I’ve been collecting funeral readings for a while… these aren’t all strictly EA related, but do fit the science-y/humanist bent which seems to be common to EA culture:
‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas- a fairly common/traditional funeral reading that fits in nicely with EA ideas about fighting back against death and metaphorical darkness.
‘If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking’ by Emily Dickinson- doesn’t quite fit the EA focus on having a large impact, but does line up well with the broader idea of doing good being a central focus of your life
‘You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral’ by Aaron Freeman- not obviously EA aligned, but still worth an honourable mention IMO, given the focus on embracing truth and reality
This passage from ‘Unweaving the Rainbow’ also seems appropriate, (though anti-natalists/those who believe human lives are net-negative may not agree with the sentiment):
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia…Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here
I’ve been collecting funeral readings for a while… these aren’t all strictly EA related, but do fit the science-y/humanist bent which seems to be common to EA culture:
‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas- a fairly common/traditional funeral reading that fits in nicely with EA ideas about fighting back against death and metaphorical darkness.
‘If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking’ by Emily Dickinson- doesn’t quite fit the EA focus on having a large impact, but does line up well with the broader idea of doing good being a central focus of your life
‘You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral’ by Aaron Freeman- not obviously EA aligned, but still worth an honourable mention IMO, given the focus on embracing truth and reality
This passage from ‘Unweaving the Rainbow’ also seems appropriate, (though anti-natalists/those who believe human lives are net-negative may not agree with the sentiment):