Believing in the Afterlife Belittles the Importance of a Life

When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.

Notes:

Folksonomies: science spirituality

Taxonomies:
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Entities:
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Concepts:
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Meaning of life (0.976388): dbpedia | freebase | yago
English-language films (0.824951): dbpedia
Life (0.813160): dbpedia | freebase
Afterlife (0.705818): dbpedia | freebase
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Inheritance (0.546169): dbpedia | freebase

 Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe... and Carl Sagan
Electronic/World Wide Web>Internet Article:  Druyan , Ann (December 2003), Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe... and Carl Sagan, Volume 27.6, November / December 2003, Retrieved on 2016-03-14
  • Source Material [www.csicop.org]
  • Folksonomies: science wonder spirituality sacred