time"