You said, “The dominant Christian theory is that I would wake up in heaven if I have a good life.” With respect, if someone told you this, that someone is wrong. It is of course not your fault if this is how Christianity has been presented to you. But it’s not Christianity. 

Dear Scott,

I kind of hate this kind of thing. This open letter to a famous person thing. The chances of the famous person ever reading it are so low that it winds up just being a blog post disguised as a “letter.” Yet here I go, doing that thing I kind of hate, on the very slim chance that you will ever read it.

Yesterday you announced that you plan to convert to Christianity. Some friends have been bugging you about this for a while, and you don’t resent them for it, because this is after all The Most Important Thing Ever. You know that if they weren’t bugging you at this point in time, they wouldn’t be your friends. And time, for you right now, is of the essence.

When you announced your diagnosis last year, I was sad to hear you were considering the option of ending your own life. I understood why you were considering this, of course. But I very much hoped you could be persuaded out of it, and I’m thankful that you were. I admire the calm collectedness with which you are now facing death. Dying gracefully in public is quite a feat. Hats off.

Of course, the downside of dying in public is that when you make an announcement like you made yesterday, you’ll get thousands of replies, from Christians, atheists, and everyone in between. You’ve stated your intention not to respond to any of these suggestions, questions, complaints, etc. What happens next is, after all, between you and Jesus. You also sound irritated with people insisting there’s “one right way to do it.”

Well, fair enough. This little letter will be just one more reply among the many, and I am no more owed a response than any of those numerous others so eagerly crowding your mentions right now. But maybe it could still be helpful to someone, in some way.

Before I do any theology here, maybe I should start with a little epistemology. In the past, you’ve proposed that the true nature of reality is unknowable. Unfortunately, we will never have a leisurely chat in which I learn exactly what you mean by “knowledge.” I assume we would agree that there are at least a few things we can know for certain: “I exist.” “I am being appeared to laptoply.” “A circle is not a square.” But I don’t think knowledge is limited to what we know for certain. This includes knowledge about God.

In your announcement, you describe your conversion like a wager: Nothing lost if you’re wrong, everything gained if you’re right. I am obviously not privy to the conversations you’ve been having with your Christian friends, but I hope they’ve been offering you reasons to think this is better than a spin of the wheel. I’m sure you’ve heard some of those reasons at some point.

Read More