On twitter this morning I saw one of the cleverest trolls I’ve seen in a while: a normal (i.e. non–New Atheist bigot) atheist admirer of atheist Stephen Hawking, speaking like a Christian, telling Christians welcoming atheist Stephen Hawking into Heaven that he won’t get in because he was a sinner who didn’t believe. Fighting passive aggression disguised as Christian charity with fire.
There’s something truly disgusting to me about the smugness with which dead atheists are subjected to ideas they spent their lives thinking about and had good reasons for rejecting now that they’re dead and can’t answer back. It’s incredibly disrespectful, especially since it comes from people who theoretically respect them.
I personally have never liked saying “rest in peace” or “rest in power.” Dead is dead, and no one’s “resting” after they die, any more than the parrot in the Dead Parrot Sketch was resting. But it would be insane to get in people’s face about this when they’re grieving. Drawing cartoons in which Saint Peter installs a handicapped parking spot in front of the pearly gates so that Stephen Hawking, a dead man who didn’t believe in Saint Peter and the pearly gates, will feel welcomed – do these people not see that’s like crashing a funeral?
Tags: real life, stephen hawking