The Void

The following is from Roger Ebert’s journal (he is so much more than a movie reviewer). This post is about Christopher Hitchens, a renowned atheist. (I reject atheism proselytizers as much as any others.)

Traveler to the undiscovere’d country – Roger Ebert’s Journal

Ebert: I was asked at lunch today who or what I worshipped. The question was asked sincerely, and in the same spirit I responded that I worshipped whatever there might be outside knowledge. I worship the void. The mystery. And the ability of our human minds to perceive an unanswerable mystery. To reduce such a thing to simplistic names is an insult to it, and to our intelligence.

Traveler to the undiscovere’d country – Roger Ebert’s Journal

It’s an interesting take, although he lost me at worship (barf). I think a lot about the unthinkable, especially the unknowable. I think we’re fools – scientist or priest – to believe the entirety of our knowledge is more than one grain of sand on an infinite beach. Moreover, I believe there are things not merely unknown, but truly eternally and infinitely unknowable.

However, gawd, in every variation humans have imagined, is not a part of that. (But, I can’t know that, can I.) More to the point, death is not part of that. We know what death is and we deny it every chance we get. Death is not a passage to a new adventure. Death is the end of self. But, no worries, you won’t feel a thing. After all, you didn’t spend the millennia before your birth tapping your foot and watching the proceedings.

Share this…

One thought on “The Void”

  1. I so wish the world would accept your conclusion about death. It would become such a better world if there was no expectation of an afterlife. (N.B. that I used the term “expectation” rather than “hope” as you and I have a difference of opinion where hope is concerned).

Comments are closed.