Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker writes that “the idea of death, the fear of it haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is the mainspring of human activity — activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” Becker also says, “All culture, all man’s creative life-ways are in some basic part of them a fabricated protest against natural reality, a denial of the truth of the human condition, and an attempt to forget the pathetic creature that man is”. Today many philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists agree that humans are desperately afraid of dying. Having children, writing a book, creating a work of art, building a skyscraper, or inventing a cure for cancer or COVID-19 can all serve as symbolic immortality projects. Will these efforts leave humans a legacy for generations?
This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Clay Jones about his article, “Symbolic Immortality Projects Can’t Save You” which is in the new issue of the Christian Research Journal (September 2020) and is based on the book Immortal which is our equipping resource this month.
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Other articles and podcasts featuring this author
Hank Unplugged: Why God Permits Evil with Clay Jones
Postmodern Realities: Episode 114 Why Did God Let that Child Die?
Why Did God Let That Child Die?
Postmodern Realities: Episode 068: Something Made: The Role of Form in Apologetics
Something Made : The Role of Form in Apologetics
Postmodern Realities: Episode 030: Evangelizing the Cultural Christian
Evangelizing the Cultural Christian
Killing the Canaanites: A Response to the New Atheism’s “Divine Genocide” Claims