There are skeptics, such as Kenneth Storey, http://www4.carleton.ca/jmc/catalyst/2004/sf/km/km-cryonics.html

Wow. Now there's a data point for you. This guy's an expert in cryobiology and he still gets it completely wrong. Look at this:

Storey says the cells must cool “at 1,000 degrees a minute,” or as he describes it somewhat less scientifically, “really, really, really fast.” The rapid temperature reduction causes the water to become a glass, rather than ice.

Rapid temperature reduction? No! Cryonics patients are cooled VERY SLOWLY. Vitrification is accomplished by high concentrations of cryoprotectants, NOT rapid cooling. (Vitrification caused by rapid cooling does exist -- this isn't it!)

I'm just glad he didn't go the old "frozen strawberries" road taken by previous expert cryobiologists.

Later in the article we have this gem:

"they (claim) they will somehow overturn the laws of physics, and chemistry and evolution and molecular science because they have the way..."

This guy apparently thinks we are planning to OVERTURN THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. No wonder he dismisses us as a religion!

When it comes to smart people getting something horribly wrong that is outside their field, it appears much more likely to me that biology scientists are the ones who don't understand enough information science to usefully understand this concept.

The trouble is that if matters like nanotech, artificial intelligence, and encryption-breaking algorithms are still "magic" to you, well then of course you're going to get the feeling that cryonics is a religion.

But this is no more an accurate model of reality than that of the creationist engineer who strongly feels that evolutionary biologists are waving a magic wand over the hard problem of how species with complex features could have ever possibly come into existence without careful intelligent design. And it's caused by the same underlying problem: High inferential distance.