<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christianity as a death cult? I think of it more as a fear cult.</div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div>Christianity teaches people to not love the world as it distracts from the true goal of dying and meeting Jesus. One of my religious family members accosted me for eating healthy, asking why I would want to prolong paradise. Another family member told me she can hardly wait to die so that she can meet deceased family members. Many Christians desire death as they believe salvation only lies at death’s door. Fortunately most of them consider suicide taboo. I consider any belief system that promises salvation after death to be a death cult.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Death cults have traditionally been ok since preventing death hasn’t been an option. However, that will change and people will be faced with the choice to live or die. Then adherence to death cults will be a real hindrance to life.<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 17, 2023, at 7:02 PM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" class="">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christianity as a death cult? I think of it more as a fear cult. Fear of not fitting in in society. Fear of Hell (though I know many Christians don't believe in it). Is a Christian any worse than a person who believes in ghosts? There are more believers there than in Christianity. How many people have a sound mind? bill w</div></div><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 5:53 PM Gadersd via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" class="">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br class="">From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Gadersd</strong> <span dir="auto" class=""><<a href="mailto:gadersd@gmail.com" target="_blank" class="">gadersd@gmail.com</a>></span><br class="">Date: Fri, Jun 16, 2023 at 2:53 PM<br class="">Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)<br class="">To: <<a href="mailto:efc@swisscows.email" class="">efc@swisscows.email</a>><br class=""></div><br class=""><br class=""><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">I always find these immortality discussions very strange. For me, it is<br class="">not about immortality per se, but about choice. Being able to decide<br class="">yourself when you had enough.</blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div>I must object to the use of the term “immortality.” If the probability per year of death is for all time greater than some number, ε, then with certainty all beings will <span style="" class="">eventually</span> perish. There will always be a nonzero probability of accidental death that I think can be bounded by some number <span style="" class="">ε. In any case there is the heat death to end the stragglers.</span><div class=""><font class=""><span class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font class="">I agree that choice is essential. However, if given the choice to die or live another day I do not see any person of sound mind who is free of extreme distress choosing the former. I do not view adherence to death cults, such as Christianity, as being part of a sound mind.<br class=""></font><div class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 16, 2023, at 2:24 PM, <a href="mailto:efc@swisscows.email" target="_blank" class="">efc@swisscows.email</a> wrote:</div><br class=""><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""><br class="">On Thu, 15 Jun 2023, Gadersd via extropy-chat wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">ask about why we want to live a long time.<br class=""></blockquote><br class="">That seems an odd thing to have to explain. Life is good, no?<br class=""></blockquote><br class="">I always find these immortality discussions very strange. For me, it is<br class="">not about immortality per se, but about choice. Being able to decide<br class="">yourself when you had enough.<br class=""><br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></div>
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