Recently, one of my best friends was having a bad week and part of that badness was related to how he imagined his afterlife might go with the new information he was struggling with. Can we take it as given that i suck at being consoling? I try, but what I mean and what I say are often close to polar opposites. For example, decades ago I was flying across country on a business trip with a co-worker and friend who was terrified of airplanes and flying. To me, this seemed inconsistent with the fact that he and his wife traveled around the country visiting amusement parks and testing roller coasters. So, I suggested, "If the plane goes down, it will be the wildest roller coaster ride ever!" His only response was to grip the seat arm rests even tighter and chew on his lip to the point of drawing blood.
In a similar sensitive manner I tried to reconcile my friend with my firm belief that he won't have to worry about any of that messy stuff after he dies because he'll just be dead. I went on to explain that any fantasy I might have ever had about a benevolent god (goddess or gods) died with my mother; when she was 34 and I was 9. No explanation of god's "mysterious ways" total bullshit reasons or motives cut through my loss or made a lick of sense.
What I didn't explain was that as I've grown older I've studied a lot of religions and philosophies (like Buddhism) from Native American to Asia and South America and many of the weird variations of Christianity. From when I was a teenager until my late-20s, that was the sole focus of my non-fiction reading. Many religions echo the good parts of friends, family, social obligation, generosity, and humility. Most of them have instructions for how to dispose of or enslave infidels, too. No matter what you believe, someone thinks you are an infidel unfit to live.
After that burst of religious curiosity flamed out, I have spent the rest of my life studying nature, philosophy, science and technology, psychology and sociology, and, lately, biology and especially neurology. The more I learn about humans and the other species with whom we so poorly share this planet, the less convinced I am that there is anything special about humans. In particular, I can find no evidence in human behavior that would make me think we're likely to do anything other than die when we die. At our best, as Kurt Vonnegut said, “I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead.” That is as good as humans ever get. Which is nothing special, since every other animal on the planet does pretty much the same thing.
Like my very religious step-sister, my friend said, "Wouldn't you like to see your mother again?"
First, I don't remember her at all so I don't have an answer for that. More importantly, though, what I'd like to happen has damn little to do with much that happens in life and that suggests I will have a whole lot less control in death. I do realize that a lot of people pin desperate hope that we'll all be "going to a better place" in death. Honestly, I think they won't be disappointed on several levels. If life has been a miserable trial and disappointment, death will be a better place even if that place is nowhere.
The fact is that science has solidly proven that we are our brains. (There is a book with exactly that title and I strongly recommend it.) Our brains are not just a part of us, those blobs of grey matter, blood, and water are all there is to us. That shouldn't surprise or freak us out. It is pretty well known that a variety of head injuries can cause dramatic personality changes. If getting whacked on the head can turn a quiet, friendly person into a raging and violent criminal, produce a radical personality change including a completely different accent, or just turn someone into a vegetable, it's pretty obvious that the thing we hope is a "soul" is just who we are at the moment. We are the sum of the things our brain has decided we are and a tweak or two to that glob of gray and white soft tissue can make us into someone else. That, of course, means there is no "fixed" me or you and that pretty much blows the whole pipe-dream of a soul to dust. Some people, like my friend, think that clinging to the hope of a heaven (or hell) is what keeps them on track. I can't find any evidence that is true. Every awful, vicious, disgusting, immoral or amoral act humans make has been done by many people who claim to believe in some form of heaven or hell. In fact, most of the worst things humans have done to each other in our bloody history were driven by religions. So, logic and science indicate that there isn't a life after death. Recent and past history proves that humans do not behave better if their philosophy is based on any of our religions' threats or promises. The only remaining point the existence of religion may have is that religions provide an income for a few people; at the expense of many people. Not a convincing argument.
No comments:
Post a Comment