Humanists can face death bravely, joining billions of mortals who have endured loss and hardship throughout history. And all without the army of experts on whom our culture now depends to get us through difficulties.
But do not be deceived. Humanists can only glory in the person’s memory, nothing more. Of course, they boast of THAT, what they can do. They never mention what they can’t! Of course, they dismiss what they CAN’T as irrelevant, but that only masks their refusal to face embarrassing questions about the after-life. Shakespeare had a more Biblical view. In Henry VI he had the Duke of Gloucester say, “My lord, ‘tis but a base, ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar” A2 S1 Ll13-14. And ‘tis but an ignoble mind that soars no higher than this world’s concerns. For it can never affirmatively hope for Resurrection beyond death. William Ernest Henley wrote the poem Invictus, in which he gloried in his unconquerable will. The poem seethed with human arrogance. “I thank whatever gods may be...” he wrote in the first stanza. Whatever gods may be? As if the Living, Eternal God doesn’t exist! “Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade....,” he wrote in the third. The “horror of the shade?” As if only despair lurked beyond the grave? Trust no one, including yourself, who at the end leaves you staring into the dark....when Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel! Trust no one, including yourself, who at the end leaves you NOWHERE when you GET THERE....when Jesus Christ promises to conduct every believer into God’s Personal Presence in the New Jerusalem where infinite Joys await! Fini
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