SECTION VIII Chapter 5. Is Religion Intrinsic to Our Human Condition?/ How do Atheists Cope with the Concept of Their Own Mortality? "Hear, therefore, but believe what is true. I approached the confines of Death and trod the threshold of Proserpina: I was carried through all the elements and returned again: in the middle of the night I saw the sun gleaming in radiant splendor. I approached into the presence of the gods below and the gods celestial and worshipped before their face." --Apuleius (referencing the ancient Greek mysteries) "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." --Jesus Christ (John 11:25) "The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever." --Anatole France "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." --Stephen Roberts "One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it--they also believed the world was flat." -- Mark Twain "The wise man will always reflect concerning the quality, not the quantity of life." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca "If there is a sin against life, it lies perhaps less in despairing of it than in hoping for another and evading the implacable grandeur of the one we have." -- Albert Camus "I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking." -- Carl Sagan "While you do not know life, what can you know about death?" --- Confucius (when asked if there was life after death) Throughout recorded history, virtually ALL cultures can be seen to have worshipped some DIVINE element--albeit through many gods (polytheism), or through one God (monotheism). The vast majority of ancient peoples believed that there were powerful SUPERNATURAL being(s) who controlled the forces of nature--including storms, earthquakes, eclipses, plagues, etc. Ancient burial monuments--from the Egyptian pyramids, to Nordic megalithic graves--bear witness to mankind's belief and hope for a life after death. Even the Neanderthals, who lived in Western Asia around fifty thousand years ago, buried their dead with food, weapons, charcoal, and an assortment of flowers. (Anthropologists note that these are the SAME artifacts as those used by later ancient peoples--to send with their departed loved ones on their journey to the "afterlife".) The above is often interpreted to mean that most humans --by their very NATURE--are very religious creatures! "Similar" Religious Symbols and Themes Across Different Cultures Joseph Campbell devoted his life to studying the mythology that was shared among different cultures. He argued that he saw the SAME religious symbols (such as death, rebirth, etc) present in nearly all religions, albeit under different forms. That is, common ideals and archetypes--such as virgin births, fertility celebrations, and dying and resurrected gods could be found in most early civilizations. According to Campbell, "It's as though the same play were taken from one place to another, and at each place the local players put on local costumes and enact the same old play." Although there were obvious cultural differences in religious "myths" that he studied, the FEELINGS that were invoked in the stories were the same. Per Campbell, this occurs because there are some EXPERIENCES that are UNIVERSAL, or shared by all mankind. Being born helpless, all humans grow up experiencing an "attitude of dependency" towards grown-ups. Throughout early childhood, the child looks up to the adult for sustenance and guidance, and is punished for wrong-doing. A psychological study conducted by Jean Piaget in the 1930's confirmed this effect. It found that children of up to about thirty months of age, ascribed "god-like" attributes of power and knowledge to their nurturer(s). Possibly even adults may retain a vague, almost mystical memory of a powerful creature who watches after them and "protects" them from harm. Before the advent of modern medicine and technology, early deaths from disease, wars, or famines were a common occurrence. It is known that ancient farmers implored the gods to protect them from the vicissitudes of the weather--because they feared that they would not have enough food for their families. Young women invoked special prayers in the hopes that these would help them procreate healthy children. Whole families prayed to the gods to provide them with protection against violence, accidents, and disease. Fear of Death/Yearning for Immortality No doubt, the most important emotion shared by virtually ALL individuals in every culture and in every time, is related to our FEAR OF DEATH! For, at some point, every human has observed a death--only to be jolted by the realization that this-- shall one day--also be his/her own fate! Thus, every rational human who has ever lived, has had to eventually confront the meaning or "mystery" of his/her own impending death. At either a conscious or unconscious level, this naturally leads to feelings of insecurity and fears of insignificance. We naturally desire to attach ourselves to something GREATER outside ourselves-- to counter our feelings of insignificance and powerlessness to control our own future. It is therefore not surprising that many rituals have appeared in response to personal fears and uncertainties surrounding our daily lives. Campbell found that essentially all cultures around the world have powerful religious rituals that deal with the SYMBOLIC contemplation or "mystery" of our own death -- and with it, the hope that death is not the "End". Religions and mythologies were developed, in order to provide reassurance that one's life on earth DOES have meaning -- and that somehow there is some form of future life that transcends death. Many ancient cultures held religious beliefs that posited the existence of an eternal paradise-- whereby one could enjoy the sweetest pleasures of life, and reunite with friends and family. Sometimes this vision of paradise was located on the earth--as was the case of the happy hunting grounds of the North American Indians (located in some unknown place in the West under the earth), the green fields of Aalu of the Egyptians, and the Elysian Fields of the Greeks (located on the outer edges of the Earth). Other religions, such as the ancient mystery religions, promised a spiritual afterlife that was located upwards in the highest realms of the universe. The yearning for immortality is frequently expressed in many of the sacred writings of the world's oldest religions. For example, one eloquent passage expressing the desire for immortality, may be found in Hindu sacred writings of the Rigveda: "Where uncreated light, the world in which the sun is set, into this set me, Soma, in imperishable immortality... there... where bliss and joy, desire and enjoyment dwell, where...wishes are fulfilled, there make me immortal." The popular Christian writer, C.S. Lewis wrote, how upon reading SIEGFRIED AND THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, that this yearning had overtaken him--even though intellectually-speaking, he did NOT believe in the existance of the Germanic Norse gods: "Pure 'Northernness' engulfed me: a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer, remoteness, severity...and almost at the same moment I knew that I had met this before, long,long ago (it hardly seems longer now...And with that plunge back into my own past there arose at once, almost like heartbreak, the memory of Joy itself, the knowledge that I had once had what I had now lacked for years, and I was returning at last from exile and desert lands to my own country; and the distance of the Twilight of the Gods and the distance of my own past Joy, both unattainable, flowed together into a single, unendurable sense of desire and loss, which suddenly became one with the loss of the whole experience, which, as I now stared round that dusty schoolroom like a man recovering from unconsciousness, had already vanished, had eluded me at the very moment when I could first say IT IS. And at once I knew (with fatal knowledge) that to 'have it again' was the supreme and only important object of desire." C.S. Lewis (who described himself as a pagan during this period, but was recalling this memory now as a Christian) assumed this feeling was in preparation for when he would return to the worship of the "true" God: "...I came far nearer to feeling [gratitude] about the Norse gods whom I disbelieved in than I had ever done about the true God while I believed. Sometimes I can almost think that I was sent back to the false gods there to acquire some capacity for worship against the day when the true God should recall me to Himself." (C.S. Lewis, "Renaissance--Surprised by Joy", THE INSPIRATION WRITINGS OF C.S. LEWIS, Inspirational Press, 1987, p 40ff.) The Importance of Satisfying Our Human Need for "Enlightenment"--Experienced By Us as a "Mystery" It has been the life work of Joseph Campbell and others to show that individuals NEED myth and mystery in order to satisfy their innermost need for life to have meaning. Some have warned that unless this inner need for "mystery" is satisfied, that the individual's search to find "enlightenment" may lead them towards ABANDONING reason altogether. Joseph Campbell sought to show how the sciences could be reconciled with religion, through viewing the source of life itself-- as a "mystery". Per Campbell: "The source of life--what is it? No one knows. We don't even know what an atom is, whether it is a wave or a particle -- it is both. We don't have any idea of what these things are. That's the reason we speak of the divine. There's a transcendent energy source. When the physicist observes subatomic particles, he's seeing a trace on a screen. These traces come and go, come and go, and we come and go, and all of life comes and goes. That energy is the informing energy of all things. Mythic worship is addressed to that." (Joseph Campbell, THE POWER OF MYTH WITH BILL MOYERS, Doubleday, 1988, P.132) This "scientific" view of a mystery, was eloquently expressed in the introduction of the book, THE PARTICLE EXPLOSION: "Take a deep breath! You have just inhaled oxygen atoms that have already been breathed by every person who ever lived. At some time or other your body has contained atoms that were once part of Moses or Isaac Newton. The oxygen mixes with carbon atoms in your lungs and you exhale carbon dioxide molecules. Chemistry is at work. Plants will rearrange these atoms, converting carbon dioxide back to oxygen, and at some future date our descendants will breathe some in. "If atoms could speak, what a tale they would tell. Some of the carbon atoms in the ink on this page may have once been part of a dinosaur. Their atomic nuclei may have arrived in cosmic rays, having been fused from hydrogen and helium in distant, extinct stars. But whatever their various histories may be, one thing is certain. Most of their basic constituents, the fundamental particles-- the electrons and quarks--have existed since the primordial Big Bang at the start of time. " Albert Einstein wrote how he experienced the feeling of the "mysterious" in his line of work as a scientist and a philosopher.-- He believed this feeling served as the "source of all true art and science": "the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms -- this knowledge, this feeling, is at the centre of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men." What Happens if the "MYSTERY" Is Removed from Human Experience? It has been argued that since religious feelings play such an important function (ie, faith is so much a part of our being human), that to take away any one faith, means another one will rush in to fill the void. Remove all religion, and some secular equivalent, with its own sacred texts and unquestionable doctrines, can step in. For example, Russian Marxist communists have been accused of replacing conventional religion with an authoritarian mysticism. This latter mysticism depends on some vaguely defined divine power--which throughout the course of history, has been invisibly guiding society towards a workman's utopia. Many have argued that if ALL faith systems were removed, law and order within society could break down. Others have disagreed--observing that a number of agnostic/atheistic individuals have led moral and virtuous lives--even happy and fulfilled lives. (See ETHICS: Section VI, Chapters 3 and 4) Voltaire reconciled this discrepancy as follows: it was his observation that the masses had to believe in SOMETHING to make them behave in a "civilized" manner. According to Voltaire, only "philosophers" could accept the belief that there was no ultimate reward/punishment system-- and thus follow a set of moral codes whereby they lived a "good" life for the sake of goodness itself (or as the "cause" in itself.) Can Man's Terror of Death Affect his Religious Outlooks? It has been argued that man's fear of death is the main underlying cause behind our search for meaning using philosophy/religion. And that to believe that life has no purpose (a philosophical view known as "nihilism") can lead one to pronounce our existence as inherently "absurd". For example, the philosopher Albert Camus declared that because the universe does not care about the welfare of humans, that this gives birth to the idea of the "absurd". One must go on to act as if one's personal goals really have any value--this despite the fact that these are short-lived, and therefore in the long term--meaningless. According to Jose Ortega Y Gasset, even the religious and mystics fear, deep down, that life is without meaning--although they artificially cover this up "with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear": "For life is at the start a chaos in which one is lost. The individual suspects this, but he is frightened at finding himself face to face with this terrible reality, and tries to cover it over with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear. It does not worry him that his 'ideas' are not true, he uses them as trenches for the defense of his existence, as scarecrows to frighten away reality." Some psychologist believe that the attraction felt by many towards horror books and movies--goes back to this subconscious feeling of conflict. --That we want life to have a purpose, but deep down, there is a fear that there is "nothing out there" to protect us from a violent death. Agnostics and Atheists--Critics of Religion Individuals who question the existence of God, are sometimes broken down into two categories--atheists and agnostics. "Atheists" maintain that they KNOW that there is no God! That is, the atheist maintains that there IS enough evidence to believe that God does NOT exist. Because atheists are making assumptions which can NOT be 100% proven (ie that God does not exist), they have often been accused of being just as DOGMATIC as their religious counter- parts, who state they are 100% CERTAIN that God DOES exist. The term "agnostics" was first coined by Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). By definition, agnostics maintain that they "do not know if there is a God or not". That is, the agnostic believes that he does not have enough evidence to form an opinion, one way or the other, regarding God's existence. Indeed many agnostics are confident that it is IMPOSSIBLE for one to ever know whether there is a God or not. Robert Ingersoll argued that the difference between an atheist and an agnostic was really just a matter of semantics. That is, no one can really "know" whether there is a God or not. Even those who claim to KNOW that God exists--really do not, and can not actually know about this. The religious individual can only BELIEVE that there is a God. Likewise, the atheist can only BELIEVE that there is no God. Along a similar line of reasoning, Bertrand Russell wrote once how he was unsure whether he should call himself an agnostic or an atheist. As a philosopher, he felt he "ought" to describe himself as a agnostic, because he realized that there was no "conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God." On the other hand, practically speaking he was an atheist, because he assigned a LOW PROBABILITY to the existence of a God. By analogy, he compared this to belief in the Greek Homeric gods: "None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really existed, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. "Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophic audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line."' (ed., Al Seckel, BERTRAND RUSSELL ON GOD AND RELIGION, Prometheus Books,1986, p 85) Search for a "Proof" on Human Immortality Humans are the only known creatures who can contemplate their own personal extinction. Some believe it is no coincidence that humans are also the only known creatures to pray to a Superior Being(s). Most of the great classical philosophies have argued that a God must exist! How else could one explain how our complex universe came into existence? From here, it could be reasoned that God (from His definition of being all-powerful and all-good) must also allow for the promise of man's immortality! That is, surely God's intent is to reward virtuous individuals with continuing life after physical death. The importance of a belief that man can survive after death, forms the cornerstone of most modern religions. For example, St. Paul taught that without a belief in life after death, then faith in Christianity would be in "vain": "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? but if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (1 Corinthians 15:12-4) In many eastern religions, belief in immortality is believed to be accomplished via transmigration of the soul (a process referred to as reincarnation). That is, upon death the soul of the individual is believed to move into another life form--a human, animal, possibly even an insect. In Western religions, belief in the afterlife generally views the soul as surviving death, and living the rest of eternity in either a heaven or hell-like state. (Christian sects are not all agreed as to whether it is the physical body or an ethereal soul that is resurrected). Such doctrines can unquestionably lead many individuals towards discovering more meaningful lives, and help their mental state of mind by calming their doubts and fears regarding their (possible) mortality. Who can question the obvious value religion provides in soothing one from the trauma of death?-- Take for example, a young child whose parents have just been killed in a car accident.--He or she can be assured that he will see his parents in heaven. Take the young child who says, "Daddy, mommy, I don't want to die" or "Will I see my family and friends again after they die?"--who receives soft whispers of reunion and hope. Knowing the powerful tranquilizing effect this can have on one's anxiety from contemplating his/her own possible mortality, HOW do agnostics and atheists cope? How do THEY survive the fear of being DEAD after a mere lifetime--a twinkling in the immortal reckoning of time in the universe? How do Agnostics/Atheists Cope from Viewing themselves as "MERE" Mortals? Agnostics/atheists must somehow overcome the innate fear of dying before they can accept a life without belief in a divine, spiritual realm. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus taught, that "Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not." and in his LETTER TO MENOECEUS: "Become accustomed to the belief that death is nothing to us. For all good and evil consists in sensation, but death is deprivation of sensation. And therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality. For there is nothing terrible in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living." According to the Roman lyrical poet, Catullus (c 87-55? B.C.), death may be compared to a long night of sleep: "Suns may rise and set; we, when our short day has closed, must sleep on during one perpetual night." Mark Twain, was more irreverent on the subject: "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." Following are more examples of how individuals have coped with disbelief-- and its implicit rejection of immortality. * The secular humanist, Corlis Lamont, attempted to rationalize away his fear of death: "Regarding an afterlife with personal immortality, I find myself quite concerned with the fact that, according to my own views, I am going to be out of business entirely, annihilated, in another few years. I can laugh about it, sure, but I don't like it. Yet, I cannot change my opinion on that, and after all, we have to recognize that in many ways death is a friend of humanity. We treat death as our great enemy, but it does much for us. With a present world population of at least four billion, death at least gives a chance to the younger generation. And, furthermore, without our good friend death, we would never have evolved over the two billion years that have permitted us to emerge in a natural way. For death was a necessary factor in ridding earth of unprogressive species and giving human beings a chance to become lords of this planet, as it were. Death at a good old age is not an evil. What is bad is premature death, death in all the horrible wars and in the terrible terrorist outbursts that are sweeping the world today." ("Humanist Reflections", Corlis Lamont, THE HUMANIST, September/October 1988 p 26,48) In his ILLUSION OF IMMORTALITY, Lamont suggested that by freeing ourselves from our illusion of immortality, we are revitalized to living life to its fullest depth: "The truth about death frees us from both debasing fear and shallow optimism. It frees us from self-flattery and self-deception. To say that we cannot endure this truth is to abdicate to the weaker elements in human nature. Not only can we endure it, but we can rise above it to far nobler thoughts and acts than those centering around everlasting self-perpetuation... "...the knowledge that immortality is an illusion frees us from any sort of preoccupation with the subject of death. It makes death, in a sense, unimportant. It liberates all our energy and time for the realization and extension of the happy potentialities of this good earth. It engenders a hearty and grateful acceptance of the rich experiences attainable in human living amid an abundant Nature. It is knowledge that brings strength and depth and maturity, making it possible a philosophy of life that is simple, understandable, and inspiring..." (Corliss Lamont, THE ILLUSION OF IMMORTALITY, Prometheus Books,) * Albert Einstein redirected his fear of death away, by contemplating on "the mystery of conscious life": "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own--a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbour such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetrating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature." *Others like Joseph Campbell, evaded negative feelings of death by focusing on thoughts of bliss every moment they are alive--and opening up oneself to experience the transcendental and mystery-- that binds individuals with the universe. To Campbell, it is through the rite, the ritual-- that we are connected to this mystery: "it is the rite, the ritual and its imagery, that counts in religion, and where that is missing the words are mere carriers of concepts that may or may not make contemporary sense. A ritual is an organization of mythological symbols; and by participating in the drama of the rite one is brought directly in touch with these, not as verbal reports of historical events, either past, present, or to be, but as revelations, here and now. Where the synagogues and churches go wrong is by telling what their symbols 'mean'. The value of an effective rite is that is leaves everyone to his own thoughts, which dogma and definitions only confuse. Dogma and definitions rationally insisted upon are inevitably hindrances, not aids, to religious meditation, since no one's sense of the presence of God can be anything more than a function of his own spiritual capacity. Having your image of God--the most intimate, hidden mystery of your life--defined for you in terms contrived by some council of bishops back, say, in the fifth century or so; what GOOD is that? But a contemplation of the crucifix works; the odor of incense works; so do, also, hieratic attires, the tones of well-sung Gregorian chants, intoned and mumbled Introits, Kyries, heard and unheard consecrations." (Joseph Campbell, MYTHS TO LIVE BY, Bantam Books, 1972, p98) * L. R. Wasson described how she overcame her fear of death, following her loss of faith: "When I realized I was losing my belief in conventional religion, I soon realized this would require overcoming my fear of death and the loss of immortality, that had been promised to me in my childhood. I remember, for the first few years, waking up a couple of nights in a cold sweat, from picturing my body lying in a decomposed state in some future grave. "I had read how others had euphemistically referred to death as being like SLEEP! However, although I tried approaching death in this manner, this proved to be of little consolation to me. After all, with sleep, I could too easily picture myself waking up the next morning. I tried ignoring thoughts on my impending death--but at times, especially at night, visions of my grave would continue to haunt me. I was finally able to completely overcome my fears of death through the following realization: Why, I reasoned, should I fear that period of time FOLLOWING my death, when I do NOT fear the eons of time that existed PRIOR to my birth? (Footnote: Lucretius offered essentially the same argument--ie not fearing death through the analogy of there also being an infinity of time that existed prior to when we were born). ...I also came to understand that all of us, are tightly bound together into this mystery called life. When I now become saddened from the death of a loved one, I redirect this into general love for humanity-- as I realize how many of the aspects of the person I have loved is flowing through the veins of other life. I feel as if my outlooks on death have served me far better than the religious beliefs of other people around me. Whereas I have had to confront my own mortality and DEAL with it--I see in them submerged feelings, that they are now forced to confront for the first time during periods of stress, such as the funeral of a loved one. The "unspoken" uncertainty, is I think the worst part for them. The saddest situations of course occur when mourners somehow believe God has taken an active role in their suffering--and is either "testing" them or "punishing" them. I have personally seen this lead to fear, followed by long bouts of depression... I count myself truly fortunate to consciously face, without the "painkiller" of religion (along with its potential adverse side-effects), the fate that eventually meets ALL life on earth. Although I grieve for the shortness of individual life, I fully embrace the vast mystery of life itself--of which of course, ALL of us participate in some way." Since attaining this view, I have never again been bothered by MY own lack of personal immortality." *According to Irving Singer, in his book MEANING OF LIFE, the philosophy of nihilism (ie "life has no meaning") focuses on our inevitable "non-existance"-- Such a gloomy view should be replaced by an attitude whereby we are happy at experiencing the wonder and joy of life all around us--every day we are alive: "I remember going through a very painful period when I was fifteen or sixteen, during which I was troubled by reflections such as these: Not only will I die and be expunged but so too will the earth, the solar system, and possibly everything else that exists in the universe; and whatever anyone achieves can only have local importance and short-lived value; in itself nothing is permanently or objectively good of bad; and therefore everything adds up to nothing and nothing really matters... I gradually outgrew the depression that accompanied these ideas, and I am not suggesting that my depression was caused by them rather than vice versa... Fortunately this type of anxiety can have a positive side. Once our hopeless questioning has reverberated in us, we may also intuit the mystery and the wonder in everything being what it is. The source of our anxiety will not have changed but our attention will now be focused on the mere fact of existence rather than the obscure possibility of non-existence... Instead of asking why there is something rather than nothing, we attend to the amazing--what may seem miraculous--presentation of any thing and every thing... We feel this most keenly when goods are showered upon us beyond our expectations--serendipities or unforeseen joys, and above all the gift of a newly created life with which we can identify...[W]e may feel joyful exhilaration just in being alive and in the immediacy with which we experience our own existence. ...Mysticism is a means by which some people cultivate this capacity in themselves. For most of us it is hard to reconcile the implied passivity of mysticism with the need to act dynamically in order to survive. We may nevertheless approximate the mystical attitude by enjoying, and contributing to, the development and efflorescence of life...We can sense the mystery of mere existence by looking in the eyes of a domestic animal as well as in those of a human being, and in both cases we may express our enjoyment through action for the welfare of the creature to which we are attending." (Irving Singer, MEANING IN LIFE--THE CREATION OF VALUE, The Free Press, a Division of Macmillan, Inc, New York, 1992, pp 80-82) *Bertrand Russell wrote that those who view themselves as part of a river of life (a view similar to Buddhism), will not fear death, as the things they care for will continue: "An individual human existence should be like a river -- small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and -- in the end -- without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man or woman who, in old age, can see his or her life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things they care for will continue." *According to H.G. Wells, every stage of human existence--from early childhood throughout adulthood--represents a different person. For example, memories from earlier periods--such as (1): when he was a twelve months old and and (2) when he was "an angry young man in his twenties" who became scarred by broken glass-- now seemed foreign, very DIFFERENT people to him in his later age. Wells intellectualized that this meant that, even during our "Life", a great part of us has "already died and is gone forever"--That is, even during that short period while we live on earth-- our being is mortal and ever-changing. *According to Clarence Darrow, the fact that, as we grow older, we lose our memories of earlier events and old friends and acquaintences, convinced him that some of his "consciousness" was already dead. Because of this, he posed the following question regarding the belief in the resurrection of the body: "if I am to be resurrected, what particular 'I' shall be called from the grave, from the animals and plants and the bodies of other men who shall inherit this body I now call my own? My body has been made over and over, piece by piece, as the days went by, and will continue to be so made until the end. It has changed so slowly that each new cell is fitted into the living part, and will go on changing until the final crisis comes. Is it the child in the mother's womb or the tottering frame of the old man that shall be brought back? The mere thought of such a resurrection beggers reason, ignores facts, and enthrones blind faith, wild dreams, hopeless hopes, and cowardly fears as sovereign of the human mind." According to Darrow, the fact people "hesitate to ask questions about life and death" shows that, deep down, they fear that "only silence comes out of the eternal darkness of endless space." For "[I]f people really believed in a beautiful, happy glorious land waiting to receive them when they died; if they believed that their friends would be waiting to meet them; if they believed that all pain and suffering would be left behind: why should they live through weeks, months, and even years of pain and torture while a cancer eats its way to the vital parts of the body? Why should one fight off death? Because he does NOT believe in any real sense: he only hopes." "Everyone knows that there is no real evidence of any such state of bliss; so we are told not to search for proof. We are to accept through faith alone. But every thinking person knows that faith can only come through belief. Belief implies a condition of mind that accepts a certain idea. This condition can be brought about by evidence. True, the evidence may be simply the unsupported statement of your grandmother; it may be wholy insufficient for reasoning men; but, good or bad, it must be enough for the believer or he could not believe. Upon what evidence, then, are we asked to believe in immortality? There is no evidence. One is told to rely on faith, and no doubt this serves the purpose so long as one can believe blindly whatever he is told." (Clarence Darrow, "The Myth of the Soul", ed., William B. Williamson DECISION IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, Prometheus Books, 1984, pp 381 and 379) *According to George Santayana, we should accept that nothing we do lasts forever: "That the end of life should be death may sound sad: yet what other end can anything have? The end of an evening party is to go to bed; but its use is to gather congenial people together, that they may pass the time pleasantly. An invitation to the dance is not rendered ironical because the dance cannot last forever." *On a similar note, H.L Mencken wrote: "When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness...No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever...I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it." *Robert G. Ingersoll rationalized how we can still FEEL immortal, even though we are not: "I am immortal in that I cannot recollect when I did not exist, and there will never be a time when I shall remember that I do not exist." * According to the agnostic, Thomas Huxley in a famous letter to Charles Kingsley, it is the religious that mask their own fears of death, as opposed to honestly dealing with them. Huxley recalled the scene from his son's funeral: "As I stood beside the coffin of my little son the other day, with my mind bent on anything but disputation, the officiating minister read, as a part of his duty, the words, 'If the dead rise not again, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' I can not tell you how inexpressibly [these words] shocked me... I could have laughed with scorn. What! because I am face to face with irreparable loss, because I have given back to the source from whence it came the cause of a great happiness, still retaining through all my life the blessings which have sprung and will spring from that cause, I am to renounce my manhood, and, howling, grovel in bestiality? Why the very apes know better, and if you shoot their young, the poor brutes grieve their grief out and do not immediately seek distraction in a gorge." (Leonard Huxley, LIFE AND LETTERS OF THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, Appleton, 1900, Vol. I, p. 237, as quoted by Corliss Lamont, LIFE WITHOUT IMMORTALITY.) * According to Kurt Baier, the Christian view of the universe has conditioned us to believe that our current life is unimportant, so as to raise our expectations that ONLY eternal life has any "real" meaning: "The Christian evaluation of early lives is misguided because it adopts a quite unjustifiably high standard. Christianity singles out the major shortcomings of our earthly existence: there is not enough happiness; there is too much suffering...the underprivileged and underendowed do not get adequate compensation; it lasts only a short time. It then quite accurately depicts the perfect or ideal life as that which does not have any of these shortcomings. Its next step is to promise the believer that he will be able to enjoy this perfect life later on. And then it adopts as its standard of judgment the perfect life, dismissing as inadequate anything that falls short of it. Having dismissed earthly life as miserable, it further damns it by characterizing most of the pleasures of which earthly existence allows as bestial, gross, vile, and sinful, or alternatively as not really pleasurable." "This procedure is ... illegitimate... Even if it were true that there is available to us an afterlife which is flawless and perfect, it would still not be legitimate to judge earthly lives by this standard. We do not fail every candidate who is not an Einstein. And if we do not believe in an afterlife, we must of course use ordinary earthly standards. "I have so far only spoken of ... what a person can get out of life. There are other kinds of appraisal... We judge a life more significant if the person had contributed to the happiness of others, whether directly by what he did for others, or by the plans, discoveries, inventions, and work he performed. Many lives that hold little in the way of pleasure or happiness for their owners are highly significant and valuable, deserving admiration and respect on account of the contributions made." "It is now quite clear that death is simply irrelevant. If life can be worthwhile at all, then it can be so even though it be short. And if it is not worthwhile at all, then an eternity is simply a nightmare. It may be sad that we have to leave this beautiful world, but it is so only if and because it is beautiful. And it is no less beautiful for coming to an end. I rather suspect that an eternity of it might make us less appreciative, and in the end it would be tedious." (Kurt Baier, "The Meaning of Life", inaugural lecture delivered at the Camberra University College, Canberra, Australia, on October 15, 1957 taken from Peter Angeles, ed, CRITIQUES OF GOD Prometheus Books, 1976) * According to the popular science writer, Isaac Asimov: "...There's a certain comfort, I suppose, in thinking that you will be with all of your loved ones after death, that death is not the end, that you'll live in some kind of never-never land with great happiness. Maybe some people even get a great deal of comfort out of knowing that all the people they don't like are going to go straight to hell. These are all comforts. Personally, they don't comfort me. I'm not interested in having anyone suffer eternally in hell, because I don't believe that any crime is so nearly infinite in magnitude as to deserve infinite punishment. I fell that I couldn't bring myself to condemn anyone to eternal punishment... "I feel if I can't do it, then God, who presumably is a much more noble being than I am, could certainly not do it. Furthermore, I can't help but believe that eternal happiness would eventually be boring. I cannot grasp the notion of eternal anything. My own way of thinking is that after death there is nothingness. Nothingness is the only thing that I think is worth accepting." (Taken from "An Interview with Isaac Asimov On Science and the Bible", FREE INQUIRY, Spring 1982, pp 6-10) And, "Unlike theists, I do not claim to have a pipeline to something supernatural. I do not claim to have absolute truth and an eternal answer to every problem past, preset, or future. Rather, I offer the fallible human mind doing the best it can to improve its view somewhat from generation to generation." * According to the modern Jewish humorist, George Mikes, our smiles, and good deeds--however small--make us a little "bit" immortal: "Some people may think: what a dreary, gloomy, mournful outlook mine is compared with the happy, bright and exhilarating promises of the Church. But, in fact, it is the other way round...Is it really so wonderful or virtuous to mislead yourself and others with childish and implausible promises and hopes? Is it not more courageous to face reality, particularly when reality seems to me more pleasant than the promised bliss? ..." "How many millions have been cheated, fooled, bullied into a miserable existence, condemned to poverty, slavery and injustice because they were forced to believe...in Never-Never Land. People gave up the joys of life, the pleasure and beauty of sex and family life, soldiers eagerly rushed to their deaths for rewards that never came." "The morbid preoccupation with cemeteries, tombs, graves, POMPES FUNEBRES is just another expression of fear. We do not even mourn the dead; we mourn ourselves. Every funeral is our own funeral; every grave is our own grave." "You carry in yourself the immortality of your forebears and you too will survive in your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You keep erecting monuments to yourself; not only in so-called works of art, but a garden here, an originally furnished room there, a few remarks you made, a few good deeds you did... If you have written, painted, built something or created something in any way you will live on in your creation for ten, a hundred or a thousand years. It does not really matter how long, the difference between ten and a thousand is much smaller than it looks from where we are sitting." 'But, even a thousand years is not forever', you may object, you greedy thing. No, it isn't. but, believe me, even eternity does not last forever...There is no such thing as THE world. We all look at it from behind our own eyes; THE world is OUR world, different from the many millions of worlds belonging to the people. When our consciousness ceases, whatever happens to us, our world dies--and dies forever. It will never be resurrected. Many thousands of worlds die every day, but our smiles, our modest good deeds, our small kindnesses, our few and limited achievements make US immortal. Not VERY immortal; but a bit immortal." (George Mikes, "On Real Immortality", HOW TO BE GOD (Penguin Books, 1988), Pp.104-7) *According to the atheist Laurie McCanna, "I was upset at first at the thought of not living forever, but then over time I realized several things: -- I will not be able to experience my non-existence, therefore at least I won't suffer because of it. -- The only reason I'm upset over not living forever is because I'm comparing it to the option of living forever (and under ideal conditions such as not growing older and getting senile), which was never a real option to begin with, so the comparison is unfair. -- I can stop worrying about and wasting time over preparing for the afterlife. -- I will naturally work harder to make the most of my life here, since I know I won't get a second chance. -- I don't have to worry about going to hell (and I stopped having the nightmares I used to have as a kid about going to hell). -- I don't have to worry about anyone I love going to hell. -- I can pride myself on being a strong enough person to accept a disappointing truth, instead of comforting myself with a lie. -- Even if there's a chance I'm wrong, I don't HAVE to be absolutely certain of everything. I can be satisfied that things are probably the way I see them (unless I discover contradictory evidence), and if absolute knowledge is not available it is just plain silly to demand it or manufacture it. -- I can pride myself on being able to accept a little uncertainty in life. -- With no universal plan or purpose for all humans (except perhaps, survival and replication of our DNA), we are free to choose our own meaning and purpose in life. After realizing all that, the thought of extinction at death is still not pleasant, of course, but it isn't horrible or dreadful or unbearable." * Mark Twain used HUMOR to distill any fear of the afterlife. Some excerpts from his writings on this subject include: --In his book HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Twain writes that Huck's reaction upon listening to Miss Watson's description of heaven was boring: "She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it." -- Twain argued that regardless of whether man went to heaven or hell, it would SEEM like hell: "He will think he is in hell anyhow, no matter which place he goes to; because in the good place you pro-gress, pro-gress--study, study, study, all the time--and if this isn't hell I don't know what is." -- According to Twain, "We may not doubt that society in heaven consists mainly of undesirable persons." -- And on the topic of the afterlife, "Heaven for climate, hell for society." * Benjamin Franklin called on us to live every moment of our lives now to the fullest: "Up, sluggard, and waste now life; in the grave will be sleeping enough." *Omar Khayyam thought it folly to pray for heaven after we die, saying—"Fools, your reward is neither here nor there." Khayyam recommended taking comfort in verses, wine, and his lover "beside me singing in the wilderness—and wilderness is paradise enough." Religions That Are Not Based on a View of Personal Immortality Not all religions promise a life after death. Not all religious individuals believe in immortality. Some religious philosophers, for example have written that although they would LIKE to believe in immortality, nevertheless, their intellect tells them, that this is unlikely. Voltaire, who was a Deist AND a philosopher, stated it this way: "Nobody thinks of giving an immortal soul to the flea; why then to an elephant, or a monkey, or my valet?... A child dies in its mother's womb, just at the moment when it has received a soul. Will it rise again fetus, or boy, or man? To rise again--to be the same person that you were-- you must have your memory perfectly fresh and present; for it is memory that makes your identity. If your memory be lost, how will you be the same man?...Why does mankind flatter themselves that they alone are gifted with a spiritual and immortal principle?...Perhaps from their inordinate vanity. I am persuaded that if a peacock could speak he would boast of his soul, and would affirm that it inhabited his magnificent tail." (Will Durant, THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY, Simon & Schuster, 1961, p 241 quoting Voltaire's IN MORLEY, ed 1886, p 286, DICTIONARY "Resurrection", and ROMANCES, p 411) While traditional Judaism shares Christianity's hope for an eventual PERSONAL resurrection in some future kingdom on earth, many ancient Jews did not hold this view. Instead the old patriarchal view within the Bible tells of living a long and prosperous life on THIS earth--and looking to their children for passing on their heritage--and, in essence, their immortality. (See Section VI, Chapter 1) Many agnostics and atheists who do not believe in any future afterlife, hold similar views to this today. (Note: The ancient Hebrews did NOT believe in a personal immortality BEFORE the Babylonian Captivity. That is, nowhere in the EARLIEST books of the Old Testament--such as the five books of Moses, is there ANY discussion of experiencing life after death. Instead the patriarchs hoped for old age and prosperity-- For example, the book of Job ends with Job being rewarded with a long life for his faith in God: "Job died, an old man, and full of days." There was some instances where a person was snatched by God BEFORE they physically died, to live in heaven--such as Enoch and Elijah. However there was no general hope for the faithful to be reborn again after death--instead these EARLY Old Testament books describe a shadowy, netherworld existence called Sheole, where EVERYONE went after death. It was AFTER the hebrews encountered Zorastrianism dualism and later Greek gnosticism that their Old Testament writings tell of a cosmic battle between good and evil, a destruction of the evil on earth, and a future life in a new earthly kingdom.) Because obviously some couples may be childless, "children" can be viewed in symbolic terms--to include all members of one's own biological family, one's entire race--or most generously of all, the spirituality of all children within the HUMAN race. Critics have argued that this view is inferior to a personal outlook on immortality, since the individual is NOT personally rewarded for leading a virtuous life on earth. Also if the world is eventually destroyed (say the earth is destroyed by atomic weapons, or the sun dies out billions of years from now)--then all earth's inhabitants will disappear-- breaking the chain of life. Some eastern religions (such as Buddhism, which do NOT promise a heaven, but a long chain of reincarnations culminating in nirvana), teach that humans are part of the same substance as the Divine. The suffering arising from the contemplation of our deaths can be greater than the experience of death itself. Religious adherents are encouraged to ignore their baser human feelings and desires, so that they can tap into their own internal rhythms--and thus experience the universal ALL that is within and a part of all of us. Through this process, the PERSONAL desire for eternal life becomes satiated, and the person can face life openly and peacefully. Some critics have charged that by giving up their PERSONAL self to join in with the collective spirit of the universe, these eastern religions, are in actuality, peacefully accepting their own individual ANNIHILATION. Also, this religious philosophy tends to keep one looking forever inward within oneself--thus lulling adherents away from taking personal action to help correct the EXTERNAL, physical problems of the world. Although this subject is well beyond the scope of this book--nevertheless it will suffice here to note that some have attributed the traditional DISINTEREST in applied sciences and technology in the East, to be a direct result of their "inward" religious outlooks!