Religion attempts to assuage our fears of our mortality; and it attempts to reassure us of our humanity. I believe it has served as a useful comforter for our society.
The reality of mortality, if it can be said, literally fell into my hands a few years ago. It was in the anatomy dissection room that I removed this gentleman's brain. Snip, snip and a few more snips, and we had cut all the cranial nerves and spinal cord and removed the brain from the cranial vault. We were about to peel apart sections of the brain, when the hammer struck.
The entire life's experience; thoughts, feelings, beliefs, knowledge, memories, associations, of this one person was enclosed in this grey lump. Nobody else in the word can possibly duplicate the processing centre of this one person's life.
Mortality was in my hands. And all the neuronal connections ever made in this brain was lost to us.
Do you still believe in religion?