I thought I was done with this atheism series. However, I came across this passage from Wayne Dyers’s book, Your Sacred Life. A friend of mine what sapped it as a kind of admonition to those of us who don’t believe.
The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”
The rest of the conversation is missing from this quoted passage. So let me fill in.
The second replied, “I do because Mother has spoken to me. She told me that if you didn’t believe in Her, you would forever be barbecued after you are born.”
The first was aghast, “Wow! that’s scary! How come She doesn’t speak to me?”
The second then said, “She speaks only to some of us, the blessed and chosen ones. Not to worry, I can speak to her for you if you are willing to give me your food.”
The first said, “That sucks. If I give you all my food, I will be hungry and suffer.”
The second said reassuringly, “What is a bit of suffering for Mother’s eternal love? Blessed are those who suffer, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. So pay up.”
Or may be the second said, “Well, if you agree to suffer now, the next time you are here after your birth, you will be like me, a chosen one, and you will get all the food.”