From: locklin@titan.ucc.umass.edu (SCOTT C LOCKLIN)
Subject: Re: Survey II
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 20:00:12 GMT
X-Posted-From: titan.ucc.umass.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <920818045236_70253.2621_CHC67-1@CompuServe.COM> 70253.2621@CompuServe.COM (Chris & Susan Colvin) writes:

>Many asked, "Why is 'in the ground' not a valid answer?"  Because I wrote
>the rules :-).  No, not really.  The purpose was to get folks to think why
>they would answer, "In the ground," and expand on their answer.  It

Whats your point in asking in the first place? Sounds more like an excuse
than a logical purpose.

>Bottom line, a lot of readers here don't believe in an afterlife.  

A truely remarkable deduction sir (and Madam, presumably)! Does this, perhaps
relate to the fact that Satanists are Atheists?

the xtian poses the question:
 What is life?  Is it energy
>of some sort? It must be.  It would take some type of energy for our
>bodies to move, give off heat, make our brain have feelings, etc.  If not
>energy, then what?

(Satanic Physicist to the rescue); LIFE does NOT equal energy. There is no
"life force" (unless you believe in Rupert Sheldrake or Wilhelm Reich) or life
energy. If there is any it is any "life-force" it is not a force or type of
energy by the rigorous physical definition of these; i.e. "life-force" does
not follow the rules, such as conservation of energy, that other forces do.
The energy source that causes our bodies to move, give off heat etc. is known
as the electromagnetic force. When sugars are broken down by our mitochondria
the energy is transformed into various other useful forms of energy, heat, 
motion, chemical potential energy (which fuels the brain) etc. 
Life is an organizing condition, NOT a form of energy. While energy is needed
to maintain life, they aren't the same thing. Incidentally; LIVE backwards is
EVIL (and if you recite the lord's prayer backwards you win a prize :)

>can't be created or destroyed, then something must happen to it.  If that
>energy contains your personality in an organized form (sine wave?), what
>happens to your personality?

This is a sad commentary on the science education in america today :(.
I fail to see how you could encode ANY information on a pure sine-wave. Energy
doesn't contain information as such. Information can be encoded on some form
of energy, but it is NOT conserved along with the energy. Also; you seem to
forget how readily energy changes form. 
Here's a simple example so all you scientific illiterates can understand my
phraseology;
Say you're in a cave with a radio transmitter (walkie-talkie) and you broadcast
something like,"hello". The radio energy is absorbed by the walls of the cave,
heating the walls of the cave a little. Your "hello" is gone forever.

>What was my agenda?  Just curious.  Trying to save souls?  Nope, just
>curious.  Need an ego trip from saving someone from "eternal damnation?"

Your curiosity would be better spent educating yourself in the barest 
rudiments of science. Just think; if you take a course or two, you can get
a UNIX or VAX account that would do all & more than CompuSteal for FREE!
BTW why are you curious? You must have guessed at the answers
you got. Perhaps it was more personal amusement than curiosity.

>Anyone interested in expanding on these matters a little further, keep it
>on the discussion group.  I won't be checking Compuserve for awhile.

I for one think this belongs in alt.atheism more than alt.satanism. Oh well.

-Scott (techno-shaman, Satanic Physicist, and owner of Cabbage)