The pilot delivered a calming announcement the day after the unthinkable DC collision between a passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter. The pilot said, “you may be fearful about flying and that’s certainly understandable but we will be carefully, professionally transporting you today.” The flying phobia passengers need safety assurance from the pilot in every flight.
I am overwhelmed reading about one of the teenage passenger victims who posted to his Instagram stories, “A grayish-blue overcast sky formed a shimmery curtain over the setting sun.” I wish I knew how to write literary English. A budding writer’s life before full bloom perished.
Accidents happen almost every day and everywhere in the world. So does death.
Different religions have different beliefs about life after death, including reincarnation (Hinduism, Buddhism), judgment, reward or punishment (Islam, Jews), and eternal life in heaven for the followers of Jesus (Christianity).
Here is an artificial intelligence’s overview about the accidents: “These happen due to a combination of factors including the natural world’s inherent randomness, human error, the consequences of past actions (karma), and sometimes as a test of faith, with the belief that even in misfortune, a higher power can work for good.”
As the most intelligent homo sapiens, whatever safety measures we take, accidents are going to happen. Sometimes I wonder why people do religious practice? Is it just to get some comfort?
Is there any proven truth that atheists live a short life? Or are there atheists amongst celebrities, scientists, famous people?
According to Pew Research Center, atheists make up 4% of US adults. Surprisingly three-quarters of U.S. atheists (77%) do not believe in God or a higher power or in a spiritual force of any kind. Maybe they are the followers of prominent atheists. I am certain not many women in any religion are atheist, rather they believe in their religion. However, Rosalin Franklin, who was deprived of the Nobel Prize while working on DNA, RNA along with Crick and Watson was an outstanding scientist as well as an atheist.
I know in the past or even currently they are renowned communists’ leaders who are atheists such as Karl Marx, Lenin, Andre Sakharov. Besides, who doesn’t know Freud, Einstein, Stephen Hawking or Peter Atkins – currently a retired Oxford University Chemistry Professor. Ironically, I am also a chemistry professor but to the Oxford standard. I don’t know what I believe. But always look for rationality. In this regard, I would like to mention a name, I am sure most of the people know him. He is Richard Dawkins, who used science, and especially the evolutionary theory of Darwin, to undercut the factual basis of religious belief. He has turned against religion rationally and morally
Interestingly, there are well known personalities, such as talk show host Bill Maher and magicians Penn and Teller, who use their prominence as entertainers to promote atheism. That’s the freedom of speech in the US, unlike a lot more countries in the world, especially Muslim-predominant countries.
The belief of those 67 human beings does not matter; let me wish the best if there is an after-life.
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. He writes occasional column in the Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. His email address is [email protected].
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