It's one where he doesn't even mention religion at all, even though he's destroying its very foundations.
(Btw, the quote also got featured in The Greatest Song on Earth ❤️)
I first read it in his 1998 book “Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder”. It was a turning point of my journey towards abandoning the Catholic mythology. It removed the greatest obstacle on the road of rationalism: the fear of death.
Here's the quote:
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?
Yes. How dare we? How dare we!?
I'm convinced that every major religion exists for just two main reasons:
Making up a story that (poorly) answers “the big questions”, while also giving you hope that death is not the end, is not a perfect idea, but I guess better than nothing.
Now we have science though! But while it helps with the first part tremendously, my mind was still struggling to give up religion because of the second part… Death is scary, it's unknown… Pretending that it's not real is so very soothing…
Religion's approach to death is to give promises that it can't deliver, while using your fear to make you behave the way they want you to (or else you'll burn in hell!). Priests are wolves in sheep's clothing – their fairy tales sound soothing, but really they just enslave your mind.
Dawkins doesn't try to be nice or soothing. Instead of making up a story that will make you feel better, he scolds you for demanding a story in the first place.
Death is just an end of something beautiful. Focus on the beautiful. Appreciate the beautiful. You won a fucking lottery of existence! So appreciate it, make the best out of it while you can. Just don't be so arrogant as to demand that it lasted forever. It won't. You'll have to deal with it. It's harsh, but it's true. And accepting it is liberating.
The quote might sound like it's about death, but for me it's more about life, actually. It puts life into a proper perspective. It makes you focus on the joy and gratitude instead of fear. On the process instead of its end.
Accepting that I'm going to die, inevitably, without any “afterlife” to look forward to, realising that things can be wonderful and amazing even if they don't last forever – that might have been the most liberating moment of my life.
]]>Nightwish is the musical love of my life. Their power metal gave me power to get through the darkest moments of my life. Their symphonic metal managed to combine into single songs my passion for both classical music and heavier sounds. Seeing them perform live was no doubt the most eargasmic experience of my life.
And their Tuomas Holopainen is IMO the greatest modern composer. Absolutely no doubt about it.
Which brings me to the song that is the absolute peak of their work, combining plentitude of talent, years of experience developing their style, the refined technique, and a beautiful, powerful message.
“The Greatest Show on Earth”.
Let’s start with the message. It can’t get more solemn than the story of the universe, of life and everything. Than asking the big questions, who are we and where are we going. Than contemplating life and death, creation and destruction. It’s all there.
The whole album is inspired by one of the most brilliant and important theories in the history of science: Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory. The album’s name actually comes from Darwin’s “Origin of Species”. And the name of the song itself comes from the title of Richard Dawkins’s book about evolution.
Speaking of which, the album features Dawkins himself as a guest. He reads excerpts from both Darwin and himself, including this powerful quote from “Unweaving the Rainbow” that provides a wonderful solace for the fear of death without there being an afterlife:
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. [...] In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?
Musically, the song is actually a mix of genres, even being a bit tribal or a bit pop in some places. As it tells the story of the entire universe, it consists of multiple vastly different parts, yet all of them fitting so well together. It’s a whole conceptual album in one song.
And it’s being sung by Floor Jansen – immensely talented woman with a beautiful voice, and probably the most versatile one that I’ve ever heard – together with Marco Hietala, who manages to both contrast and complement Floor’s voice. Simply wonderful!
And on top of that, they manage to take this already top-notch song and create a live show that elevates it even further – with a great stage design, sometimes even fireworks, or in case of the concert that I attended – weaving in my second-favourite song from Nightwish, Ghost Love Score.
Considering all that – could I make any other choice than going for The Greatest Song on Earth?
]]>