From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Current Results of the Poll about Life after Death
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 03:55:35 GMT

Here is a summary of the poll that I conducted on alt.suicide.holiday.
Basically, I asked the participants to give their opinions on what
they thought about life after death.  I included myself among the
participants.

1.  total participants: 15

2.  participants who did not
    believe in life after death: 10

    notable quotes:  "No.  I bloody well hope not!"
                     "I wouldn't be able to live with the idea of
                      re-living my miserable life over and over again."
                     "No.  What a completely silly concept.  Up
                      there with the tooth fairy."
                     "'We are here to ruin ourselves and to break
                       our hearts and to love the wrong people and
                       to die.'"--plagiarized from someone else.

3.  participants who are leaning
    toward not believing in life after death: 1

4.  participants who believe that
    there is life after death: 2

    notable points:  One person was clearly Christian, who typed, "That's
                     about the extent of my opinion at this point. (by the
                     way, I only read a.s.h because it's silly.  sometimes.)
                     Food for thought...."

                     The other person believed in heaven and hell but
                     expressed uncertainty as to what form that they
                     might take.

5.  participants who are leaning
    toward believing that there is
    life after death: 1

    notable points:  This person did not specify any preferences
                     for what that life might be and just responded,
                     "Possibly", to both the possibilities of "heaven"
                     and "hell".

6.  participants who just don't know:  1

    notable quotes:  "We are born.  We suffer for a while.  Then, we die."

(Unfortunately, I deleted my mail before I could think of tallying the
countries from which I received responses.  The following is from memory.
Besides, deleting mail before it is backed up at this site provides a better
guarantee of anonymity for those who want it. )

Participating countries:  USA, Australia, New Zealand, England,
Sweden, and Japan (response was from a Finlander living in Japan).

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Anyhow, I want to thank everyone who participated.  Perhaps, if I have time
later in the year, I can do a more extensive poll, identifying correlations
between culture and thoughts about death.  I'm sure that most people
here on a.s.h. have thought about life after death.

I am still taking responses if you haven't yet submitted your response.
I'll post an update of this summary later in the week or the following,
but the responses are clearly leaning toward the belief that there is
_no_ life after death.  67% of the participants did not believe that
there is life after death.

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P.S.
One person wrote, "Yes, I request it [anonymity].  (Reading a.s.h is not
exactly something to put on your C.V. :-))"  What does "C.V." stand for?

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Seikatsu no imi wa nan desu ka.            \|  |`      | Don't buy from Toyota;
Shitte itara oshiete kuremasen ka.          | -+-      | especially, don't buy
                                           /| / \      | from Capitol Toyota in
Copyright 1992.                                        | San Jose, California.
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