Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

2. 

   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

3. 

   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

4. 

   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

5. 

   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

LAST year California incurred the wrath of the state’s Catholic Conference of Bishops (CCC) when it passed a law that will allow for the composting of human remains.

The CCC, according to the Christian Post, was among several groups that opposed to the law, saying the process “reduces the human body to simply a disposable commodity” and that people would inadvertently be treading on “mass graves.”

I learned of the bishops’ displeasure in a later CP article this week that points out that, as fewer Americans identify as Christian and spurn religious funeral services in churches, the demand for cremation is on the rise.

The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) predicts that by 2035 the cremation rate for all 50 U.S. states will exceed 50 percent.

NFDA President Jack Mitchell said:

Traditionally when someone lost a loved one, they would have a viewing and then they would be taken to their church for a funeral service and then onto the cemetery for a burial. But more and more people don’t go to church, so a religious aspect to however they memorialize their loved one is not important to them. 

According to the NFDA, 41 percent of funeral home clients chose direct cremation, while another 35 prcent chose cremation along with a memorial service.

How does the U.S. compare with other countries?

Wikipedia provides a list of cremation rates which shows that in traditionally Catholic countries like Ireland and Spain this form of disposal on the rise. Of the latter it says “cremations are booming in Spain: in 2006, just 16% of deaths involved cremation, but by 2016 that figure had risen to 36%.”

According to this report, one in four Spaniards are atheists and six in ten “never go to church.”

After permanently settling in Spain, I had a lawyer draw up an Acta De Manifestaciones, a legally binding document that states that if were to be struck down by any condition likely to leave me permanently disabled, I should be allowed to die.

The document also states that I want my organs harvested, and whatever remains to be donated to medical science. If my cadaver is deemed unsuitable for either organ transplants or for science study, then I am simply to be incinerated at minimal cost without a funeral—just like David Bowie, who took the direct cremation route in 2016.

In January 2022—the month in which I was summarily sacked by The Freethinker for being too aggressivly atheistic—I wrote a piece for OnlySky about death, cremation and “quasi-Ponzi” funeral schemes that targeted expats.

So I won’t be having a funeral, but if friends think my life is worth celebrating, I’d like them to stage a joyful wake at my favourite gay bar and play a religious song “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum.

I have two reasons for this choice. It has great tune, one that made me get up and dance when I was in my teens in South Africa. However, the censors regarded it as “blasphemous” and banned it soon after its release in 1969.

Second, the line “Never been a sinner, I never sinned, I got a friend in Jesus” will unleash howls of laughter among those who knew that the best part of my life was spent championing non-belief.

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