tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7284679451675824447.post6692584810701484147..comments2013-04-12T00:09:11.577-07:00Comments on Consolations of Atheism: CONSOLATIONS ONE TO FIVE: CONSOLATIONS OF ATHEISMRichard C. Vitzthumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02632217976781855832noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7284679451675824447.post-70013937212815241142011-08-21T08:33:47.253-07:002011-08-21T08:33:47.253-07:00Wonderful post - But downplays some of the more da...Wonderful post - But downplays some of the more dangerous elements of Christianity here in the US and around the world.<br /><br />See the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist (perhaps of greatest danger to their own children), KKK, but also the immoral preachments against condoms resulting in much death and suffering in placed like Africa - combined with their frequent opposition to women's rights.Dark Starhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04356850749159919331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7284679451675824447.post-38544314279095702462011-08-02T11:53:46.089-07:002011-08-02T11:53:46.089-07:00As I read this blog's calm, reasoned case for ...As I read this blog's calm, reasoned case for atheism and respectful acknowledgement of the religious impulse in others—however misguided, delusional, yet all-too-humanly understandable such an impulse may be—I kept thinking of Philip Larkin’s poem “Aubade” and wondering whether he would have been consoled. The poem is filled with Larkin’s frequent fear of death: a fear that appears in his letters and some of his poetry and which comes to a head in "Aubade." In the poem, death is described as "The sure extinction that we travel to / And shall be lost in always" (lines 17--18). I wonder whether poor Larkin, who correctly dismisses religion as "That vast moth-eaten musical brocade / Created to pretend we never die . . ." (23--24) and who worried, even as a young adult and perhaps with phobic overtones, about his eventual destiny "Not to be here, / Not to be anywhere, / And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true" (18--20), would have been consoled by the notion that, following death, he would still be here, in a sense, but minus his precious human consciousness. Indeed, if I understand the blog, the late Larkin continues to exist in his atomic particles’ presumably long-term and permanently re-arranging presence in materialism. Would this view, to which I am sympathetic, be sufficient to refute or assuage Larkin’s darkly funny, partly self-mocking line which claims, "Being brave / Lets no one off the grave. / Death is no different whined at than withstood" (38--40)? If I follow the blog’s argument correctly, death is indeed not a matter for whining or withstanding, exactly, but is, rather, another stage of our oneness with materiality that we should accept logically and calmly. Still, for Larkin who, despite his appearance in his poetry as a lonely, somewhat disconnected, watchful outsider, often signals a desire to be connected, would his dread of his consciousness being “lost” to the here and now have been overcome by the consolations offered in this blog? I cannot tell! (Professor Vitzthum: Thanks for the blog. This is Mark R. Matthews here: the British graduate student who took your Seminar in Symbolism and whose M.A. thesis on Henry James you directed in the eighties and whom you also helped, years later, with an independent study of Emerson. I was pleasantly surprised to discover your blog and to note similarities of your perspectives on religion and death to my own—having grown up in rather secular England! It’s funny how, sometimes, even the selection of one’s teachers may include compatibility of perspectives of which one is unconscious at the time. If, by any chance, you have never read "Aubade," you may appreciate reading it. Certainly, those amongst us who are as unflinchingly honest and thoughtful as Larkin seems to be in his poem and who cannot embrace the various religious faiths’ well-intentioned, fairy-tale-like consolations may need arguments for atheism’s consolations; helpfully, your blog strives to provide them. For your personal information, let me mention that I am still a full-time member of the English Department at Anne Arundel Community College, and if you are at all curious to see how I appear in my latest material form—the years are passing!—a recent picture of me at Adlestrop, England, last summer, can be reached here: http://www.aacc.edu/english/mrmatthews.cfm My best wishes to you. I look forward to following the blog.)Mark R. Matthewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05118831930199292764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7284679451675824447.post-62914985783807218402011-06-17T05:17:22.029-07:002011-06-17T05:17:22.029-07:00Hello Richard, after receiving your request, I su...Hello Richard, after receiving your request, I suspiciously went first to your blog and after reading your "consolations" I am super impressed at how you've somehow stolen my thoughts and rearranged them, added some neat data, organized the whole and gave it a terrific invitingly humanistic tone so that I can now explain confidently and without apology why I am an atheist. Terrific writing and thinking, Richard!Jerryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02591636340249323419noreply@blogger.com