Memorials

The atheist or agnostic has little use for memorials to the dead other than to assuage personal grief for the living. As a gesture, the memorial is was way of working through the process of loss and grief. There is no delusion that the dead are watching or somehow comforted by this physical manifestation of their passing.

 

Any human memorial is a grain of sand in The Universe. It will be washed away by time. The sentimentalism which often accompanies memorials can be self-indulgence rather than grief. Memorials are also commonly used by governments to perpetrate the idea that murderous conflict is a human necessity. This makes any public memorial related to war suspect to anyone who believes in nonviolence and a quest for global peace.

 

Those who reproduce often misconceive their children as living memorials. This atavistic approach to reproduction is self-centered and unfair to the unique personhood of every new human being. Children bear the burden of their genetic heritage, unwillingly. Those who are fortunate enough to be genetically descended from the healthy or the wealthy tend to buy into the child-as-memorial paradigm. Those for whom life is a struggle are more skeptical. Rightly so.

 

I believe that humanism in action requires a great deal of letting go. First, mindfulness enlightens the humanist to the basic commonality of all living existence. Birth, age, death. Acceptance of this entails letting go of concepts of being "special" or deserving of more. Growing up means letting go of the need for attention from others in favor of attending to others. This is the first step to becoming compassionate in a practical and active way. Would a true humanist have a need to create a memorial to his own egoism? No.