Atheists: Facing the unfaceable

[h4ym4n]

I have a pet "theory" which posits that religion was a necessary evolutionary development to allow our distant ancestors to cope with the potentially paralyzing realization of our own mortality.

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I can imagine a proto-human staring dejectedly at a pile of human bones in existential malaise until he either starved to death or was eaten by a predator. They needed something to give them hope, because people without hope don't survive all that well, and certainly don't thrive.

I remember clearly when I myself first confronted my own mortality. I was 8 years old, laying in bed at night, and it occurred to me that one day I would cease to exist. It was a terrifying realization. When (a few years later) I encountered new-Age flakey claims of reincarnation and the eternal NOW and whatnot, I embraced it with a sense of relief. Maybe there was an available reprieve after all!

I often sense that same desperation in those who try to convince me that human life is eternal. They cannot even hear the facts, because the concept of death and annihilation of the self is unbearable.

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Yeah! That's a cool movie. It also shows how people in general have no problem accepting determinism, when it's displayed that way.

Except it's not classical determinism, because Bill Murray deliberately makes different choices every day, changing the timeline temporarily. Until he wakes up to Sonny & Cher again (Sonny and Cher forever - an allegory for Purgatory if I ever saw one!).

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