Month: June 2019

“But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the world, wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Iluvatar [the One], which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy.” – J.R.R. Tolkien¹

In the last two posts, we explored the defects of immortality; now I would like to invert the question and look at the positive side of mortality. At the individual level, there are five advantages to biological mortality. First is the cessation of bodily degeneration and suffering. If aging continued indefinitely – all of us would end up increasingly frail, physically limited, perhaps even demented. Painful conditions would be unending. Death then is release from aging, frailty, mental degeneration, and pain. Seen in this light, it seems more an act of mercy than one of deprivation.

Second, death serves as a focal point for life itself. If we lived forever, there would be no urgency to do anything, and nothing would likely ever get done; or once major accomplishments were complete, life would become aimless. Martin Heidegger in his book Being and Time refers to the experience of ‘Being-towards-an end’ or ‘Being-towards-death’ as leading to authenticity:

“Being-towards-death is the anticipation of a potentiality-for-Being…Anticipation turns out to be the possibility to understand one’s ownmost and uttermost potentiality-for-Being – that is to say, the possibility of authentic existence.”²

Third, if there is no spiritual immortality, one is spared the angst of trying to divine the criteria for reward in the afterlife, and is thus free to act based on one’s own assessment of the nature of reality and ethics. Jean-Paul Sartre discussing existentialism sees mortal man as totally free and concludes:

“…there is no doctrine more optimistic, since man’s destiny is within himself…the only hope is in his acting and that action is the only thing that enables a man to live.”³

Fourth is limitation on duties. In theory, if one were immortal, one might be considered responsible to master all fields of human endeavor and solve all the problems of mankind since one would have an infinite time to accomplish this. However limited longevity relieves us of such open-ended obligations and expectations. Rather we are permitted the choice of what our interest and ability lead us to accomplish during a finite lifetime. Guilt of omission cannot be avoided wherever there is free will, but at least that guilt is limited by our existential finitude.

Last, mortality offers an exit to the unwelcome changes in the world around us. Human nature seems to prefer stability and routine over constant change and unpredictability. Mortality assures us we live in a specific time subjected to only the upheavals of a few generations. Our obsolescence is limited by our life spans. For myself, where once I wished to see far into the future, as I age, it seems more and more that I fear seeing too much of it. Mortality assures me a specific historicity which is integral to my existence.

Mortality then offers many benefits to our individual life and can be reasonably reclassified as a good. Next we will look at the value death has for nature and the universe.

¹Tolkien, J.R.R., The Simarillion, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1999. ISBN 0-618-12698-8, page 42

²Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Harper Perennial Modern Thought. 2008.ISBN 978-0-06-157599-4, page 307 (263).

³Sartre, Jean-Paul, Existentialism and Human Emotions, Philosophical Library, Inc., 1957. Pages 39-40.

“Without the belief in the existence of the soul and its immortality human existence is ‘unnatural’ and unbearable.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky.

In the last post, we scrutinized biological immortality and found it unworkable for nature and wanting for us. Now we will analyze the desirability of spiritual immortality. There are two considerations in our analysis: consequences for this life and concerns regarding the afterlife.

The immediate consequence for our life on earth would be that this life is infinitesimal by comparison to the afterlife. Therefore it would be critical to know how to behave in this life to assure the best afterlife, but that pathway is unknowable. Decision-making would become impossible and paralysis might be the result. Even if one knew the best course, it would limit choices in this life, require servitude over self-actualization, and be a source of immense anxiety as perfect compliance would be unlikely or impossible. One would have lifelong fear of punishment in the afterlife and the reality of eternal torment if one chose wrong. Immortality in Hell seems much worse than mortality and oblivion.

You might counter with the consideration of eternal reward in Heaven for those who succeed, or even that the afterlife will be bliss for all, not a ground for equalizing goods and moral retribution. The question then becomes what is eternal reward? Nothing initially pleasurable is likely to be pleasurable forever. If God can make pleasure somehow last forever, what meaning is there in a robotic or drug-like ecstasy? Spirits are incapable of activity or creation, nor is there anything to gain from such efforts. If there is a Heaven, there is a God and he already has all knowledge and can do anything, so there seems no point in trying to learn, discover, or make anything. And meeting the greatest humans in history would not be exciting once we are aware of the insignificance of mortal life compared to eternity. In fact, between the inactivity of spiritual existence and the monotony of eternal paradise, the likely outcome would be intolerable boredom and ennui. Moreover if eternal bliss truly exists and is assured at death, what point can biologic life have? – logically we should end it as soon as possible.

Reincarnation also offers little consolation: unending rebirths without memory of past lives, enduring consequences of the errors of one’s unremembered self, repetition of the phases of human life without the benefit of experience, and being reborn as an animal or plant with their unfortunate life and death cycle lead invariably to Buddha’s first noble truth – life is suffering. And it is no surprise that in Eastern traditions, nirvana entails the end of reincarnation with either impersonal existence or oblivion.

In conclusion, the presumed or hoped for benefits of spiritual immortality are an illusion. Paired with the unworkable and undesirable features of biologic immortality, our analysis reveals the longing for immortality is an intellectual deception. Perhaps mortality is preferable as we will discuss in our next session.