October Advent, Day 3: Death and Religion

On the first day of the advent I shared two ideas about death that have haunted me since I heard them.

Here’s another one.

This one’s from Harold Bloom, a literary critic from Yale. He says,

What is the essence of religion? Sigmund Freud said it was the longing for the father. Others have called it the desire for the mother or for transcendence. I fear deeply that all these are idealizations, and I offer the rather melancholy suggestion that they would all vanish from us if we did not know that we must die. Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death.

I don’t if know what Bloom says is true. (Most of the time I think Bloom is just an old troll, saying things to get a rile.) But the idea has haunted me, nevertheless. What is the connection between religion and death? Do religious narratives exist because we fear death? Again, I don’t know.

If nothing else, the quote from Bloom (in conjunction with the quote from Steve Jobs that I shared on day one) makes me wonder if there is some unifying religion out there that mankind hasn’t yet discovered — something that could appeal to all of us, whatever our background. Could the fact that we all die serve as the foundation of a new moral framework, one that’s untethered from literal belief in ancient superstitions?

Even if not, perhaps the loose communion we share in the fact that we all will die can serve as a daily reminder to make life a little easier and more abundant for each other. From what I can see, that’s how to nurture a good eulogy when it’s time for you to pass on.