Hypothesis: Religious people (or at least Jews and Christians, which are the religions I’m most familiar with) tend to say that life and death are ultimately in the hands of God/G-d. I suspect this is a way of avoiding survivor’s guilt, though both groups are generally in favor of medicine.
From memory: a news story about a conference on medical ethics where the Orthodox Jews were the only ones in favor of life extension.
I suspect that any religion with a vividly imagined heaven has to have rules against suicide, or else the religion won’t survive. It’s plausible to me that the revulsion against life extension is a mere side effect of the rule against suicide.
My hypothesis is that the rule (life and death are in the hands of God) was instituted when suicide was available and life extension wasn’t. Life is in the hands of God wasn’t really relevant, it was just thrown in to make God sound more benevolent (so that He isn’t just killing people) and more powerful.
Hypothesis: Religious people (or at least Jews and Christians, which are the religions I’m most familiar with) tend to say that life and death are ultimately in the hands of God/G-d. I suspect this is a way of avoiding survivor’s guilt, though both groups are generally in favor of medicine.
From memory: a news story about a conference on medical ethics where the Orthodox Jews were the only ones in favor of life extension.
I suspect that any religion with a vividly imagined heaven has to have rules against suicide, or else the religion won’t survive. It’s plausible to me that the revulsion against life extension is a mere side effect of the rule against suicide.
This seems strange, I would think an aversion to suicide would make people more pro-life extension.
My hypothesis is that the rule (life and death are in the hands of God) was instituted when suicide was available and life extension wasn’t. Life is in the hands of God wasn’t really relevant, it was just thrown in to make God sound more benevolent (so that He isn’t just killing people) and more powerful.