>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.