What Are You Afraid Of?

Death. That is the answer from Pulitzer Prize Winning author, Ernest Becker, in his famous book called, "The Denial of Death." Why of course (spoken in definite tone). Our biology dictates this to us every single day. Your amygdala tells you to "survive." Beyond biology is psychology, and this is where Becker shines. He says mankind is like a small god that defecates. You read that correctly. Now think about it. And, this actually parallels nicely to Psalm 8, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings." We are small gods, beings, or "a little lower than the angels", but we are inflicted with our own consciousness of finitude. No other animal at such an early age knows that we are going to die. What does Becker (who is an atheist) say is the antidote to death for the human being? Heroism. We are driven to legacy, achievement, and heroism. We are ever attempting to overcome our finitude and our consciousness of it. It haunts us. What does this lead to? In Tim Keller's book, "The Reason for God," he quotes Annie Dillard in her riveting autobiography, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." Keller cites Dillard in her one year quest to live in the wilderness. She documents, not the beauty of nature, but it's utter violence to itself. Nature is ruled by one central principle, as per Keller--"violence by the strong against the weak." This is the sum total of the book and movie series, "The Hunger Games." This is what Nietzsche called, "The will to power." This is our world. This is reality. It is poetically expressed in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," as he talks about the universal wolf: "Take but degree away, untie that string, And, hark, what discord follows....Then everything includes itself in power, Power into will, will into appetite; and appetite, an universal wolf, So double seconded with the will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself." (I thank Gene Veith for this quote in his book called, "Post Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture.") So, what's the answer to death? What kind of Heroism ought we to consider in light of our proclivity to dominate each other and overcome death? The paradoxical answer in the Christian faith is the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who huger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. [Last, but not least.] Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ~ Jesus of Nazareth, Sermon on the Mount. When we embrace these values we will be afraid of NOTHING.