Thanks for coming, everybody. I know you came to see Freddy and not me, but Freddy’s indisposed. I appreciate your giving me a listen. Oh, one more story—last one, I promise.
So Heidegger and a hippo stroll up to the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter says, “Listen, we’ve only got room for one more today. So whoever of the two of you gives me the best answer to the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ gets to come in.”
And Heidegger says, “To think Being itself explicitly requires disregarding Being to the extent that it is only grounded and interpreted in terms of beings and for beings as their ground, as in all metaphysics.”
But before the hippo can grunt one word, Saint Peter says to him, “Today’s your lucky day, Hippy!”
Good night, everybody! Safe trip home! You too, Freddy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are a number of people on this side of the Great Divide we wish to thank for their help and support: our beloved agent, Julia Lord; our super-smart editor, Stephen Morrison; his ever-vigilant right-hand assistant, Becca Hunt; and our publicist at Penguin, Yen Cheong. As to those on the other side of the Great Divide, we’ll get to you shortly.
Back in our student days, two teachers braved the scorn of their analytic colleagues and introduced us to the big, murky questions we really wanted to hear about. Those teachers were the late John Wild and the later Paul Tillich. It was a privilege to study with them.
Far and away our best source of jokes is Gil Eisner, a human repository of classic gags. Thanks, Gil. Also thanks to Joan Griswold and Paddy Spence for a couple of goodies.
We also tip our jester cap to some of the most inventive comedic writers we’ve ever read: Groucho Marx, Woody Allen, Emo Phillips, Steven Wright, Merle Haggard, and Martin Heidegger. For pointing us to movies about Heaven we’d never heard of, thanks to Jack Nessel.
As to our wives, Eloise and Freke, and our daughters, Esther and Samara, what can we say? You are nice. Way nice.
Many years ago, when Freke ’s father, the late Reverend Jan Vuijst, was on his deathbed, he spent a private moment with me (Danny). Among his last words was a statement I will never forget: “It was a privilege to have lived.”
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1 Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Death and Its Relationship to the Indestructibility of Our Inner Nature,” in Wolfgang Schirmacher, ed., Philosophical Writings (London: Continuum, 1994), p. 287.
1. SURELY THERE MUST BE SOME MISTAKE
1 Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight (New York: Viking, 2008).
2. LET YOUR ANGST BE YOUR UMBRELLA
1 Gestalt psychology, an early-twentieth-century holistic approach to human consciousness, maintains that our minds make sense of sensory information by distinguishing the significant data from the background. Like, “Hey, that’s a wig in a bowl of spaghetti! Not a bunch of random squiggles!”
4. HEIDEGGERTY-DOG, ZIGGITY-BOOM, WHAT YOU DO TO ME
1 Martin Heidegger, On Time and Being (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), p. 6.
2 Ibid.
3 Quoted in Frank Kermode, An Appetite for Poetry: Essays in Literary Interpretation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), prologue.
4 Martin Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).
5 T. Z. Lavine, From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (New York: Bantam, 1985), p. 332.
6 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, in Stephen Priest, ed., Basic Writings (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 167.
6. THE ETERNAL NOW
1 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London: Routledge, 2001), § 6.4311.
2 According to the fifth-century B.C. Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, if Achilles gives the tortoise a head start in the race, he will never be able to catch up with the tortoise. The reason for this is that Achilles first has to reach the point at which the tortoise started out, but by that time the tortoise has moved a bit. No matter how many times Achilles gets to the point where the tortoise last was—even if he does so an infinite number of times—he can never quite catch the tortoise.
7. PLATO, THE GODFATHER OF SOUL
1 Jerome H. Neyrey, “Soul,” in Harper’s Bible Dictionary (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), pp. 982-3.
2 Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36.3. Neyrey, Ibid.
4 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 3rd ed. (Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973), § 622.
5 Plato, “Meno,” The Dialogues of Plato, vol. 1, Benjamin Jowett, trans. (New York: Random House, 1937), pp. 349ff.
8. HEAVEN—A LANDSCAPE TO DIE FOR
1 A similar survey in Western European countries showed 49.4 percent of those surveyed said they believe in “life after death,” while 19.2 percent said they believe in reincarnation. The survey results were reported by Erlendur Haraldsson, University of Iceland, in Network, no. 87, Spring 2005.
2 Adela Y. Collins, “Heaven,” in Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p. 377.
3 “Beulah Land” was a popular gospel hymn about Heaven, written by Edgar Page Stites in 1876. He later wrote, “I could write only two verses and the chorus, when I was overcome and fell on my face.” Tori Amos wrote a song called “Beulah Land” for her 1998 album, From the Choirgirl Hotel.
4 Richard H. Hiers, “Kingdom of God,” in Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p. 528.
5 Adela Y. Collins, “Hades,” in Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p. 365.
6 1 Thess. 4:16-17.
7 Micah 6:8
8 Luke 10:25.
9 Koran, 56:15ff.
10 Sunan al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2562.
9. TUNNEL VISION
1 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Modern Library, 1902), p. 378.
10. THE ORIGINAL KNOCK-KNOCK JOKE
1 These stories of the séance investigations of James, Sidgwick, and Munsterberg are found in Deborah Blum, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (New York: Penguin, 2006).
11. BEATING DEATH TO THE PUNCH LINE
1 Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (London: Vintage, 1991), p. 3.
2 Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum, H. Rackham, trans. (New York: Macmillan, 1924).
3 Seneca, “Epistulae morales,” 70th epistle, in Letters from a Stoic, Robin Campbell, trans. (New York: Penguin Classics, 1969).
4 SciForums.com.
5 David Hume, “On Suicide,” in Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2004), p. 8.
12. IMMORTALITY THROUGH NOT DYING
1 Michael Kinsley, “Mine Is Longer than Yours,” New Yorker, April 7, 2008.
2 Manfred Clynes, “Time Consciousness in a Very Long Life,” in The Scientific Conquest of Death (Buenos Aires: Libros en Red, 2004).
3 Lewis Thomas, “On Cloning a Human Being,” The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (New York: Penguin, 1995), p. 52.
4 Michael Treder, “Upsetting the Natural Order,” in ibid.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Aristotle. De Anima. London: Penguin, 1987.
Ballou, Robert, ed. The Portable World Bible (excerpts from scriptures of the world ’s religions). London: Penguin, 1977.
Blum, Deborah. Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. London: Penguin, 2000.
———. The Stranger. New York: Vintage, 1989.
Cicero. De finibus bonorum et malorum. New York: Macmillan, 1924.
Conrad, Mark, and Aeon Skoble, eds. Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong? Chicago: Open Court, 2004.
Descartes, René. Discourse on Method. London: Penguin, 2000.
Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. London: Penguin, 2003.
———. “The F
uture of an Illusion,” in Civilization, Society, and Religions . London: Penguin, 1991.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. San Francisco: Harper, 1962.
Husserl, Edmund. The Essential Husserl. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
Immortality Institute. The Scientific Conquest of Death. Buenos Aires: Libros en Red, 2004.
James, William. “The Varieties of Religious Experience” and “Pragmatism,” in William James: Writings, 1902-1910. New York: Library of America, 1988.
———. “The Will to Believe,” in William James: Writings, 1878-1899. New York: Library of America, 1992.
Jung, C. G. “The Soul and Death,” in Herman Feifel, ed., The Meaning of Death. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.
Kierkegaard, Søren. The Concept of Anxiety. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
———. The Sickness unto Death. London: Penguin, 1989.
Moody, Raymond. Life After Life. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2001.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. New York: Vintage, 1974.
Plato. “Meno,” in Protagoras and Meno. London: Penguin, 2006.
———. “Phaedo,” in The Last Days of Socrates. London: Penguin, 2006.
———. The Republic. London: Penguin, 2007.
Rank, Otto. Beyond Psychology. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1958.
Ryle, Gilbert. The Concept of Mind. London: Penguin, 2000.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. London: Routledge, 2003.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Idea. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2007.
Seneca. Epistulae morales, 70th epistle, in Robin Campbell, trans., Letters from a Stoic. New York: Penguin Classics, 1969.
Taylor, Jill Bolte. My Stroke of Insight. New York: Viking, 2008.
Tillich, Paul. “The Eternal Now,” in The Eternal Now. New York: Scribner’s, 1963.
Wrathall, Mark. How to Read Heidegger. New York: Norton, 2005.
Zimmer, Heinrich. Philosophies of India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
INDEX
accountability, for finite life
After Life (film)
afterlife, jokes about
Allen, Woody
Alpert, Dickie
American Society for Psychical Research
angst. See anxiety
anxiety
drawing about free-floating
Kierkegaard ’s views about
loopholes for handling
too much possibility of
See also death-anxiety
Appetites, as part of soul
Aquinas, Thomas
Aristotle
art/artists
artificial intelligence
assisted suicide
Augustine, Saint
Barry, Dave
Becker, Ernest
Beethoven, Ludwig van
behavior
behaviorism
Being
belonging
Berkeley, George
Bible, references to heaven in
Big Delusion
Big Questions
Biological Immortalists
biotechnology. See immortality: biological
Birdseye, Clarence
Blake, William
Blavatsky, Madame
body
boredom with life
Bosch, Hieronymus
Bouhours, Dominique
brain
Broad. D.
Brown, James
The Bucket List (film)
Buddhism
Buffet, Warren
Burtle, Alan
Byron, George Gordon, Lord
Cabin in the Sky (film)
Camus, Albert
Capek, Karel
Carson, Johnny
Carter, Philip
cartoons. See jokes/cartoons
charity, immortality through
children’s books
Cicero
civilization, and immortality
clinical death
cloning
Clynes, Manfred
Colbert, Stephen
competitive longevity
computer technology, and mind-body debate
Confucius
consciousness
and being remembered by survivors
of death
and death-anxiety
and immortality
and mind-body debate
and near-death experiences
post-earthly
Sartre ’s views about
self-
of time
country singers
cryogenetics
culture, and Just Do It
cyber-immortality
da Vinci, Leonardo
Dante
Dass, Baba Ram. See Alpert, Dickie
Dean, James
death
acceptance of
as aim and purpose of life
attitudes about
consciousness of
denial of
fear of
as lifestyle choice
and process of dying
questions about
raging against
suddenness of
as welcome relief from life
and what you would die for See also specific topic
Death Drive
“death instinct,”
death row, will-to-live on
death-anxiety
and brain
and eternity
Heidegger’s views about
as part of human condition
psychology as ineffective against
religion as ineffective against
and soul
and ways of denying mortality
defiant self-creation
delusions
Demosthenes
Descartes, René
despair
doctors
dualism
Durante, Jimmy
Dyer, Wayne
eBay
Einstein, Albert
El Greco
Epicurus
epiphenomenalism
Eternal Force
Eternal Fruitcake Conundrum
Eternal Now
Eternal Recurrence
eternity
cartoons about
and death-anxiety
as dimension of time
in heaven
how long is
as now
ethics
eulogies
euphoria
“everydayness,”
evolution
existentialism . See also specific philosopher
experience, “what-it ’s-like” aspect of
faith, and cryogenetics
Faust (film)
final utterances
for-itselfness
Foucault, Michel
Frayn, Michael
free will
Freud, Sigmund
functionalism
funerals. See also eulogies
Gandhi, Mahatma
Ganzfeld Effect
Garden of Eden
Garnett, Kevin
Gates, Bill
genetics
Geron (genetic engineering company)
God
gods, illusions about
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Greeks, ancient . See also specific person
Groundhog Day (film)
guilt
Haggard, Merle
Hale, Nathan
hallucination, reality as
Hanson, Harriet
headstones
heaven
admission policy for
artists’ views of
belief in
Biblical references to
in children’s books
descriptions of
on earth
eternity in
God in
Hollywood depictions of
jokes/cartoons abou
t
as kingdom of God
questions about
and religious affiliation
survey about belief in
as Valhalla
and ways of denying mortality
Heaven (film)
Hebrews, ancient
Heidegger, Martin
Hell
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (film)
Heyman, Edward
Hilton, Conrad
Hinduism
history, Zinn’s views about
Hitchens, Christopher
Hobbes, Thomas
Hodgson, Richard
Hollywood
Hollywood Forever
human
essence/purpose of
experience of being
Hume, David
Husserl, Edmund
Huxley, Aldous
Huxley, T. H.
Ideal Triangle
identity
illusions
immortalists, doctors as
immortality
and being remembered
belief in
biological
and boredom with life
and civilization
cyber-
denial of
and evolution
and experience of being human
experiencing
and filming of life story
and inheritances
jokes/cartoons about
and moral issues
by not dying
and population
and self
of soul
and survival of the fittest
therapies about
ways of denying