Death. It is a fascinating subject, is it not? And funny, if you like Russian literature. I love Russian literature. Speaking of funny, did you hear about the son of a snack company owner who killed himself? He had tried to make it look like a murder. My guess is he mixed up the natural order of things because he was an idiot. “Hey, chubby, you’re suppose to commit a murder, then make it look like suicide! Not the other way around!” The question is, why is this funny? Why do people naturally laugh at this kind of thing? The fat man is dead! That’s not meant to be funny! But it is.
Here is the point. Human beings have a natural, though morbid, fascination with death. Why does the government want euthanasia? They want to kill, but they want to do it with a murder label across there face. Stalin had no problem with this label, and sported it in gold lettering on every occasion. That should tell us something. Being fascinated with death is a pass time for people like Stalin and our government, meaning, not for rational, Christian, thinking people. Now, now, I know that every Christian looks forward to that day when we die and are “present with the Lord,” and that’s all well and good, but having a love affair with black, rotting, corpses is wrong. All this to say I hate Tim Burton. Yes, hate.
Now you see where I’m going! I know your first thought was, “I’m not all that into death. What is his problem?” The truth is, you are that into death. Yes you are.
Question 1: Do you think the story in the first paragraph is funny, sick, or sad?
Correct answer: funny and sad… Your answer: sick.
Question 2: Are you angry that I speak of death in such a blunt manner?
Correct answer: You’re weird… Your answer: I don’t like to talk about death.
That’s enough; point made. If you are the one who feels “icky” when talking about the natural process of life called “death,” then you have a morbid fear of death. Not a fear of dieing, a fear of death. The correct view of death is the escape of being fascinated by it, either in fear or admiration. Think of it as what it is, the end of one life and the beginning of another. It’s really just another part of living. Equate a funeral to a wedding. They really are the same thing, except with different ways of expressing emotion.
In conclusion, Don’t worry about death, and don’t look at it with puppy dog eyes. Look at it as a cool thing everybody gets to do once, like getting married, hitting puberty, and loosing your teeth! By far, loosing your teeth seems to be the most unpleasant. And if some weirdo dies in a weird way, don’t hesitate to laugh at the irony. It’s a sign that your cultured.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I got the conclusion but I’m slightly confused on one point, I think. Do you think it wrong to laugh at the son of the snack company owner?
March 25th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Here’s the rule, laugh if it is funny. A son of a snack food owner in his sixties tying himself up, sending a hate note in a bag of chips in his car, and shooting himself to death to make it look like an accident… is a riot. Why? Irony.
March 26th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Your conclusion seems in keeping with N.D. Wilson’s Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl, as the world is all God’s story, and I agree about being cultured, if I understand you aright. But I still feel some sorrow at the story, which I think is compatible with the correct Christian response: ours is not to be an “Allah-wills” attitude, and while we trust and submit to God’s sovereign plan, it is not wrong to sorrow or attempt to change things (evangelism, etc.).
March 28th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Of course mourning is not wrong, and sad things are to be lamented, but dieing within itself does not require sorrow alone. Had the man been, say, my brother, if I had one, I would probably not laugh as hard. At the same time, God revels humorous and ironic deaths in the Scripture. When someone is so fat that you can shove a dagger in him and hide it in there, I don’t know about you, but I roll on the floor. That’s strait out of Scripture! Lament when it is something to lament, laugh when it is appropriate to laugh, do both if unsure.
March 30th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Ok, mind you, I read through the post once. I think you make a good point that yes, we should not be obsessed with death but you only deal with one facet of society’s obsession with death; the fear of it.
I remember Mr. Appel talking last term about society’s glory in death; all the action movies where the hero cheats death countless times. Death is treated like the ultimate bad guy to be beat and the human can beat him. We also have the whole goth/emo movement stemming from postmodernism; life is meaningless, death is absorption into the ether so we might as well go now, we are representing how the world really is etc.
Yes, those people are nuts and death is a thug of Satan who has been beaten by Christ. So, for us,Christians, it is no longer “death” but the advancement of the new kingdom. Pardon me, at the risk of sounding dualistic I think we should be very careful when talking about death in friendly terms. N.T. Wright talks about that in “Surprised by Hope” do you remember the passage by Scot Holland that is continually taken out of context? Death is not a happy thing, it is an enemy. A beaten enemy, but an enemy nonetheless. I know you believe this, I’m just commenting that the point of view you posit in the post smacks of this “friendly death” mentality.
June 18th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
[...] subject of death, and specifically the Christian attitude towards death. More recently, Caleb made this post on the matter. He argues that we should be able to laugh at death and irony, that we should not [...]