Why You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen.

Written by: Aaron Freeman

Copy/pasted by: Kristian Sagflaat Saasen

Mangel av tro

I mitt svar til Leon i Adresseavisen den 31. januar klarte redaktørene å redigere bort en del av en setning, poenget ble noenlunde beholdt, men det så litt rart ut. I tillegg ble innlegget litt forkortet, noe som er forståelig og greit.

Her kommer i alle fall hele det lille innlegget slik jeg skrev det.

Mangel av tro.

 Jeg beklager at Leon Jensen (I et innlegg i Adresseavisen den 31. januar) føler seg såret og blir trist av at hans gud blir vitset med, men jeg ser ikke at dette er problemet i dagens samfunn. Skolebarn blir mobbet for andre ting enn den religionen de er født inn i. Vi må heller konsentrere oss om å ta vare på barna og hjelpe de som har det vondt.

Folk er ikke dumme hvis de erkjenner at gud er en realitet, det har Leon rett i. Folk kan bli overbevist om de merkeligste ting, og det har ingenting med intelligensnivået til personen å gjøre. Vi lever derimot  i en verden som bør forstås objektivt og gjennom testbar kunnskap , ikke ut ifra hva som står i en eventyrbok. 

Religion er på tilbakegang i de nordiske landene og de er i verdenstoppen når det gjelder andel av befolkningen som ikke tilkjenner seg en religion. Dette er en utvikling jeg setter pris på. Det gir oss muligheten til å bruke tid, energi og ressurser på utdanning, teknologiske framskritt og menneskeverd, som f.eks. å hjelpe mobbere og ofre for mobbing.

Kristian Sagflaat Saasen