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Atheism and Death: The Test of Your Convictions

There's nothing like a big unhealty dose of acute bronchitis to get you contemplating lack of a future. Reality, so called, sharpens to an almost unbearable sequence of images, almost all of them surreal, such as leaving the doctor's office and stopping off at the health food grocer's, there only to be accosted by a scruffy looking customer who apologizes in order to catch your attention. What does he want, I ask. "Are you a Christian?" Hesitant, I ask myself, what is this, a come-on? A guy I know in my profession, a devout Catholic who once told me I could have as clients all the nuns in the archdiocese if only I'd convert, regularly enjoys making fools of street people, e.g. telling the pan-handlers seeking money for lunch, "I'll take you to a nearby restaurant," knowing they'll almost invariably beg off, some with honest admissions they're only seeking the cash for liquor or beer.

Feeling lousy, I couldn't think of anything to say except "No, I'm not," adding, in a cold voice, "and I am not religious, either." Had I felt better I would have said something blatantly atheist, but as it was, I only wanted to be left to my own devices. I just wanted to get rid of him, fast. Bob Dylan in a movie made the sound-over point that American capitalism uses fear to get us to buy things we don't really need, but I think he copped that notion from Burroughs, who said that our government and that nebulous thing we called, in the 60s, "the Establishment," put out conflicting messages ("believe this, don't believe this") in order to put us in a perpetual state of conflict, such that we buy things we don't need, thinking they'll distract us from our fears. Then, too, Eldridge Clever said that we would never have another revolution so long as the supermarkets stay open.

Dis-ease does something else to you, too: it heightens awareness of the truths of atheism, including the explanation that we are not conscious of life before birth, nor will we be conscious of it after death. Also, that the moment of birth is the time we begin to die. Dylan said that, too. One also finds less hostility to Christians who say that they're praying for you. Burroughs said "Pray in one hand, shit in the other; see which one fills up faster." Knowing from my awful cough, wheezing, and spitting gunk into tissue, at least three of my clients this week have said, "We're praying for you." I could set them straight, telling them, for example, that actual studies of prayer for seriously ill hospital patients showed not that prayer helped them but that it caused the prayed-for patients to die in greater numbers. But when you are seriously ill, you are not exactly in a mood to pick quarrels with people. And all of the drugs I've been taken have rendered me ineffective in debate.

Facing death is harrowing for some. I hope I can emulate the great Christopher Hitchens, dying of a brain tumor, incurable. I hope I can go out like he did, without retreat to belief, especially belief in that other country from which no one returns. But will I? Will I have that courage. To me, religion preys on people more than it prays for them. Like the Consul in John Huston's film of Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, I would like to believe but I can't. The scene of the Consul going into a cathedral and staring up at one of those waxy-faced Madonnas so prevalent in Mexican churches especially, is pure John Huston (the director of the film). In interviews, the atheist filmmaker said he wanted to believe but could not, that he actually envied those who could. He had emphysema and eventually died of it. I hope my acute bronchitis goes away soon without putting my lights out just yet. But I ain't gonna pray it away. If I die after their prayers, they can always say God works in mysterious ways. There's no mystery to me. You're born, you live, and you die. Life is what you make of it, and you don't need deity to get there.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on November 20, 2012 at 6:11pm

What I call a "Good Mother." In law, as regards children, their best interest is paramount. Nothing else matters. A Good Mother may screw up and drink too much, get strung out on dope, and fail to wake up early enough to take the child to school that day, but as the Bible says, "When I was a child [read: drunk/doper/&c.] I spake as a child, &c." but "now that I am [an adult]," and so forth. Doesn't mean she cannot be a Good Mother again. Mothers are truly amazing.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on November 20, 2012 at 7:29pm

The one thing I've never quit (like college, jobs, etc.) is being a good mother. It's the single most important thing to me in my world. I can't be happy if my kids aren't. Even as young adults now. I just can't. I will always, always, always put them first. It makes me happy. I have a good mother myself. :)

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on November 20, 2012 at 6:10pm

Oy, vay! You poor thing. My two sons learned to be somewhat independent of me and I believe I am generous with them. Their mother brought them up well.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hungerford on November 19, 2012 at 8:21pm

Cessation of being.

No awareness, because there's nothing to be aware of.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on November 19, 2012 at 8:24pm

Yep, sounds peaceful to me Mike.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on November 19, 2012 at 8:33pm

If Little Buddha suffered from Keanu Reeves as Gautama it nevertheless introduced some of us to the Heart Sutra. This is the one where the celebrant imagines the total non-existence of all things, starting with the eyes, hearing, speech, no this, no that -- I am relatively sure some of you know it. One of the Pops referred to Buddhism as "atheistic religion" and it got my garters twisted. Of COURSE it is an atheistic religion in that the Buddha is said to have told disciples he was not god, didn't want to be God, and if he was God, they were all insane. On his deathbed this guy was telling his people to doubt everything and use reason to decide what is true. No head, no heart, no --.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on November 19, 2012 at 8:25pm

Thus it is said in the Heart Sutra.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hungerford on November 19, 2012 at 8:33pm

Still though, being alive is the preferable option.

The prospect of mortality causes me to value my life more deeply.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on November 19, 2012 at 8:38pm

It is awesome that we are alive and aware, and exactly what you are saying Mike, knowing we will die, and that this is it, should make us value our lives even more.