Chuck Heston

The movies of Charlton Heston are illustrative.
Specifically "Ben Hur," "The 10 Commandments,"  and "Omega Man."

Hur, for the passage of time in my life.  People younger than I don't recognize the line from the movie, "ramming speed."

"The 10 Commandments," for the religiosity.

Omega Man
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I Am Legend is a 1954 horror fiction novel by American writer Richard Matheson. It was influential in the development of the zombie genre and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and as I Am Legend in 2007, along with an unofficial direct to video production capitalizing on that film, I Am Omega. It was also the inspiration behind the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.
1953

o o o

I've been thinking about my notion of needing a justification, on a daily basis, for staying alive.  I operate from a position, once you have had progeny to carry forward your unique genetic contribution into the future, continuing to live is the wrong thing to do.

Of course, should you decide, as I have, not to have children, then your contribution will be lost.  So far as nature is concerned, it has no further use for you.

Whether you have had children or decided not to, the question becomes one of continuing to live or not.  Our society (an outgrowth of our religions) dictates that we attempt to live forever.  The kindness we show a very sick pet is denied to humans.  Assisted suicide is viewed as murder in nearly the entire United States.  We routinely perform very expensive surgeries on people in their last 6 months of life, wasting unimaginable sums of money and denying (for instance) organs to people who could use them better and longer, without appreciably extending the duration of the patient's life or improving its quality.  We are driving the country bankrupt and not improving the quality of life of our citizens.  Hospitals are just now beginning to consider sending the terminally ill home to die in the comfort of their own homes.

Importantly, once people have met nature's demands, every day they live is a day consuming resources the planet does not have available to share.  Man really *is* a parasite on the planet.  I'm not a radical environmentalist.  I don't think about ecology all the time.   But once you look at man's existence from my point of view, you get very quickly to the notion that one should (at least) affirm a reason for living every day.  Without such a reason, the State should make available an "Ethical Suicide Parlor" (see Vonnegut or other authors for the description), wherein a person may make a painless and pleasurable exit (consider, too, the movie "Soylent Green").

Society should teach not just that dying is a part of life, but that life is a very brief stop along the way to eternal nothingness.  We all arrive at the same destination.  There is no reason to fear it.  On the contrary, we should embrace it.

I could get into my view of many religions' "Heaven," "Paradise," "Reincarnation," or other "Afterlife" promises, but I have written it elsewhere.  Let me only say that one person's lies, inculcated into them by authority figures before they could think for themselves, are as good as another's.  Geography and one's "tribe" don't make any "God" more valid than another.  The notion that "Thou shalt put no other God before me" strikes me as total bullshit.  OK, I'll go on a bit longer.

So far as I know, each religion has a "don't kill another human" rule (killing animals, however, is OK -- God has give us "dominion over the Earth," right?, and haven't we done a fine job of it?).  And yet we have wars -- between nation states and religions.  How can we justify violating the "don't kill" rule?  This one is clever ... by saying the other people are unbelievers, infidels, heathens, etc. we put them in a lower class than humans, and therefore OK to kill.  And we always throw in that "God is on our side."  I only wonder that we don't eat fallen enemies on the field of battle.  It may be a lack of good sauces.

And the religions preach about "pie in the sky" after death to keep the people meek during their lives.  Why?  Because religions and nation states are really the same thing, and nobody in power wants to see the sheep stage a revolt or revolution.  Am I a conspiracy nut?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps I'm simply right.

As I said, I've written more before, so let's get back on track.

I want to address what might be valid reasons to continue living.  Now I don't propose that people voluntarily or involuntarily be brought before "Death Panels" (a better use of the term than in describing President Obama's health care program), I just want them to spend a few minutes at night "Counting Their Blessings" (I'll explain later).  If they couldn't find any, or a sufficient number to want to stay alive, they merely need to look in the mirror the next morning and decide if that is the right day to die.  If they are interested in continued living, all they need do is say something to themselves that makes sense.

Perhaps I should have warned you about the following earlier.  I'm going to illustrate my position using lyrics from songs and lines from movies that made a big impression on me when I was very young.  A picture *may* be worth a thousand words, but my topic today needs words, not pictures.

o o o

What is the value of a human life?

Some say the taking a human life is the highest of sins, the highest of crimes.  Others, of course, reserve that superlative for crimes against God.  But we value human life very highly and routinely punish people who kill others by "capital punishment," i.e. we kill *them*.

If you look at societies in the past, you will find ones that placed a lower value on human life than on honor.  For instance, Japanese samurais, French swordsmen, and American cowboys.

There is an old saying in the computer industry, "GIGO.  Garbage in, garbage out."  It means, "If you start with something wrong, you won't get something right out of it."