Theocracy Watch

The Appalling Morality of Supernaturalisms

III — Euthanasia

W here is the dignity in this?

Think what one will of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, not even his worst critics say that he’s less than a good and honest man. One of principle and integrity. Is this any way for anyone, especially an honorable and virtuous ex-POTUS, to exit? Stripped of all dignity, likely without the ability to stand; to control basic bodily functions; to feed, dress or clean himself; unable to remember even closest loved ones. Warehoused — although in the VIP section under Secret Service protection — in a hospice facility, where everyone is just waiting for him to die?

But Jimmy Carter is also famously a supernaturalist, of the Paradisian variety. A Christian, by virtue of which considering himself morally superior, committed to the belief that he will spend eternity in Heaven as soon¹ as he sheds this mortal coil. … So why tarry?

This short essay is not the place for a dissertation on the morality of suicide. I recommend the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s treatment. Rather, it is to call out the oversimplification and moral vanity of Rome’s Paradisian position concerning voluntary death with dignity. I stress the voluntary.

Just repeating mindlessly like a trained parrot “It’s a sin” is not a serious argument here in 2024. Nor is the slogan “dignity of life”. Those of us who align with the Stoics, Hume, and Graber (see Stanford article linked above) think this is an important and knotty topic that deserves rational debate, not self-serving, absolutist, fundamentalist pieties.

Since here in the West most supernaturalist absurdities have Vatican roots, I’ll point out that Rome’s theology on suicide rests on a first foundation of Augustine, who argued that the Commandment not to kill includes self-killing, omitting “thy neighbor” in contrast to the Commandments not to covet or bear false witness.

Except the original² verb is “murder” … to kill someone else.

Think what one will of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, at least he didn’t have to suffer the indignity that his predecessor just did. To leave a nation he served so long with such a degraded final image, now burned onto the collective retina.

Notes:

[1] Naturally, as with most theological speculations, the timeline is not settled. Even ignoring Rome’s purgatory kludge, Calvinists, at least, think it’s a two step process. How having a body is supposed to add to the 100% bliss of one’s spirit being in the presence of Christ is another classic head-scratching howler.

[2] Yes, yes, since the Ethiopians are holding the Ark of the Covenant containing Moses’s stone tablets under lock and key, we have to rely on translations that differ. As far as I know, the oldest complete version of the Tanakh is, ironically, the Greek Septuagint, which uses φονεύσεις (fonéfseis … murder). One of the oldest manuscript fragments in Hebrew, 4Q41 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, also translates to murder. Theology … pointless speculative debates over iotas and punctuation marks.