There I was, nearly having a near death experience the other day. Became intimately acquainted with intimations of mortality. They say there are no atheists on operating tables, but there I was, putting my trust in a competent surgeon and hundreds of years of science and medical technology rather than the spaghetti monster, and I seemed to get by alright. No bolt of lightning plunging the room into darkness or anything like that.
But it got me thinking about thinking about death. A little while ago I had read one of those articles, the kind I must have read a thousand times, in which the punch line was "of course humans are the only animals that know about their own death" or words to that effect. But there, in a room that was a much less pleasant (and scarier) version of the Starship Enterprise bridge, I began to question this truism.
Humans the only animals that know about their own death? How do we know that? Not elephants, or whales, or gorillas, or dolphins, or chimps, or bears, or pigs? Are we sure? Mourning (including dogs for their human owners) by birds and mammals for lost or dead young ones, lost friends, is a sure sign of awareness of death and its completeness. How do we know that the understanding of death as loss does not extend to the individual elephant or gorilla being aware that its time must come? Why would it not?
No, I think this is yet another attempt by humans to assert their own superiority, their own separateness from the rest of the animal kingdom from which some are so reluctant to understand we evolved. At various times humans have been said to be different to animals (that is, all animals) because of tool-using, the presence of two brain hemispheres, the ability to feel pain, an opposable thumb, language use. None of these hold up after further study (even chickens, it has been found, have separate brain hemispheres) and so the religious among us now come down to just the knowledge that the bell tolls for all of us as proof of our superiority. More wishful thinking.
In fact it seems to me that knowledge of death is more advanced among animal species. The behavior exhibited by many animal species when a member of their family group dies or is killed suggests that they know for a fact that death has a sting, that it is forever, and that the bones that are eventually all that remains of a once loved mother or baby are indeed all that remains.
Religious humans, on the other hand, don't understand that they will die. They refuse to use the word die, but speak of someone "passing", of being "reunited" with previously dead family members, of being resurrected (whatever that might mean). We don't pass, by the way, we D.I.E, and we won't be seeing anyone over the other side - I'm sure the animals know that. So perhaps that is the ultimate difference between animals and humans. All animals know that death is final. Some humans fool themselves with talk of life after death. Needs a bit more evolution, old Homo sapiens, to start seeing the world as it really is - a matter of life and death.
Some people think the Watermelon Blog is a matter of life and death, but it's much more serious than that.
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Ed Graham
Also, in the 4 Nov 2005 issue of "News in Science," in an article titled "Elephants mourn their dead," their behaviour is described again.
I have observed behaviour in Orcas that indicates to me that they are aware when one of their members has been taken away from them. In the 1960s, when one of a pair of adults was captured in Puget Sound for an aquarium, the other adult, with their juvenile orca, was observed traveling just beyond the surf all the way from Washington down into Mexico. It was reported in the media as they slowly made their way south. I observed them myself, from the surf, and it was a haunting experience. I felt as if I was being accused of having done something inhumane. I could tell that the one parent still free was aware that I was observing it, by its behaviour. I will never forget the experience.
I am not sure if this is what you are talking about, but yes, some animals are aware when one of their family members is dead or gone.
I am glad to know You are well, I so do enjoy your in-put. An eloquently expressed post, I concur completely, as a matter of *Fact*, it is exactly my personal educated contention that what you have so eloquently spoke to *Is* what is needed for Humanity in order to take the next step towards the great now paradigm shift. It is of import to the very survival of our species, *No* question about it, as a matter of the cognitive sciences (our make-up) we must make this leap, or our cognitive dissonance (with regard to dying) will be our undoing, as we shall never truly learn to respect life, if we don't realize it is quite finite. Agape.
I need to fess up front that I am one of the faithful, ... but I use the word "die" to describe what happens to us, ... where we go, and what happens to us. My stillborn son died before he was born. My twenty year old daughter died in her sleep of unknown cause. My other two daughters live and breathe to this day, ... and a couple of grandsons read my silly stories to help them fall asleep.
I'll die some day too, and rot and stink, ... but hopefully people will have a chance to put me where that won't bother them much. I already took care of that, ... small piece of real estate in a quiet place. I know, ... selfish of me. My last investment, near a bunch of Revolutionary War Soldiers in a patch of Pennsylvania woodlands.
I see living folks, who are dying, ... a dear high school friend, post stroke and heart attack, living with his dad, ... of 89, ... and I'll have dinner with them next week. Maybe I can help him find a housekeeper/cook.
If my dead children were here, I suspect this might be what they would ask me to do. What you see as fantasy, I see as conscience. I am a microbiologist by training. My patients taught me about life, however. My kids taught me love, and that is all
Basically, I don't know how anyone can argue either case: That there is an afterlife or isn't. We have no real evidence. Further, I don't know why it is a matter of such (excuse the term) religious importance. Militant fundamentalists and militant atheists strike me as equally illogical.
I see no conflict between science and God and am baffled that either camp views the other as an enemy. IMO, if a God exists, science would be the mechanism by which that God operated. Evolution? An elegant mechanism. It is only the Fundamentalists in either camp that believe the entire other camp threatens them.
But ... unlike either camp, I have no urge to push my views on anyone else. ;-)
PS: Religious instruction is optional and up to individuals to pursue in appropriate venues. Science is a generalized "good" and should be taught in science class. Religion has no place in Science instruction.