On Death, the Immortal Soul, and the Paradox of Morality

in #philosophy6 years ago

Materialism and Cartesian Dualism - Or Belief in the Immortal Soul

As a materialist, I've always found death to be easy to comprehend, but hard to cope with. Without the immortal soul to use as an emotional cushion, death is terrifying in its finality. Humans are fundamentally uncomfortable with meaninglessness, myself included, and it's in our best interest to resist accepting it. As emotional creatures, we create systems of belief in magic and hyper-analyze the arbitrary movements of celestial bodies to explain personality traits and find our paths. We always have--just ask the Babylonians. I've never felt pulled toward religion for any reason other than belonging somewhere--you know, having some kind of cultural identity (Judaism is good at that). But Cartesian Dualism--the disembodied soul that survives our tenure on Earth? That has always seemed pretty illogical and far fetched. But still, we humans have to find a way to assign meaning. How else can we cope with death, believe that love is anything more than the physical manifestation of biochemistry, or justify imposing what we believe to be objective morality on society as a whole? How can we know if we've been good children or bad children if we don't have a cosmic parent doling out ancient universal truths?


Salvation Mountain, California, November 2017

Determining Morality without Religion

Finding morality without God has always been an easy one for me. The so-called "Golden Rule" seems to work well enough. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (kindly note the irony in pulling from a Biblical quote). Don't hurt other people, to the best of your ability, or colloquially, let's say--don't be a dick. Congratulations, you're a good person. Simple enough.

The Paradox of Morality

In reality, both "objective morality" and "subjective morality" are oxymorons. Morality manifests itself differently in different cultures, and presumably, we accept that more than one of those belief systems are valid (lest we allow American imperialist ideology to get the best of us). From that we are forced to conclude that morality cannot be objective. But morality, by definition, cannot be subjective either. Morality mandates that good and bad objectively exist in some form and can be acted on. For morality to exist, there has to be an external force outlining its rules; not only must there be a judge, but there must be a correct judge. So is morality itself something that fundamentally cannot exist without a dogmatic belief in God that also requires accepting the superiority of your god? Universal truths are hard to come by without religion.

Progressiveness vs. Piousness, and Supposed Moral Truth

I recently found myself discussing the immortal soul and the objectivity of morality among a group of people who I think many would characterize as "hippies" (though I would simply characterize them as residents of Los Angeles). Non-belief in religion--or as people might say, spirituality (I fail to see the difference)--is decidedly out of fashion among millennials in LA, and tends to inspire some incredulous reactions. To express that you believe that one's soul exists purely in the confines of the brain is literal heresy. How couldn't you believe that we're all "one with the universe" (or however one prefers to phrase it)? But let's put aside the immortal soul and discuss morality. Progressives are a highly moral bunch, whether or not they see it that way. Whereas many conservatives believe in piousness, progressives believe in enforcing what they see as human rights through government intervention. I'm not lending my opinion here, other than to say that neither religious piousness nor human rights contain objective moral truths, which I think I've already adequately demonstrated cannot exist except under circumstances most of us would find uncomfortable.


Irwindale, California May 2018

The Death of My Grandmother Through the Lens of Materialism

My grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago at the ripe old age of 97.5 years old. While, as I mentioned before, death ordinarily makes me feel exceedingly uncomfortable, my ability to cope with this death in particular has been easier for me through the materialist lens. I was very close with her and I love her dearly, and losing her leaves a gaping hole in my life. She was the best person I have ever met, and I say that without exaggeration. But the physical circumstances of her death have brought a smile to my face, and very few tears. Allow me to explain.

You see, my grandmother lived nearly a century, and she didn't leave this world in pain or sickness. I have a video of her tap dancing less than a week before her death (a lifelong passion of hers). She laughed and smiled until the end. She lived in a community for active seniors, still autonomous, still in a clean home, never having to rely on nurses. She dressed up and did her hair every morning (she always said it was important to look your best no matter what--to give up on self care is to give up on life). Her heart was her weakest link; she'd been diagnosed with congestive heart failure for nearly a decade (around the same time that my grandfather passed away), but aside from some shortness of breath, it didn't really interfere with her quality of life. For the past five years, I had been the recipient of many "just in case I die tomorrow" speeches, and we had reached a point of comfort in talking about it. In her final hours, she won that week's bingo game. She went upstairs with a smile on her face, sat down on her bed (still in her finest dinner attire!), and enjoyed some chocolates in self-satisfied victory. And she died suddenly as her heart stopped beating, departing painlessly, leaving behind a world where she was widely adored. She always talked about how she feared the thought of having to die sick and in pain, dependent on others, but she never had to experience that. I can't imagine a more beautiful, happy death.

When I gave my eulogy at her memorial, I said as much to a room of friends and family. ("If I may put in a humble request, I would also like to leave this world enjoying some chocolate.") My speech was sandwiched between others talking about how heaven has just gained another beautiful angel and how she will be watching over us. But from my perspective, whether or not she has an immortal soul which has joined her late husband in heaven, her last moments were pretty amazing, and I'm sure she would have been thrilled to know that she left this world enjoying some chocolate and would have laughed if I could have given her the heads up. I smile just thinking about it, though I'd imagine it wasn't the most comforting way to present it all to a room full of senior citizens, many of whom likely believe that they one day will join their loved ones. I ended my speech with an apology for the slightly macabre assessment of her passing and unconventional eulogy. Even at funerals, it's pretty rare to be so blunt about death--not even among us materialists, who tend to be the least blunt of all when faced with having to cope with finality; that's the burden we bear when we reject the comforts that spirituality could offer us.

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Congratulations on a beautiful and engaging post, @malloryblythe, I thank you for inviting me here :-)

The Golden Rule works through all cultures and religions; I haven't seen a religion yet where this rule is not mentioned in some form. This is just one of the countless indications of the observable fact that we are social creatures. As a materialist you will be interested to know that your brain and nervous-system contain lots of mirror-neurons. These are neurons that fire when you act, but also fire when you see someone else act. These cells are the material with which we learn and they are the materialization of this Golden Rule. The mirror-neurons in my head paint a painful face on me when I see another man being kicked in the nuts real hard. I don't feel the pain, but I act as if the kick landed in my own nuts...

You know this already, I think, but I think we live in an era where we are constantly reminded of the opposite; we seek freedom on an individual level and that's just not realistic. You may be surprised that one of the best descriptions of freedom comes from Marx. He knew that capitalism, with all it's advantages for accelerating material wealth that he saw and admired, it would alienate us from our humanity. He saw as the main difference between humans and the rest of the animals the fact that we do things for other reasons than just survival. We do things for fun too. We dance, we paint, we make music, books and movies to entertain each other, to communicate emotions, thoughts, ideas...

While some aspects of capitalism have the ability to maximize our exclusively human traits, it does the exact opposite, and Marx saw that coming. It forces us to keep working for our needs, instead of freeing us from them. The worker, the laborer, the employee basically has two kinds of relationships in this system: a competitive one with his colleagues, his peers (rather he lost his job than I lose my job), and a master-slave one with his employer.

As an individual we can never be free: in that sense freedom simply doesn't exist. Freedom, whatever you may think that means, is only to be found in your relationships with other people. As an individual you are doomed to constantly worry about survival, only in large groups we are able to free our self from the shackles that our basic material needs impose upon us. We have build a system however, in which all that counts is the individual. That's why some people truly think that to be free means to be free from the arbitrary will of other people. Freedom to do what you want when you want to do it.

The way I see it, you're not a materialist. I am not a Marxist. We don't have to be categorized in order to realize we're all human beings and we're all not alone. And our freedom and happiness lies in the realization that both are only to be had as a community of social creatures. The bigger the community, the larger our freedom and happiness. But not, never on an individual level. The freedom of that individual as well as it's ability to optimally develop it's true talents, are dependent on other people.

And that's what struck me most about your touching account of your grandmother's last moments in this life. She didn't die alone. She was widely admired. So she apparently touched a lot of other souls and brought them happiness. She brought you happiness till her last moments, and you made har happy too... And she still does. And through you she now brings happiness to all of us enjoying your writing talents that makes us experience a tiny slither of the love between the two of you. And there's nothing materialistic about that ;-)

Sorry, I tend to rant... All the above is of course just my opinion. You are a beautiful soul, @malloryblythe. No other information is needed in my book :-) Thanks again for inviting me, I had a very pleasant stay, thanks to you and your grandmother,and I thank you both!

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Anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner was a self-proclaimed materialist, would you believe it. So we could debate how unspiritual your whole morality actually is.... but more interesting is how yet another of your talents has been revealed: speaking in public. I think I'd rather die than stand up and give a eulogy. But if I had to, I would definitely follow your example, looking closely at the very last moments. It seems to do the departed the best favour, from a spiritual research perspective. Oops, I think you might be officially declared religious next!
(P.S. Is a physicist or a doctor the same as a mathematician in your world of equasions; with spiriuality boiling down to the same thing as religion? I once made a survey for my family to find out what they thought about me, and they all thought I would call myself a spiritual person, but I don't even know what that would entail - we are all spirit beings, okay, but to be a spiritual spirit being is a bit much unless maybe you are dead. There is a vast difference in the study of spirituality and religion, albeit a venn diagramme might be made.)

I'm ever so slightly ashamed to admit that it might have been a little brave of me to post about philosophy, since I don't know much about philosophy at all! I didn't know anything about Rudolph Steiner until I did a few minutes of intense Wikipedia research just now. Still seems pretty complicated to wrap my mind around; maybe I just need to try harder.

I don't mind speaking in public; I think it's kind of a rush, in a way. I like singing karaoke for the same reason. But it has to be something I'm at least moderately good at. Having been a teacher I've had a bit of practice talking to a crowd. Plus, it's not like anyone is going to harshly judge a eulogy.

Physicists are certainly mathematicians ("same thing as"--not really, but a category of mathematician). I suppose doctors have to be at least decent at math to get as far in their educations as they have to do their jobs. There's a difference between organized religion and spirituality, for sure, and maybe your venn diagram is an apt description. I suppose I would argue that spirituality, or any faith-based belief, is a kind of religion, but I welcome any disagreement on that point.

Regards the last point, you are definitely - regrettably - right on that front; which makes my research incredibly difficult. The Christians hate me (invariably when I tag my post as such) and the philosophers have me down as a Jesus freak. The New Agies have really bent "spirituality" as an innocent adjective out of shape. The associations with paganism and polytheism and feminism (let's toss that in amongst the goddesses as well) have made saying anything intelligent about the possible added value of spiritualising science near impossible. It takes a highly objective mind to see what can be done on that front and an ego that doesn't mind ending up with less belief in anything than when he started.

Hope you don't let eulogies go to your head for I'd hate for you to have too often an occasion to give one. Unless of course, you suddenly see the Light and become a priest, a rabbi, or an immam and give eulogies for a living. Teachers, preachers, the same difference really...

Loved it :)

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (kindly note the irony in pulling from a Biblical quote). Don't hurt other people, to the best of your ability, or colloquially, let's say--don't be a dick.

It's not rocket science is it, and no-ones book is required to understand.

Lovely to hear about your grandma living life to the fullest up until the end, I'm glad you had a good amount of time with her, and that she liked a bit of chocolate before bed - me too :)

I sway towards a collective-cosmic-consciousness type deal, and as time passes, I get more reminders/confirmation that this seems like a reasonable way of thinking.

Thanks for sharing a piece of yourself, original content for the win :)

Thank you so much for stopping by! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I think I'm going to have to make the piece-of-chocolate-before-bed tradition a habit moving forward. You know, just to honor her memory and all.

My pleasure, thank you!

I find if i have a few pieces of dark chocolate an hour or two before bed, it helps me relax and I sleep better - give it a go :D

What a lovely story about your grandmother's passing. That certainly is the ideal way of leaving. I have been grappling a lot with my views lately. I have been lucky to not have lost anyone very close to me up until recently. Although I may be a bit morbid naturally in my thinking - and therefore casually think about death close to every day - having someone I knew actually face it takes the thinking to the next level. I fall into the "one with the universe" theory ultimately, tweaked a bit here and there - I am a millennial after all. (I actually had to google to confirm this, lol.) I base this theory off of nothing intelligent. It is a feeling I get when I am outside in my garden, up against the woods, away from human noise and interaction, at dusk. I feel it then - a balance I equate to being a wild animal. A small piece of being something more that is just outside of my comprehension. My husband calls that happy brain chemistry. It doesn't really matter what we think, I suppose, so long as we are coping and harmonious.

Interesting about your friends in LA - I like to hear about the general opinions on life of different regions.

Thanks for a bit of deep thinking.

I've also been very lucky in that way, and I haven't had to do much facing the inevitability of death, which is rarely this pleasant. My partner is a "one with the universe" believer as well. I feel echoes of it at times, particularly when I'm out in nature in situations similar to the one you're describing. Nature is so awesome (literally awesome) and all-enveloping. I live in the ultimate liberal bubble of people who (mostly) have very little contact with actual organized religion and tend to be condescending toward mainstream Christianity, and the kinds of moral codes that typically come from evangelicals. I too have felt alienated from mainstream Christianity at times in my life, and I can't stand when people try to inject their religion into politics in ways that impose it on others. On the other hand, it's ironic because I see so much codified morality and spirituality coming from the same people who think that they're somehow different because their spirituality isn't Biblical. We all have more in common than we think. But yes, I 100% agree with your point--it doesn't really matter what we think, as long as we're all coping and harmonious.

I live in the stark opposite of your environment. Here almost everyone is an active church goer. One expects to hear "have a blessed day" when leaving a store. (That phrase really annoys me. The implication always strikes me as though I have some sort of control over whether I am blessed because I must be a believer, but don't bad things also happen to believers? Does that make them not blessed, even though they believed, in which case having a blessed day comes back to the equivalent of "have a lucky day", in which case why do they need to throw in an element of religion when they could just say "have a good day"? I don't know. Maybe I should just chill out and be glad they want my day to be blessed.) I don't really share a lot of the standard devout person's beliefs, but there is a sensation of safety in it. I am more likely to trust the person parked next to me at the grocery store because they believe in someone instructing morality. Maybe that is naive of me.

I really enjoyed your post. The story about your grand mother is beautiful and very gripping. Yes, that's the way to go. Live life to the full until the very end.
She must have been an amazing person.

You might find this intriguing. We are both materialists, but that premise doesn't rule out the possibility of life after death as most assume. I've actually written a great deal about the topics discussed in this article, but don't want to overshare without invitation.

You are totally invited to overshare, undershare, or just share to whatever degree you want. I read your post and it's really interesting, though the sadness underneath it is touching and heartbreaking all at once, knowing what you told me yesterday. So many television shows and movies touch on the possibility of (recreated) life after death either in physical form or in simulation form these days, probably because, as you said, it's really only a matter of time since it's physically possible and enough people want it. Altered Carbon, Westworld, Dollhouse, and Black Mirror are just a few that come to mind.

Alright. If indeed the universe is a simulation, I have what I feel is a plausible suspicion about what it's running on:

What the Message Was For Me
Omega Point: The Meaning of Life

Those two articles explain the same concept but from different angles. Anything in one article that's unclear should be clarified by the other.

Concerning morality:

Defining Good and Evil in the Absence of a Divine Law Giver
Nazis, Computers, and Critical Thought
The Timeless Wisdom of Gentleness

That's enough for now. I've also written reams upon reams about why Abrahamic religions are false, but it would only be preaching to the choir.