von braun on immortality

[Paul Mackin]

alfredjprufrock at club-internet.fr wrote:

> PM> For Quasi Eastern thought  check the epigraph to GR part 1.  Or are you talking
> PM> about something else?
>
> it's not that eastern really. it is von braun's take on immortality,
> but it's very christian, even catholic:

But  the vB  quip is not about PERSONAL (individual)  survival, is the thing. Which is
the big deal for Christians.

In part 1 of GR (Beyond the Zero) there IS a lot about personal survival, though
Spiritiualism is only semi-Christian.

The Christian stuff in part one is election and preterition.

P.

>
>
> Lateran Council of 1513
>
> "Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul
>  that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council do condemn
>  and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal,
>  seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...]
> immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions
>  shall be shunned and punished as heretics."
>
>  for a longer excerpt of von braun's text:
>  http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/von-braun.html
>
>  in this case i think he just takes lavoisier's principle to its limit
>  anyway: nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is
>  transformed.
>
>  so here we go again, science/mysticism, mixing together. the rocket?
>  i don't know what pynchon's view on it is and do we really care?
>  isn't it more what his characters' views are anyway?
>
>  greg