Who Will Speak at Your Funeral?
Recently I saw a post that began, “You want a physicist to speak at your funeral.” Having never considered that option, I read with interest the extended quote from Aaron Freeman who, to no one’s surprise, turns out to be a physicist.
Here’s his opening:
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.[1]
At first I thought this was tongue-in-cheek parody and prepared for the smiles to come. Mr. Freeman continued with:
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.[2]
Wait, this guy is serious!? The great comfort in death is that energy has been preserved? What parent will be heartened by enduring particle waves? Surely there must be more.
There is:
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.
Isn’t it heartening to know that during your life you altered the path of photons and particles? And further, “those photons created within [your loved one] constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.”[3] Constellations of neurons, even!
And of course we must be grateful for the heat you generated, as well. “…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.”[4]
By this point you may be wondering, as was I, Why should I care about physics at a funeral?
Mr. Freeman’s last paragraph makes the point:
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.[5]
And now we’re down to it. The purpose of having a physicist[6] speak is that science does not require that one shoulder the burden of faith. Science is governed by laws, after all, such as thermodynamics and conservation of energy. Precisely measurable. Accurate, verifiable, and consistent.
I’m not a physicist, but when Mr. Freeman speaks on matters of science he seems altogether credible to me. What physically endures when a human body decays may be accurately, verifiably, and consistently described by a scientist.
What Mr. Freeman chooses not to address are the limitations of science. Physics deals with neurons, photons, and particles. Its realm includes the measurable and repeatable, the observable from which laws are intuited.
What it cannot address is metaphysics. Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the origin of life?[7] Why is a sense of “right and wrong” innate in human beings and the impulse to worship found across cultures, civilizations, and history?
“What happens to my body when I die?” is a question for the physicist. So yes, if that is the question your remaining loved ones will be asking, by all means invite someone who can clearly expound on energy and heat answer it for them.
But if “What happens to ME when I die?” is your question, I’d say you want to hear from Someone who has died and come back to life. Even better, if that Someone was there at the point time began. Who created a universe so orderly that laws of electromagnetism and gravity and conservation of energy could be discovered, measured, and articulated by sentient creatures made in His image. That Someone who promised His followers that He was going to prepare an eternal home for them.[8]
Here are Aaron Freeman’s closing words in his address:
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.
Yes, you can “hope” your family will be comforted in knowing your energy is still around – somewhere, in disordered, disembodied form.
Or you can choose to believe the words of Jesus of Nazareth who conquered the grave. He also spoke to the loved one of a brother who had just died. Here’s the story:
21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”[9]
And then He raised Lazarus from the dead.[10]
Written by Wes Taber, LIFE Global Ambassador
Do YOU believe this? Or is your faith confined to what is measurable and repeatable in a lab?
If you’re uncertain about the unseen realm, remember that science goes beyond what is observable, at both the macro and micro levels of both the universe and life. Hypotheses are formed to see if they conform with what can be known.
There is no instrument for weighing your eternal soul. Thankfully the Creator has given you a mind to comprehend both scientific facts and metaphysical truth. He has revealed Himself in the Bible and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We encourage you to examine the evidence for yourself. If we can be of help, please contact us at office@lifeinmessiah.org
Footnotes:
[1] A brief search revealed this is not a new quote. Aaron Freeman spoke these words in an interview by Melissa Block in an “All Things Considered” NPR interview broadcast on June 1, 2005. “Planning Ahead Can Make a Difference in the End.” https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4675953.
[2] Freeman, “Planning Ahead.”
[3] Freeman, “Planning Ahead.”
[4] Freeman, “Planning Ahead.”
[5] Freeman, “Planning Ahead.”
[6] By “physicist” one must assume Mr. Freeman envisions a materialist who denies the supernatural; thankfully not all physicists fit that category, as having faith and working in science are not mutually exclusive.
[7] A biologist may hypothesize about life’s origins, but it is a non-repeatable event and we haven’t found a way to travel back to when time began.
[8] John 14:1-6.
[9] John 11:26.
[10] The notable miracle of raising a man to life after four days in the grave is attested to by the stir that it caused, especially in Jerusalem. See John 12:9-11,17-19.