Reflecting on the death of Osama Bin Laden

When I first heard the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden naturally I did and do take some satisfaction from that. A great threat to the human race has been eliminated, and, as a humanist, as someone who cares about human rights, I have to take satisfaction that a threat against human rights has been destroyed. That said, as soon as my initial elation about this event took place, I very quickly began to harbor some misgivings as to the "celebrations" that were taking place, and feeling that this was not unlike say gorillas pounding their chests at some victory. To me, I felt an ambiguity, whereas, on the one hand, I was happy as we all are that a threat to humanity had been destroyed, I was also at the same time not comfortable at the abject cheering about the death of someone that was transpiring. I felt at the same time elated along with everyone else, and, also, somewhat concerned about what this same elation said about human nature, that is, ought we really to celebrate the death of an enemy in the manner in which we seem to be doing.

I think the correct response to this great victory is to be, as Churchill implored, "magnanimous in victory". Now, I must admit, being a "skeptic" by just my natural temperament, I am not "religious" by any means, other than a deep commitment to love my neighbor as myself, which, as a certain Rabbi once said, is essentially the "great commandment", but that is another discussion. Were I religious, however, I think the correct response is to rejoice in the destruction of evil, as we all do, but not to make it "personal". I recall in church a prayer the priest would say is, "We pray for all who have died, that they may have a place in thine eternal kingdom", and the congregation would say, "Lord, hear our prayer". And by the word "all", it is really meant, "all". Therefore, it is inappropriate and most certainly not in the "tradition" of Jesus of Nazareth to do as former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee has done and to sort of "triumphally" say, "welcome to hell" with respect to the justified death of an evil person. This is not a humane response, in my opinion. Rather, we should be glad that a threat to humankind has been removed, and justifiably celebrate that fact, but we ought not to take pleasure in the death of a human being (which is part of why, by the way, my differences with mainstream religions aside, I am very much in agreement with opposing the death penalty which is just plain simple murder anyway one looks at it, but that is another discussion).

To respond to Mike Huckabee, hell does exist, and it exists to the extent that we create it for ourselves. It is not some "Dante's Inferno" sort of fantasy but rather it exists whenever we dehumanize another person, whenever we fail to see the inherent dignity in our fellows. So, in this sense, Bin Laden entered hell long ago, when he choose to make war upon his fellow human beings based upon an insane ideology that had nothing to do with Islam but upon his own sick mind. I don't know if there is an afterlife, and frankly, I don't think anyone knows. I do know that the choices we make determine whether we are in "heaven" or in "hell". Surely Bin Laden choose hell during the duration of his life on this planet. If there is an after-life, then he will still have to choose whether or not he wants to persist in hell, not caring about his fellow human beings, or whether he wants to choose heaven, caring about his fellows whatever superficial "differences" there might be.

So I think the correct response to the death of this evil individual is first and foremost a sense of gratitude that a great shadow has been lifted from the face of the globe, and we should all, in our own way, be grateful for that. This said, we have no right to sort of dance over anyone's grave, nor sit in judgement, as it were, over who is in "heaven" and who is in "hell", rather we should recall that, after-life or not, these alternatives are up to the individual to decide, and we all have the opportunity to choose "heaven" right here and now, if we but love our fellows as ourselves. Unfortunately, we also can choose not to do this, and choose "hell" instead. If there is an after-life, which, certainly, I am not going to presume to speculate upon, then I am certain that this choice remains, heaven or hell. It would of course be my hope that in the event an after-life existed that one would choose the former, rather than the later, but of course that would boil down to the choice of the individual, and could not be forced just by wishful thinking.

Bottom line, my response to the death of Osama Bin Laden is very much in line with the commentary of Andrew Sullivan: he said that, as a Christian, he was required to pray for the souls of all who have died, even including Osama Bin Laden. Myself, being a "skeptic", if one wills, I have no idea about things like "souls" or "after-lives", but I do share Sullivan's spirit, that is, as ethical people we ought to on the one hand find joy in the removal of a threat to humanity, but on the other hand not be vindictive or take joy in the death of anyone, and, going back to Gov. Huckabee's unfortunate remarks about who all is in "heaven" or "hell", we should recall that these are choices each of us make on a daily basis, and rather than sitting in judgement of others, we should rather focus on the "plank in our own eye" and deal with that, and perhaps let history take care of the rest.

A great evil and threat to humankind is gone, and we are rightfully grateful about that. Let us not lose our own humanity in the process.