Subject
SIGHTING: NYT on Atheists and Afterlife c/o Klein
From
Date
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<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/magazine/29robots-t.html>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/magazine/29wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
The Way We Live Now
Eternity for Atheists
By JIM
HOLT<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=byll&v1=jim%20holt&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=jim%20holt&inline=nyt-per>
Published: July 29, 2007
If God is dead, does that mean we cannot survive our own deaths? Recent
best-selling books against religion agree that immortality is a myth we
ought to outgrow. But there are a few thinkers with unimpeachable scientific
credentials who have been waving their arms and shouting: not so fast. Even
without God, they say, we have reason to hope for — or possibly fear — an
afterlife.
[. . .]
f death is not extinction, what might it be like? That's a question the
Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick, who died five years ago, enjoyed
pondering. One of the more rococo possibilities he considered was that the
dying person's organized energy might bubble into a new universe created in
that person's image. Although his reflections were inconclusive, Nozick hit
on a seductive maxim: first, imagine what form of immortality would be best;
then live your life right now as though it were true. And, who knows, it may
be true. "Life is a great surprise," Vladimir
Nabokov<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/vladimir_nabokov/index.html?inline=nyt-per>once
observed. "I do not see why death should not be an even greater one."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/magazine/29wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
The Way We Live Now
Eternity for Atheists
By JIM
HOLT<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=byll&v1=jim%20holt&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=jim%20holt&inline=nyt-per>
Published: July 29, 2007
If God is dead, does that mean we cannot survive our own deaths? Recent
best-selling books against religion agree that immortality is a myth we
ought to outgrow. But there are a few thinkers with unimpeachable scientific
credentials who have been waving their arms and shouting: not so fast. Even
without God, they say, we have reason to hope for — or possibly fear — an
afterlife.
[. . .]
f death is not extinction, what might it be like? That's a question the
Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick, who died five years ago, enjoyed
pondering. One of the more rococo possibilities he considered was that the
dying person's organized energy might bubble into a new universe created in
that person's image. Although his reflections were inconclusive, Nozick hit
on a seductive maxim: first, imagine what form of immortality would be best;
then live your life right now as though it were true. And, who knows, it may
be true. "Life is a great surprise," Vladimir
Nabokov<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/vladimir_nabokov/index.html?inline=nyt-per>once
observed. "I do not see why death should not be an even greater one."
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm