You want a physicist to speak at your funeral.

"You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen."

- Aaron Freeman
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4675953

 

doesn't sound like any of that would help while weeping

 

Probably not. But it is pretty cool to think that your body is made entirely of hydrogen atoms changed by suns going nova. We are literally made of star dust.

We're all part of the process of converting hydrogen atoms into sentience. We are hydrogen made self-aware. That's some fucked up shit, yo.

 

The author is mocking atheism.

And his mocking is silly to me.

As humans, we can grieve and mourn loss without resorting to having some high priest lecture us on their unproven and unprovable views on a supreme being.

Have a wake for christ sakes. Son of g'd, yo.

 

Where in the world do you read mockery in there??

I think it's beautiful and elegant -- I'd be thrilled to have this read at my funeral. (If I wasn't dead, of course)

 

And I love the last bit about entropy:

"According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen."

 

Those are all personal heroes -- nice find. I do kinda wish I could turn off the autotuning, though...

 

Afterlife through the conservation of mass is actually featured in ALL of our versions, if you believe in chemistry.

Of course, some versions go far beyond this one...

 

I'm actually intrigued by this belief. I think it's pretty interesting that some believe that we are all recycled life. That the polar bonds of electrons and neutrons become the governing power of life. Of course this goes against my Christian belief, I love reading or hearing about other's views on the beginning and end.

 

Well, I dunno about the phrase "recycled life", but it's pretty clear that, at an atomic level, we are recycled matter. You are made of atoms that used to be in other living things, and after you die your body will literally become a part of other organisms. This says nothing about souls or heaven -- just the physical building blocks of your body. Of course, some Christians (such as Catholics) believe that your physical body itself will be reconstructed after the return of Christ, which raises several other interesting questions -- like which age will you come back as? And if two people at different times used the same atoms in their bodies, who gets dibs on the originals in the afterlife?

 

OK. If it isn't mocking, it is unhuman and cold. People (humans) are emotional. That is just a bunch of geek speak. If you got up and read that shit at a real funeral you would be the least popular person there. Try it if you think it is so great.

 

Recycled = dead. No more. Cease to exist.

What makes us human is the trillions of connection in our brains - synapses.

"recycling" the atoms in the human body, breaks the connections. Humpty Dumpty baby. Can't put it back together.

 

Isn't that awesome though? I love learning about the "unknown". It also brings up a huge question about quantum physics. Like are there different dimensions? Does time really exist? Can their be the ability to fold space and travel from one part of the universe to another as quickly as crossing the street?

This is why I think Science has a romantic and religious property to it. You have to think out of the box in order to get anywhere.

 

We'll just have to disagree on the aesthetics then -- I think you are reading it all wrong, but to each their own. For what it's worth, I've heard very similar sentiments expressed (and generally appreciated) at services before, and I thought they were geeky AND emotional. And great.

 

I'd agree with the romance -- the universe is an amazing, awe-inspiring thing, and even more so when one can appreciate the laws and symmetry behind it. You've got to be careful about the religious tag, though. The thing (IMO) that separates science from religion is that science has no problem with all the "unknowns". They are happily left blank and unanswered unless and until someone designs an experiment to probe them. This is why it is not necessarily contradictory to have religious scientists; religion fills in convenient answers for all those untestable, philosophical questions that will probably never have truly scientific answers. I perfectly happy leaving those questions unanswered, but I can understand why many find that frustrating and unacceptable.

 

You don't need to be dead for your body to have already become a part of other organisms. We gain and lose matter with every breath we take.

 

Yup. And every poop you make. (Every smile you fake, every vow you break...)