>Sorry to hear about your loss, David. I don't see, how you can
>expect a religion to make you feel better, though. I don't see, for
>example, how stupid promised of life after death, or any other falsehood
>can imprive the situation. --Harald
I don't think you have to believe a falsehood to deal with death. A
religion can help by providing context and perspective which enables
the bereaved to focus on the positive aspects, for instance to
celebrate the life of the deceased rather than mourning the death.
Virus can help specifically by providing an extended definition of
self and identity. If we identify with our memes rather than our
material body, then in a real sense we do not die as long as our
memes live on. And further along those lines, I think there is a
great deal to gain by identifying with the effects of our actions,
i.e. the meaning of our own lives, literally.
My grandmother was not just the kind, religious, music-loving matriarch of
my father's side of the family, she is her family and everything she taught
them. She lives on because she changed everyone that knew her. She is
literally in the values instilled in us and the interests conferred
to us. I take comfort knowing that the world is (and will continue to
be) a better place because she lived.
-- David McFadzean dbm@merak.com Memetic Engineer http://www.merak.com/~dbm/ Merak Projects Ltd.