Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Big Fish and Life Lessons

Recently, I have seen a lot of talk about how atheists respond to death, how they grieve/cope, and the advantages of religious beliefs. Many people, not myself, think that religion gives people any easy way to cope with the loss of loved ones. Religions typically prescribe the conditions of an afterlife and everyone assumes that their loved ones end up in the "good" portion of the afterlife. "Knowing" that the deceased have gone to "a better place" gives religious people solace - supposedly. I think most atheists overrate how placated believers are by the existence of a pleasant afterlife. We all still feel a vast sense of loss and thinking that your loved one is in a better place does not yield any less tearful nights (In my opinion). The sense of loss is still there, and nothing but time really closes the pit. If an afterlife does exist, then most people end up in the "bad" portion - irregardless of anyone's thoughts.

Big Fish, the movie, actually lays out an incredible concept: you are a sum of your stories. Just as the father lived on, so too to each of us go on to an afterlife consisting of the legacy we left behind, stories, memories, physical objects, anything. We live far past our life-spans in the "collective consciousness" of mankind. When an atheist losses a loved one we still need to grieve, but no more than our religious brethren. We posses the memories and the stories of those who passed. Simply remembering or sharing them brings the deceased to life and we can learn (over much time) to appreciate the joy they gave us and come to terms with the fact that they left their mark - their story is written, they have become the big fish. They will no longer grow and over time their stream will dwindle, but there is no reason to be more hurt by a loss than a religious person would be.

Of course if there was an afterlife that was paradise everyone would be ecstatic, we'd cherish death. However there is no good evidence for one and almost everyone is skeptical, otherwise we would happily embrace death and celebrate the passing of loved ones (some eccentric people do).

I may expand this later.

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