When Greta Christina writes a book on a subject, it’s usually so thorough and well-written you won’t need any other. And her latest e-book (eventually to appear in print as well) continues the tradition. In less than eighty pages, Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God covers every essential base, and is really the book for an atheist to get for building a usable philosophy of death. I couldn’t think of anything she didn’t address, and she even addressed some aspects of the question that would never have occurred to me!
And this is surprising given how brief this book is. It isn’t tediously thorough, as in surveying the history of the philosophy of death, or the contemporary status quaestionis in academic philosophy, or anything that would be, really, if perhaps interesting to some, nevertheless useless to most. No. This little book cuts right to the essential ten or so questions that we should have answers to, and models how to figure those answers out. And all in thoroughly practical terms. This is a book about the philosophy of death that actually confronts the practical reality of it, and helps you come to practical terms with it.
One consistent theme throughout is that atheists are actually better positioned to deal with death than religious believers are. The afterlife security blanket that faith-based beliefs offer, actually makes things worse for us, and is not to be coveted as an asset after all. A sound and productive philosophy of death requires actually confronting death, and not avoiding the subject or, worse, pretending you’ll never die. It also requires dealing with death as it relates to the real world, and not the ivory tower.
To these ends Christina accomplishes a lot in just twelve very brief chapters:
She touches on the importance of the ontology of time. Life is valueless without experience, and experience is impossible without change, and change is impossible without letting things end. And the past does not cease to exist, but in fact can never cease to exist. Once done, it is forever a part of what has been. She touches on why we should ask not just what the meaning of life is, but also what the meaning of death is–and just like atheists discover for life, so for death: there is no meaning to either, except the meaning we create for it. And accordingly, she talks about deriving utility from death, the same utility we derive from all deadlines.
Christina also touches on some of the science showing that religion actually doesn’t comfort people the way it is claimed, that in fact believers are often more panicked about death, and plan worse for it, than nonbelievers. She points out that this is an asset to unbelief that can be cultivated to improve human life. Because we know we aren’t immortal, we make better use of the time we have, and make better plans for its end. We can do that even more, and more of us can do it well.
She also touches not just on the science, but on the philosophy of confronting death among the believing. As she notes, an afterlife doctrine is only comforting if you never actually think about it. The moment you start facing it with the same full analysis with which you should be facing mortality, the comfort it allegedly brings rapidly unravels. (And when she gets to this part, you’ll find some of the best philosophizing about religious claims that you’ve never before seen.) Christina also takes on the other side of the coin: pessimistic atheism; and she does it without any gooey whitewashing or rose coloring of reality.
Christina also touches on how even though lots of what we are and do will survive us (and lists some key examples, and they are indeed things we do or ought to strive to leave in our wake), that’s not going to cancel the reality of loss. And it’s okay to react emotionally to that. And accordingly, she touches on the practical culture of what to do as and for the grieving. Including a survey of what actual atheists, in the real world, do and have done in matters of grief and loss (with a lot of help from the developing resources at Grief Beyond Belief), and why we need resources and social groups dedicated to grieving nonbelievers (from practical assistance, to coping, to funeral services), who obviously receive no benefit from religious grief support, and are even often harmed by it.
She even touches on the old adage “there are no atheists in foxholes,” and shows how the adage is not just false, but conceals a very ugly form of bigotry that wouldn’t be tolerated if directed at any other faith culture.
Finally, Christina concludes, as she often does (e.g., in Coming Out Atheist, also IMO an essential buy and the book to read or give someone on its subject; and Why Are You Atheists So Angry, IMO a far better and more useful book on atheist basics than anything ever written by the four horsemen), with a chapter summarizing a list of further resources, in this case for atheists dealing with death related questions in their lives.
In short, this is the best book on the atheist philosophy of death you are likely ever to read.
