Eaten by Maggots
An interesting discussion came up in the middle of my English class about this poem we were analyzing. It's called Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
So my teacher made this comment about how this is a really atheistic view of life. I told him this was a major generalization. I hold the opinion that atheists don't believe in a higher power. Does that also mean that atheists don't believe in an afterlife at all? (assuming the afterlife is not controlled by aforementioned higher power) Do atheists get absorbed into the earth and become a spiritual part of anything or do we just sit there and get "eaten by maggots?"
posted by Anonymous @ Tuesday, April 25, 2006
2 Comments:
I generally try not to debate about afterlives because it's impossible to do so in any logical mannner; it is impossible to observe what it feels like to be dead. Nobody alive has ever been dead (he said, from the blinded perspective). We cannot measure death. Ergo, it is one of those annoying things that is beyond logical comprehension.
So whenever such a situation arises––and somebody asks me what happens when one dies––i just respond with 'what happens before you're born?'
The Socratic Method: The coward's way out.
it would seem that if there were no god, there could be no afterlife since there would be no being to control it, so it would be irrational to think so if you were an atheist, then again we have no clue of knowing for sure
Post a Comment
<< Home