A reader writes:
Andrew, you wrote:
But the human mind, because it is human, resists that as the final answer to the question of our destiny. We find it very hard to think of ourselves as not being. That resistance is always there.
Curious isn’t it that we all feel what you called "resistance to our own extinction"? It arises during any sustained period of self-reflection. Yet we do not feel the same resistance when contemplating the time before our birth. I’d hazard to say you feel none of that "final answer" resistance when considering what you were doing, say, a year before you were born.
Why fear what comes after death when we have no corresponding dread about what came before birth? I certainly do not have the answer but I find the question itself has a certain calmness about it.
The Dish 