I don’t see why extending your life would have to qualify as sinful.
This is speculation: I’m not a Christian.
In Christianity, death brings the judgment of God who sends you to heaven or hell (or purgatory).
If you expect heaven, you don’t want to put off death. Suicide is a sin but as long as you don’t see non-cryonics as willful suicide, you would want to die early to get to heaven early.
If you expect hell, then you think you’ve sinned mortally. Most brands of Christianity allow for redemption by various means. If you think you’re a sinner, trying to put off death means trying to avoid the judgement of God, which is both just and good; so struggling against it would make you evil. If you fear hell, instead of focusing on avoiding death, you would focus on expiating your sins in order to go to heaven.
In addition, some but not all brands of Christianity have the meme that this world is impure, and one should abstain from it, and not be attached to it. Trying to live longer than is natural is attachment to the profane; one should instead spend their lives thinking of God, praying, abjuring the pleasures of the flesh, etc. in order to obtain heaven.
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.
Hmm. Most of these seem to ignore the fact (not saying YOU are ignoring the fact, but that the religion would have to be ignoring the fact) that there are reasons to extend life that have nothing to do with heaven and hell.
It’s interesting that you mention “trying to live longer than is natural is attachment to the profane”—this strikes me as more Buddhist, but I could see Christians believing that, too. However, if cryo is attachment to the profane, so is eating healthy and exercising. Heck, so is eating at all. I am so glad I’m not religious. It causes such horrible cognitive dissonance to harmonize these types of beliefs with other information I have about life.
However, if cryo is attachment to the profane, so is eating healthy and exercising. Heck, so is eating at all.
Yes—hence the idea of religious fasting. The Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions consider “mortification of the flesh” to be holy, and luxuries of the flesh (enjoying eating, sex, and bodily sensations in general) to be wicked or at least a dangerous temptation.
This is speculation: I’m not a Christian.
In Christianity, death brings the judgment of God who sends you to heaven or hell (or purgatory).
If you expect heaven, you don’t want to put off death. Suicide is a sin but as long as you don’t see non-cryonics as willful suicide, you would want to die early to get to heaven early.
If you expect hell, then you think you’ve sinned mortally. Most brands of Christianity allow for redemption by various means. If you think you’re a sinner, trying to put off death means trying to avoid the judgement of God, which is both just and good; so struggling against it would make you evil. If you fear hell, instead of focusing on avoiding death, you would focus on expiating your sins in order to go to heaven.
In addition, some but not all brands of Christianity have the meme that this world is impure, and one should abstain from it, and not be attached to it. Trying to live longer than is natural is attachment to the profane; one should instead spend their lives thinking of God, praying, abjuring the pleasures of the flesh, etc. in order to obtain heaven.
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.
Hmm. Most of these seem to ignore the fact (not saying YOU are ignoring the fact, but that the religion would have to be ignoring the fact) that there are reasons to extend life that have nothing to do with heaven and hell.
It’s interesting that you mention “trying to live longer than is natural is attachment to the profane”—this strikes me as more Buddhist, but I could see Christians believing that, too. However, if cryo is attachment to the profane, so is eating healthy and exercising. Heck, so is eating at all. I am so glad I’m not religious. It causes such horrible cognitive dissonance to harmonize these types of beliefs with other information I have about life.
Yes—hence the idea of religious fasting. The Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions consider “mortification of the flesh” to be holy, and luxuries of the flesh (enjoying eating, sex, and bodily sensations in general) to be wicked or at least a dangerous temptation.