A Profound Perspective

We have all had to deal with death, losing someone close to us. I personally have had some recent interactions with the passing of my father-in-law, Cecil and my life is forever changed because of it. But death shines an interesting light on our world, because you can not have death unless you have lived. To avoid death would be to have never lived. Here is a quote from Richard Dawkins, which captures this concept so very well.

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of the Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you an I, in our ordinariness, that are here.”

Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow

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~ by b44hanson on February 9, 2011.

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