nonsense

I read a post on the facebook several days ago which mentioned that someone I knew some time back has died recently. And the post ended with “God just gained an angel who...”

When I see that kind of nonsense I just think, “Ug. People...really?”

Look, I realize this is insensitive, but...

People die. Okay, I’m sure that anyone who was really close to this person who died feels sad. They feel a sense of loss. I understand.

And maybe I’m just a heartless fuck, but...

“God” doesn’t gain an “angel” when a human dies. I don’t remember such a thing from Sunday school. So why do we say such things? I don’t get that. Humans and “angels” are different creatures. Aren’t we humans, according to the mythology, the pinnacle of creation? Certainly we’re above angels in the standard hierarchy. I think it’s because we have free will. Angels were created as servants, but we weren’t. So to become an angel would be a sort of demotion.

Now, exactly how would it be helpful to someone to think a dead friend or loved one has now been demoted to angel?

.   .   .   .   .

Clearly it’s just soft and fluffy, touch-feely nonsense that people tell themselves and each other to keep from dealing with the reality of the situation—that we humans are like everything else on this planet: we die and then our bodies become fuel for something else.

But no! We do not accept that. So we try to fool ourselves into thinking we’re some special immortal exception.

It’s not even enough for us that we imagine the “soul”—the essence of “what we really are”—separates out and continues on forever. We try to fool ourselves into thinking our bodies are gonna go on forever too. And not just with medical advances and cryogenic dreams.

We don’t generally want people to see normal, naturally decaying dead human bodies. So we pump them full of chemicals and paint them up to preserve the appearance of life, and we seal them in air-tight boxes before we put them in the ground. And we express horror at the idea that dead bodies are eaten by something. Even if it’s just bugs, or plants, we’re all eaten by something.

Every living thing on the planet eats other life and is, in turn, eaten. That is what happens, every day, every year, every millennium. That is how the whole thing works.

I can only hope that one day I’ll be delicious.