[lbo-talk] Deathbed conversion of Gramsci

[Carrol Cox]

One fervid English Calvinist of mid-17th-c came to reject immortality,
and recorded in his diary that the realization of his mortality gave him
much peace, not having to fret anymore about possible damnation. And of
course if I remember correctly, this was part of the epicurean argument:
that the fear of death was the fear of punishment by the gods, and to
demonstrate mortality and the indifference of the gods eliminated the
fear of death. When we are dead, we don't know we are dead, so why
worry.

Carrol

Shane Mage wrote:
> 
> On Nov 25, 2008, at 5:23 PM, Chris Doss wrote:
> > I would think deathbed (re)conversions would be rather common. I
> > dunno about you, but every time I've thought I might be near death I
> > grasped at every straw, natural or supernatural, I could find.
> 
> Even for one with the very best prospect for success in the afterlife,
> religion offers no consolation at all at such a moment.  Witness the
> last words of the Emperor Vespasian: "I fear I am becoming a god."