From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!sdccsu3!sdcvax!lwall Newsgroups: net.philosophy Title: Re: Immortality and fear. Article-I.D.: sdcvax.131 Posted: Wed Feb 16 10:34:50 1983 Received: Sat Feb 19 04:47:21 1983 A great deal of what Lady Arwen says about fear of death is true, but mostly applicable to those who don't believe in survival. It's interesting to look at the other side of the coin too: those who believe in survival are probably more afraid of survival than of non-survival. C. S. Lewis found himself (at least for a time) to have a profound distaste for the notion of immortality, probably acquired from Charles Williams, who quite detested the idea, though he believed in it. Perhaps one element of this fear is not knowing what sort of a person, good or bad, that I might turn into, given enough time. Sauron probably thought he was one of the good guys in the beginning. Fear of non-survival is fear of the known; fear of survival is fear of the unknown. If Somebody is going to perpetuate my pattern, what kind of a pattern will that be? Larry Wall ...decvax!trw-unix!sdcvax!lwall