Category: Death and Immortality
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Beethoven, Billy Bob, and Peggy Lee
The Man Who Wasn't There is one of my favorite movies, and the best of Ludwig van Beethoven is as good as classical music gets. So enjoy the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata to the masterful cinematography of the Coen Brothers. Here is the final scene of the movie. Ed Crane's last words: I…
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The Dignity of the King
Wherein resides the dignity of the king? At every time in every possible game, the king is on the board. He cannot be captured: he never leaves the board while the game is on. He alone is 'necessary,' all other pieces are 'contingent.' But at game's end, he too goes into the box with the lowliest…
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Hitchens on Conversion
Christopher Hitchens, Mortality, Twelve, 2012, p. 91: If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. Witty unto the end. But in the end, what does wit get you? One last vain flash of brilliance and then extinction — or judgment.
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Six Types of Death Fear
1. There is the fear of nonbeing, of annihilation. The best expression of this fear that I am aware of is contained in Philip Larkin's great poem "Aubade" which I reproduce and comment upon in Philip Larkin on Death. Susan Sontag is another who was gripped by a terrible fear of annihilation. There is the…
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Dallas Willard (1935-2013)
I met Dallas Willard only once, at an A. P. A. meeting in San Francisco in the early '90s. I had sent him a paper on Husserl and Heidegger and we had plans to get together over dinner to discuss it. Unfortunately, the plans fell through when a son of Willard showed up. But we did…
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Up or Out!
Academic tenure is sometimes described as 'up or out.' You either gain tenure, within a limited probationary period, or you must leave. I tend to think of life like that: either up or out, either promotion to a Higher Life or annihilation. I wouldn't want an indefinitely prolonged stay in this vale of probation. In…
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Roberto Rosselini’s Socrates
It was my good fortune to happen across Rosselini's Socrates the night before last, Good Friday night, on Turner Classic Movies. From 1971, in Italian with English subtitles. I tuned in about 15 minutes late, but it riveted my attention until the end. It is full of excellent, accurate dialog based on the texts of Plato that…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Death and Resurrection
Bob Dylan, See That My Grave is Kept Clean Bob Dylan, In My Time of Dyin' Bob Dylan, Gospel Plow Bob Dylan, Fixin' to Die Johnny Cash, Ain't No Grave Johnny Cash, Redemption Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus Johnny Cash, Hurt Mississippi John Hurt, You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley Johnny Cash, Final Interview. He speaks…
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Death Limits Our Immorality: Death as the Muse of Morality
How much more immoral we would be if we didn't have to die! Two thoughts. 1. Death sobers us and conduces to reflection on how we are living and how we ought to live. We fear the judgment that may come, and not primarily that of history or that of our circle of acquaintances. We…
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One Thing You Won’t Blog About
Nothing is not fodder for the omniloquacious blogger. Nothing but one thing: his being dead.
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The Grim Majority Maker
Whatever minorities we belong to in life, in death we join the greatest of all majorities, ever swelling, never diminishing, unconquerable, affiliation with which, once begun, never ends.
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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
"Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis 3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem…
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Mary Neal’s Out-of-Body Experiences
The personable Dr. Neal recounts her experiences during this 13 and a half minute video clip. The following from an interview with her: The easy explanations—dreams or hallucinations—I could discount quickly, because my experience—and the experience described by anyone who's had a near death experience or other experiences that involve God directly—is different in quality and…
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Sinatra’s Epitaph
The epitaph on Frank Sinatra's tombstone reads, "The best is yet to come." That may well be, but it won't be booze and broads, glitz and glamour, and the satisfaction of worldly ambitions that were frustrated this side of the grave. So…
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Is Heaven Real? A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience
Excerpt: There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension…