"The thought of death has been familiar to me for a long time. From the time that skeletons were carried through the streets of Calanda during the Holy Week procession, death has been an integral part of my life. I've never wished to forget or deny it, but there's not much to say about it when you're an atheist...
"Since I reject the idea of a divine watchmaker, (a notion even more mysterious than the mystery it supposedly explains), then I must consent to live in a kind of shadowy confusion... At least it keeps my moral freedom intact...
"As I drift toward my last sigh, I often imagine a final joke. I convoke around my deathbed my friends who are confirmed atheists as I am. Then a priest, whom I have summoned, arrives; and to the horror of my friends, I make my confession, ask for absolution for my sins, and receive extreme unction. After which I turn over on my side and expire. But will I have the strength to joke at that moment?"
--perhaps not the last Puritan but the last Pelagian.
Merry Christmas, CGE
***
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> Santayana beat you to it. It was said that he believed there was no
> god and mary was his mother.
>