Here is yet another sneak peek at my new book -- To Make A Better World, which will be published soon. I hope you enjoy this, the fourth excerpt teaser. This chapter, though brief, deals with the ideas and desires nearly everyone has in finding meaning in their lives. Because the chapter is short the excerpt is also short, after-all, I'm not giving my book away. Please feel free to share this link with your friends, and let me know any thoughts you have, thanks.
by Joshua Michail
Excerpt #4, from: the chapter "Living in a Meaningful Way".
We who refuse to accept an
imagined afterlife can actually find some comfort nonetheless. One
must accept that one's death is inevitable and so that fact should
not be allowed to be a source of anxiety. I have long said “there
is no reason to worry, if you can do something about it, then do it.
And if there's nothing you can do, then don't waste your time
worrying!” The fact
that we die is immutable, and so the only questions of worth
pertaining to our death are how, what, when, where and why. One's
life and how much use one made of it is all that really matters in
this regard. Did one take the time to enjoy being alive? What did one
do with his/her life? Did one make the most of being alive? Did one
enrich in some manner the lives of others?
Many religious people ask how does an atheist find meaning in life.
The answer is actually quite simple. It is in all the ways any human
finds meaning, except, of course, worship of and devotion to the
alleged supernatural. We find meaning in our relationships with our
families and friends. We find meaning in scientific and philosophical
pursuit of knowledge. We also find meaning in helping others, in
doing what we can for the greater good of society and humanity, or at
least in making a beneficent impact on some people. We may find some
comfort in understanding that our life, while of limited time, is an
extremely complex expression of the materials of the universe. We are
stardust, as it were. All of the organic compounds, in our bodies and
elsewhere, are based on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and many other
chemical elements which were created in the stars in the course of
their lives. The stars are our creators in a sense, though not
intentionally. When the many stars that once existed had died out in
explosions the materials that we – and everything we know of –
are made of were expelled. This process seeded the universe with rich
complex elements. The very elements necessary for life to arise. We
are the product of a great universal recycling program.
Yet people still desire some form of ritual, it comforts them. This
is an aspect that religions have long offered. It has been one among
a few key principles that has really been the glue that has stuck
people to religion as believers. In this manner, I think that there
are similar secular opportunities. I've heard the tired arguments
about comfort in times of pain and loss and about the meaning of
one's life, or “purpose”, and on and on in this vein. It is my
opinion that these questions can be answered very well by philosophy
without the need to invoke supernaturalism. So in response to the
tired and sarcastic rhetoric about “Do atheists cry at
funerals?”, the answer
is yes, of course, after all we are human! But what would an atheist
funeral look like then? This is an honest, albeit a naive query. I
think that there is a powerful need that we naturally seek at such a
time. An atheist's funeral may well include listening to some of the
deceased person's favorite music, it would likely include eulogies
given by friends and family, a review of the person's life, perhaps
even the reading of some of the deceased person's favorite relevant
quotations or poetry. A wake is a good possibility, after all
wouldn't one want one's friends and family to celebrate, not one's
death but one's life? I quite like the thought of my friends and family
bonding over reminiscence of their memories of me, and in the process
they can help each other in their grief. Wakes are not an ordinary
party, they are a tribute to the one who is deceased. In what way
does this seem to be so strange compared to a religious funeral?
The point is that
all of those things often happen at funerals anyway, but they never
need to invoke the supernatural, myths or consolation prizes. All
that is needed is the fulfillment of the human need to say goodbye.
In that way the need for ritual, or better yet tradition, is
obviously fulfilled. Personally, when it comes time for my funeral I
would like those who will gather to listen to some of my favorite
music, to give an honest yet respectful account of my life and to
read some nice relevant quotes. Two of the particular quotes I will
share with you here. First, is from Mark Twain: “I
do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years
before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience
from it.” The second
is from Richard Dawkins: “We
are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are
never going to die because they're never going to be born. The
potential people who could have been here in my place, but who will,
in fact, never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of the
Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than
Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set
of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set
of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and
I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few who won the
lottery of birth, against all odds, how dare we whine at our
inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority
have never stirred!”
©
2015, Joshua Michail, all rights reserved.
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