20 world religions and faith practices 389

Robyn Lebron Death and Afterlife Dying in America is a complex and distasteful process for most American families and often a taboo subject As Timothy Leary puts it, Dz‘•– Š—ƒ „‡‹‰• ƒ”‡ –ƒ—‰Š– –‘ ˆƒ…‡ †‡ƒ–Šǡ Ž‹‡ Ž‹ˆ‡ǡ ƒ• ˜‹…–‹•Ȅ Š‡Ž’Ž‡••ǡˆ‡ƒ”ˆ—Žǡ”‡•‹‰‡†.” He goes on, In America all of these threatening perceptions of death, and the fears that they engender, have become integral to the development of a high-income death industry; pre-death medical treatment, cadaver dressing including makeup, artificial u nder s kin i nserts, w igs, f reezing, embalming, burials, cremations, urn-production, casket-building, funerals, home visiting, soul saving and church/temple services are all part of this As Robert Hatch says, “ ‘” ‘…‡ ™‡ …‘’Ž‡–‡ Ž‹ˆ‡ǯ• ’ƒ••ƒ‰‡ǡ ™‡ ‡–‡” ƒ ”‡ƒŽ ™Š‡”‡ –™‘ †‹˜‡”‰‡– ˆ‘”…‡• …‘–”‘Ž ‘—” †‡•–‹›Ǣ –Š‡ —†‡”–ƒ‡”‘—”„‘†›ǡƒ† ‘†‘—”•‘—ŽǤ”8 But atheists must face this multiple-layered challenge with an additional concept that there are no gods and there is no afterlife And as atheists, they must come to terms with this position, not only as an intellectual exercise, but as part of their emotional well-being and their scientifically defined way of living and viewing life To face death is to be able to prepare for this last part of living, to embrace it as an end and not to fear it It is a fundamental part of who they have chosen to be—an atheist Death in America is tightly interwoven with religious ritual and political regulation So there is another hurdle the atheist has to deal with in preparation for death Obviously, atheists are not interested in having prayers said over their corpses or some kind of processional cemetery burial But the problems go much further than this It is during dying that the first problems begin An atheist believes that he or she is a biological machine whose purpose is to make a difference here and now There is no afterlife Therefore, life itself is very valuable But they also believe that if their existence is no longer going to benefit anyone, they should be allowed to cease to exist And so when they are physically and mentally at weak or vulnerable moments, atheists are faced with a fight whose rules are created by people who don’t necessarily look at life through the same prism as they Choices in dying must be carefully considered by atheists long before that time comes ~ 388 ~