Heaven’s Gate Suicide in Rancho Santa Fe

Re “Acceptance of Death Isn’t Freakish,” by George Weigel, Colum Right, March 30: There is nothing “freakish” in people’s desire to avoid the reality of death. Until our bodies begin to break down and we accept the idea that death is a natural fact of life, the prospect of ceasing to live can be horrifying to many of us. Wishing to find a way out of dying makes sense to me--it’s characteristic of being human.

The Christian way out, which Weigel touts, is one of the most popular and dramatic plans for human immortality: If we subscribe to the religion founded in the name of a man who died for us and then came back to life, then we ourselves will be resurrected, conquering death. Christianity encourages us to struggle with the pains and frustrations of earthly existence; the reward of immortality is granted after we die. Thus death, contrary to Weigel’s opinion, is denied, but life is not.

The Heaven’s Gate members, in cutting themselves off from outsiders, abstaining from physical pleasure and filling their minds with otherworldly fantasies, denied not only death but life too.

PETER LARSEN

Lake View Terrace

* Regarding the overreaction to the mass suicide that occurred in San Diego County last week: Why is it so much more difficult to believe that a spacecraft is traveling behind a comet headed toward Earth to transport people to a better life than it is to believe that a man walked on water, resurrected dead humans and brought sight to the blind?

Why do we shudder at the thought of those beliefs being responsible for the deaths of 39 people, while we never give a second thought to the millions of people who have suffered and died in the name of more conventional religions? Look at both sides and you will find that superstition in any form is a very dangerous thing.

JOHN J. PALAZZINI

West Hollywood

* Those who insist on calling the mass suicide a “tragedy” ought to consider that these people died for what they believed in, and how many people get to do that? These folks put on their Nikes, decided to “Just Do It,” drifted off to do some California dreamin’ and hoped that their Heaven’s Gate dogma would bear better fruit than the movie of the same name. Whether they were right or wrong, we’ll never know. In a world where personal choice counts for more than shared societal vision, what does it matter?

GREG MEYER

Downey

* What is wrong with this picture? Thirty-nine individuals, by their own choice, give up their lives. Enough said. Let the rest of us get on with our own lives. I personally will be a cheerleader for my 84-year-old mother undergoing severe chemotherapy this week, desperately fighting for hers.

BARBARA PEEL

Anaheim

* A comet appears. As a result, 39 people commit suicide. In 1997, not 1397. Somewhere, Carl Sagan, who worked so hard in his books and his brilliant show “Cosmos” to make true science accessible and to debunk pseudoscience, must be weeping.

THOMAS E. BRAUN

Littlerock, Calif.

* Was it really necessary to run a huge color photograph of a Heaven’s Gate cult suicide body on the front page (March 28)? I think not.

MICHAEL LAWLER

Los Angeles