Now that we’ve gotten a brief look at what Thanatism is and why we might want to consider it, I think it only fair to briefly look at why it is almost certainly doomed from the start.  This is a relatively easy task, for Thanatism has so much working against it, if I knew what I know now when I first started it, I no doubt wouldn’t have written it at all.

First, it’s essentially a book.  Although, were I to format it as such, what follows would be a relatively short book at 200 pages, books aren’t really at the top of the food chain when it comes to public consumption anymore.  I’m releasing this serially online to hopefully reduce the burden it presents, but even as what is essentially a blog, it is a good decade out of fashion.  Believe me, if I were capable of distilling what follows into a meme, I would.

Beyond the failings of verbosity, the subject itself–death–dooms this project from the start.  Although we’ll make the case that death is an extremely powerful part of our psychology and that our denial of it causes a great deal of harm, we repress it both personally and socially because it’s depressing as hell.  I’m literally asking us to put at the center of our being something we hate so much as humans that nearly every successful faith in history has been built around finding a way to avoid thinking about it.

Speaking of traditional faiths, another problem is that it’s quite likely that Thanatism, should it ever manage to overcome the obscurity it’s most likely doomed to, will be received by their members with nothing less than complete hostility.  As if being a competing faith alone weren’t enough to doom it to such a fate, Thanatism literally advocates the near opposite of the most sacred tenets of most traditional faiths.  Whereas they promise eternal life, Thanatism tells us we shall all die.  Whereas they claim that a higher power is in control, Thanatism asks us to accept the responsibility that comes from our position as the highest power on this planet.  Whereas they claim that we are important to the creator of the universe, Thanatism teaches that our self-importance is an illusion that we must overcome.

Of course, this wouldn’t be so bad for Thanatism if the silent, secular majority were to embrace it, but from the early feedback I’ve received from the few people I’ve released this to, I’m likely to have more success with the currently faithful.  Nearly everyone who’s read this has been nothing less than hostile to the concept of a faith at all.  Given how much secular society rightly values our freedom of thought, this reaction is on some level justified, but quite frankly, I’ve been shocked at how negative the energy has been even toward a faith built on a rational foundation that promotes that freedom of thought as one of its highest values.

Having acknowledged the futility of this project, I’ve pressed forward because these exact things that condemn Thanatism to obscurity are exactly what make it important.  Death, although depressing, sits at the center of one of the last great contradictions in the human mind, the resolution of which may just set us free.  In spite of Thanatism having none of the assurances of traditional faiths, like them, it deeply values the power of personal commitment to a belief and at least entertains the notion that we humans might just be better when we believe together.  And although secular society has gained a great deal in overcoming the totalizing superstitions of the past, we need to consider equally the impoverished sense of community that our individualism has led us to.

There are obviously a great many things working against Thanatism, but I can promise you this–if you can approach what follows with openness and curiosity, if rather than judging its obvious shortcomings, you can mine it for the occasional nugget of truth, you will enjoy the journey.  You most likely won’t become a Thanatist, but Thanatism will leave its mark.  It will challenge you to consider who you are, how you came to be, and show you a path that you almost certainly haven’t fully considered.  I hope that’s enough to encourage you to join us on this journey, as the one thing I know for certain is that what we create over the next year, will be better for having you involved.