>People invent religions that posit some sort of afterlife so they can comfort themselves with the belief that they are immortal, and this is such a powerful impulse that even the supposedly non-religious, like de Grey, recreate this belief in the guise of science fiction.
Just because immortal life is a religious belief doesn't mean that someone seeking it scientifically is "science fiction". Nor is something being science fiction evidence that it's actually scientifically impossible (Jules Verne was actually right in a large proportion of sci-fi predictions he made!).
Nature doesn't dictate how you "have to" feel about death. Welcome it, be indifferent to it, hate it -- whatever. Your life, your view.
But most people who've been fairly close to death don't exactly want to invite it where it hadn't already stuck its head in.
Just because immortal life is a religious belief doesn't mean that someone seeking it scientifically is "science fiction". Nor is something being science fiction evidence that it's actually scientifically impossible (Jules Verne was actually right in a large proportion of sci-fi predictions he made!).
Nature doesn't dictate how you "have to" feel about death. Welcome it, be indifferent to it, hate it -- whatever. Your life, your view.
But most people who've been fairly close to death don't exactly want to invite it where it hadn't already stuck its head in.