Sunday, June 03, 2007

The last human alive

The last human alive sits huddled in a dark cave, alone and weak. The friends she once knew, the family she had loved: all are gone. Six billion lives lost in just six months; victims of the deadly virus that had spread throughout the world.

The last human alive, the final gasp of what was once a successful species, begins to cough and wheeze. She knows that she doesn’t have much time left. In her despair she whispers to the one stable comfort that she knew as a child.

“God,” she utters into the dark, “please help me.”

Despite the pains in her chest, she calls out again, more loudly this time.

“God, if you can hear me, please help. God, where are you?”

But there is no answer. No voice. Nothing. The last human alive suddenly realises that she is utterly and entirely alone. There is nobody here, no other intelligent mind to hear her speak. Her words are simply meaningless sounds.

She wonders: where is this being called God? Why does he not come to the last human ever to walk this earth? She realises that maybe, just maybe, God had not been a spiritual being after all, but a natural one. Like the billions of single neurons creating the complex networks of her personality and character, the billions of human brains throughout history had created the character and personality of God.

God had existed, but not in the way most people had believed: his very essence had simply been a product of the human mind, a powerful and complex pattern that had spread through billions of brains over thousands of years. Humans did not depend on the existence of God; rather, the concept of God – like the concepts of language and music – had depended upon the existence of humans.

And now, in this dark hole in the ground, the once great and powerful essence of God splutters like a candle flame in the rain; a belief that once occupied billions of brains, now reduced to dwell in a single human mind.

As her breathing slows, her eyes close, and her mind clouds over, the last human alive suddenly realises that her death will be the most unique human death in all of history: through her death all of what is human – courage, love, and imagination – will die with her. Her death will mark the ultimate end of the brief period in the universe’s history in which intelligence life had existed.

But more than that, her end will mark the death of God.

16 comments:

Kevin said...

Through this piece I am pondering the question: if every single human being dies, will God still exist?

CyberKitten said...

That's a rather bleak story.........

Also rather arrogant to suppose that we are the only Intelligent life in the entire Universe.

I agree with the premise though - we created God in *our* image and not the other way around.

Guy McLaren said...

I think Terry Pratchett still said it best

Luis Cayetano said...

It seems rather arrogant for this last human to ask God for help, as though she were somehow worthy of consideration by a deity who stood by and allowed the entire human race to perish. But I doubt that theists would see it as arrogance; they'll try to rationalise this narcissistic reflex as "having a relationship with God", or retorting with "who are we to say what's right and wrong when viewed through the eyes of God?".

sdfa sdfasdfadsf said...

Amazing post. Seriously amazing... Wow.

Jason Hughes said...

Awesome post, Kev.

KenC said...

Who says death is a bad thing?

It is only scary for those who think there is no life after death.

The bad news is that everyone dies. The really bad news for those who don't believe in life after death is ... there is.

Read John 3:16-17 to see both sides of the issue from the Christian perspective:

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone said death was a bad thing. But to your point, I don't believe in life after death and I don't find death to be scary. Frankly, I wouldn't want to live for eternity - go ahead and try to wrap your head around just how long that truly is.

I do find it scary, though, that there are those who believe they KNOW such things based on a couple sentences from a 2000 y/o book. To each his own I guess.

Anyway, nice post Kevin.

Luis Cayetano said...

I think it's also arrogant for those who believe in an afterlife to make out as thought they're the only ones entitled to it. If there actually is an afterlife, that need have NOTHING to do with the Christian God, or Allah, or any of the other gods that humanity has ever believed in. The only reason I don't believe in it is because the evidence isn't there. There's absolutely nothing immoral about that.

Anonymous said...

Kevin - I started at Cori's page after Googling about whether atheist/Christian marriages can work. I a in love with a Christian man, and I am your age, and I think we're getting to the "where is this going" stage after 2 years of dating. He is hung up on the idea that "a house divided will not stand," and while we sound a lot like you two - I have to wonder if it won't work if we had kids. Any thoughts on that one? By the way, you both sound very bright and cool.

Jase Anthony said...

Great post! ~Jason

Tim said...

I would disagree with your statements/assertions presented in this post. You show this (highly unlikely) apocolyptic scenario, and give the commentary yourself, and from that comment about your beleifs. One cannot assert what will happen and comment about their assertions as if fact. It is hypocrital. For example, if I tell you in two years a blue apple tree with pencils for branches will grow in my front yard, because "There will be some disease that makes it so, for in those times men will have grown unimune to the chicken pox." That is not only unfactual and plain wrong, it is asserting some even more wrong thing to make that untruth correct. Do you get what I mean by that?

Anonymous said...

Lighten up Tim.

Rimas Orentas said...

I see no room in your phiosophy that suffering can be redemptive. That perhaps the Creator inteded it this way. That pain and perhaps even the pointless suffering that we see in evolutionary biology was already present within God- within Jesus as he hung on the cross. The lamb is still wounded. The cross is an eternal event in God. And I think the cross is required for us to see through the hurt and sorrow of this world. I have no idea how God is brigning us to himslef, other than the sign of himself on the cross. But I believe he is doing it.

Kevin said...

Time wrote:
One cannot assert what will happen and comment about their assertions as if fact

Hi Tim

Thanks for your comment. I was not arguing that this scenario is actually going to happen for real. I was just trying to present the argument (that God is simply a product of the human mind) in a more interesting way. It is a fictional piece. In fact, view it as a parable, if you like.

Anonymous said...

very good story kevin..
thanks for sharing the truth.. ^^