Joseph Heller, Catch-22:  — 'He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.'

Valiantly, even.

I think the premise is brilliant.   I hope my children believe this about their lives, and act accordingly.

Death is wrong.  Screw death.   No use for it.

regards,

Fred

To say that death is a 'part' of life comes from the religious impulse that offers humanity an afterlife. Therefore, life and death form a cycle. To this end, death is a part of the goodness of the natural, theological order.

But to deny the existence of god is to also reject the possibility of an afterlife.

This is why Wittgenstein commented that death is a termination of life, not a part of living for which we somehow prepare. His obvious referent her was Heidegger, who wrote that being in life is being headed for death, etc...my pont here is that, regarding death,  there's been a secular counterforce around for the last 100 years or so that says death is dad.

We can also affirm the medcsci has always sought the prolongation of life. It likewise has always formed a marriage of convenience with religion to offer people a backup consolation when medicine fails, as it always, finally, does.

As for children, simply raising them as atheist (as I did) will take care of the 'death is goodness' issue once and for all. Conversely, raising them as religious and giving them this book will create confusion and ambiguity.

That being said, my personal view is to wait to answer  hard questions only when they're asked, which obviously gives the parent an indication that the kids are ready to understand. My reply to my own was, "No one knows what happens after you die. We have doctors whose job it is to make sure people live as long as possible". So my opinion tilts toward Barathon's: giving a child a book about death is a really bad idea.

Lastly, no, the indefinite prolongation of life is not realistic; med sci process is by increments. Moreover, the huge steps in life's extension have, historically,  come with  improvements in social sanitation and available vaccines. Cytology, organ transplants and pills for diabetes are fun to talk about, but are, statistically speaking, only a drop in the statistical well.

Brad

Time to implement some sort of verification of the identity of newbies, not to say, as Eva would say, that it should be public knowledge.

Maybe just a requirement of those suspected of being trolls.

Sam

Or a background process something like this:

public void EvaAgain (User User) {

     if (User.getName().WhitebreadEnglish ()) {

          str sPostsToDateThisPersona = User.getAllTexts ();

          int iRather = sPostsToDateThisPersona.OccurrencesOf ("rather") / 100;

          if (iRather) > 5 {

               User.DeleteAccount ();

               return;     // No need to go any further in this case

          }

          iFiveDollar = sPostsToDateThisPersona.OccurrencesOfFiveDollarNames () / 100;

          if (iFiveDollar >= 2) {

               int iEnglish = sPostsToDateThisPersona.EnglishExpressionsMisspelled () / 100;

               int iForeign = sPostsToDateThisPersona.NonEnglishExpressionsMisspelled () / 100;

               if (iForeign + iEnglish > 10) {

                    User.DeleteAccount ();

                    }

               }

          }

     }

}

It would trigger on, at most, the third post.

(Edited by Peter Reidy on 4/09, 2:06pm)

(Edited by Peter Reidy on 4/09, 2:07pm)

Steve,

I think you've made an excellent point that not believing in an afterlife gives one an extra sense of urgency to live life to the fullest.

However, death is only a part of life to the extent that you make it so. This most likely applies to those who have to fight a deadly illness on a daily basis--something  I just discovered when I was diagnosed with diabetes #2 (mild) last year. So after making some hopelessly mild adjustments (metformin and a pricked finger each day), I get on with things. In other words, i feel that it's important to agree with Wittgenstein as much as possible as an attitude.

Lastly, my take on Buddhism is that it denies the nature of god in the sense that it talks of the 'unknowable'. OTH, the 'Western' tradition plows on with textual certitude, as nonsensical as it might be.

In any case, to reject Hinduism / Buddhism would be to reject both reincarnation and the existence of spiritual entities that survive material death. 

Brad

Merlin,

I see you post quite frequently; nearly 600 posts makes you sort of an insider who 'knows the ropes', I suppose.

So please don't be offended when I say that, for the record, I have no problems with moderation.for everyone.

That's because, on occasions, nearly everyone gets angry and spins out of control. When this happenns it's the moderstor's job to bring things back in--which includes an occasional deletion. 

As well, it's just a part of web life that threads tend to stray. Moderation means nudging the conversation back on course.

In this regard, I'd hate to be an oldie and have to sift through amateur detective/identity work just to read the relevant texts of legitimate content.

So my opinion is that this stuff needs to be censored-- the holders of said opinions are free to 'protest' directly to the moderator himself.

Permit me also to say that  there is, indeed, a certain virtue in saying who you are. Speaking for myself, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to personally meet fellow posters. So if you're ever in Charleston, please send me an email! Again, I'm on the beach on Sully-Island. I'll even show Reidy where to find the gayborhood.

But please remember that many prefer to remain anonymous, and creating a persona (Eva?) is just a means of making post sound a bit more human. Yet, actually, it really shouldn't matter--as we all should be responding to our fellow posters 'labels off', right? This, IMHO, is the best way of showing others the respect that they deserve.

Thanks, Brad.

...creating a persona (Eva?) is just a means of making post sound a bit more human.

No, it is dishonest.  And the posts of "Eva"/"Will"/whoever were dishonest not just in the persona, but in the intent of the posted content, and content itself.

Progressives have adopted the ends justify the means meme and are vigorously using lies and deceit to mask their intentions.  They see that dishonesty as morally acceptable, and they believe that net-net it will move them closer to their goals.  What they have blinded themselves to are the costs of dishonesty, it's long term ineffectual nature, and how the future will find them a failed movement.  Dishonesty will be the fatal flaw in the Progressive bag of tricks.

I sure as hell am not accepting the deceiving socialist scum's posts.  Teresa?

My point, Dean, is that we needn't impose any restrictions or sanctions. We don't have to go crying to Joe for help. Just walk away without engaging him/her. 

Sam

I think Eva is in love with me and can't get enough of that Fissile tackling fuel!!(rolls eyes)