Death to Atheists
March 31st, 2008
by Brian J. Sabel
No, not “Death to Atheists” - “Death as interpreted by an atheist,” silly!
Religious people frequently question me about death when they discover that I am an atheist. A common question is, “What happens when we die?” My frank answer is, “Nothing. We just cease existing.” The question presupposes the existence of a soul - a concept I reject. Instead I believe that what we know as a “soul” is actually an extremely complex network of natural inclinations and environmental influences. In short, this life is all we get.
Many faithful see this as a very bleak way to view our lives. Without the rewards of the afterlife, they say, our lives on earth have no value or meaning. They often view my rejection of a belief in an afterlife as a cynical and nihilistic view which robs humankind of our best qualities. They could not be more wrong. And, in fact, I feel that my view elevates the value of human life beyond the capacity of a religious view.
The finite nature of our lives compels me to believe that each life is unique, valuable, and irreplaceable. When a person dies she is gone and we will never get her back. The consequence of this belief is that I love the people around me very deeply because I recognize how precious they are and how fortunate I am to experience their lives - they could be gone from me so quickly.
To be sure, the idea that we will see our loved ones in the afterlife is comforting. But my belief in our temporariness is a constant reminder that I can never take my loved ones for granted in this life.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I first read about this as a concept through The God Delusion, and despite having never thought about it quite like that before, realized that it explained, quite succinctly how I approached my own inevitable death- and how much I appreciated the brief time I do have.
The other thing Dawkins points out is how impossible my own existence seems, given the stupefying odds against it. And that makes it so terribly precious.
How can that possibly be bleak? It makes it so much more valuable. Thanks for the post- it was really lovely.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Yes, actually I was planning a post on a similar topic and what I was going to talk about is how interesting and bizarre the universe really is. Almost certainly, my death will end my consciousness forever, but the energy and matter and comprised who I am will last for eons, not to mention that I will forever occupy a span in the universe’s arrow of time. The past is not “gone” as we seem to view it - it is still there each prior act frozen like a photograph… but it is still real.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
[…] on Death Posted April 5, 2008 Brian J. Sabel from Just Atheists wrote a post that caught my attention. Since my grandma died, I’ve been thinking about death quite a bit […]