Despite its being perfectly true, it is nevertheless a bland and uninviting idea.
Like a no longer wanted and out of date computer being unplugged for the final time.
I just watched a lovely film 'Ten Canoes', which talks about the aboriginal concepts of reincarnation and the soul, and their gods and creation stories. The ideas are warm, inclusive, promote tribal togetherness and bonding. Death isn't final for them, and the preparation for someone to return to there ancestors is rich with traditions - song, dance, paint and ritual.
Being cremated after being discovered alone, long days dead in your city apartment is a long way from that. Is that the atheist's end?
The community and bonding that humans appear to have fostered since our monkey days are so vital to our species.
Sure, there is no God.
But does that mean we should have no community? No close friends around us when we die? Maybe a song to remember us, a dance at a wake?
I hope that in the absence of a creator we can still find ways to bind together strongly. Strongly enough to retain a tribal togetherness. Just one not based on myths.
Here's hoping mine, and yours, end is more akin to the aboriginal and not the sad lonely city dweller.
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