Will Bill Nye say Goodbye to a Bundle of Cosmic Protoplasm?

    

            I am writing this without knowing the actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, or any of his associates, friends, family or “significant others.”  As a result, I have no vested interest in saying anything either particularly devoted to or particularly denigrating about him.  I understand the connection to Bill Nye seems odd, but, if you will be so kind, give me the benefit of the doubt for just a moment.

            First, we are going to hear about how Hoffman’s death was tragic.  I would agree but not for the same reasons most will use this term.  Most will say things about how he was such a nice guy, or a thoughtful dad, or a good friend, or a great actor.  These things may all very well be true.  As I said, I did not have any association with him and can’t comment on his character.  I can say I enjoyed his acting.  However, what is tragic to me is that it is very likely he is now in hell.  I don’t say this lightly, nor do I say it as a condemnation of him.  However, nowhere in any of the stories about him have I seen any indication that he was a Christian.  Since it does not appear he ever received the gift of life from God through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross, it is tragic he will spend eternity in hell.

            Many will sympathetically claim that he is now in a better place, that he is “looking down on us,” that he is with God and so forth.  While these simplistic notions sound nice, when most people say them, they really don’t mean it.  They just don’t know what else to say when someone dies and don’t want it to be true that people go to hell.  Ironically, however, the very same people who often throw out such platitudes are determined not to believe in hell.  Heaven, yes.  Angels, yes.  Demons, yes.  Hell, no.  It is a peculiarity of the modern Western psyche that we have thrown out hell as a viable or meaningful concept, even when we are prepared to accept all kinds of supernatural reality.

            Recently, Bill Nye debated Ken Ham about whether creation was a viable alternative to evolution as an explanation for humanity’s origins.  Nye is a devoted naturalistic materialist – meaning that he refuses to accept even the possibility of the supernatural as an explanation for anything.  Science will, according to Nye, ultimately explain all.  Many will applaud Nye’s determination to argue against creationism (in any form, including intelligent design, which only pre-supposes an intelligence behind the universe, and does not necessarily demand a supernatural God).  Despite this, however, the same people will often throw out the above-noted platitudes regarding Hoffman’s death.   I am not suggesting Bill Nye will do so, as I believe him to be an honest devotee of his beliefs.  However, many casual naturalistic materialists will say these things.  What “better place” is Hoffman in right now, then?  From where is he “looking down?” 

            I did not know Hoffman’s heart, and cannot say whether he did or did not know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  Given the reporting on him, it seems unlikely.  What then shall we say?  If Bill Nye is correct, then we can’t even say “rest in peace” since the concept of some sort of eternal rest presupposes there is something left of Hoffman after the fleshly envelope containing his essence has stopped functioning.  In Nye’s world, this simply cannot be.  What consolation can there be, then, for those who mourn Hoffman’s death - for his children, their mother, Hoffman’s siblings and parents (if still with us)?  There is no consolation.  He is utterly gone.

            This doesn’t prove anything except that people need to get real.  If you want what Bill Nye is offering, understand what comes with the package and accept it.  You are born, you live, you die.  Your life ultimately cannot have any intrinsic meaning or value.  There is no hereafter of any kind (good or bad) and Aunt May and Phillip Seymour Hoffman aren’t watching over you or working on getting their angel wings.  Condescendingly “accepting” that some people see value in religion (as Nye suggested in his debate with Ham) means nothing since those religious beliefs simply provide a meaningless and false sense of security.  Better that everyone understand now that in Bill Nye’s world life simply is.   

            The question that one must ask then is: why mourn Hoffman’s death?  In Bill Nye’s world Hoffman’s (like ours) was an unintended life, produced at an unintended time, under unintended conditions, for no intended purpose by an utterly uncaring universe.  It reminds me of Macbeth’s lament upon hearing of Lady Macbeth’s death: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, which struts and frets its hour upon the stage and is heard no more.  It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

            There is however, an alternative: we can accept there is a creator God who purposely, intentionally, at a specific time for specific reasons, under specific conditions, reached from a place beyond time and space and created life.  No longer is the tale of life something which signifies nothing.  Rather, life now has incredible meaning, an incredible purpose, and incredible consequences.  Suddenly, I can say I mourn Hoffman’s death – not because I knew him – but because he was made in the image of God and I fear he will not greet me at heaven’s gate.  Bill Nye can only say goodbye you unintended bundle of cosmic protoplasm.  Let’s not kid ourselves, as Bill Nye is doing, that we have any reason to be excited about discovering that “truth.”