“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

Relax, friends and neighbors. Those words are not mine.

I was reading some semi-coherent garbage on an atheist blog at the Uncredible Hallq (not Chris, BTW, someone posting) , on his entry for the GOD OR NOT here, where this theist started this stream-of-consciousness crapola (standard stuff: they think they’ve hit some sort of ‘epiphany’, and of course the little dears feel obliged to share. Ain’t that nice?). So I’m reading this, and this fellow comes forth with:

“Yet we are part creature. Overwhelming evidence shows us that we all will die and not come back to life. The question is, does our consciousness die with our bodies? Here is where faith is key. You say yes and I say no. Your opinion is based on empirical evidence, and so is mine.”

Which in and of itself is a contradictory statement.

Somehow, this all put me in mind of an incident, some 11- 12-odd years ago.

We were all at a family function, at my brother-law’s stepfather’s house. My older sister, niece and I were sitting on a couch, watching a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western (and I believe it was The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, I could be off), when this scene is shown:

Clint is riding off, while leaving the Mexican/Hispanic/guy of Spanish descent standing on a thinly railed fence, hands tied behind his back, noose around his neck, struggling to keep his balance while spitting vitriol at Clint’s fading back.

My poor niece, who was of tender years (and yes, it was stupid to be watching that particular movie with a child of her age) began to freak out. My older sister (who’s lacking in the empathy department BIG TIME), who had her arm around our niece, makes that face, you know the one, I’m out of my depth here, oh shit kinda face, pulls away, thoroughly nonplussed.

Time for fun uncle to take the helm on this one. So I hugged her, consoled her with what little I knew, etc, etc, et al. I’m pretty positive I didn’t use the ‘God’ or “Jesus’ crap (come to think of it, even pre-atheist, it wasn’t my M.O, not at all).

But her exact words were: “I don’t want to die!”

Poor little thing. Of course not. Who does?

Which, in my own haphazard way, leads right back to the whole religion topic.

They all want to be immortal.

We are all of us as unique as a snowflake, each of us. Panoplies of all shapes, sizes, and personalities. Of course it’s a hard bullet to bite. That we blink out of existence when the candle gutters and goes out.

One facet of religion is that it’s more or less the survival instinct gone haywire. It’s an intaglio on our nervous systems, a triggering of the fight-or-flight instinct, the adrenaline squirt of fear.

I recall as I was considering becoming an xtian, re-reading Revelation(s), and seriously weeping from the emotional impact and the implications of it. Boy, was I frightened! Those who know me know that I don’t scare easily.

This aspect is proof that evolution shaped this world. One proof, of many.

Fear. Survival. These things shaped us.

And we shaped religion.