Western Civilization begins with the creation of massive, monumental structures requiring the expenditure of vast resources—in the name of a project serving no practical purpose. Devoted to the proposition that the King would live eternally in his second life, the pyramids had no biological or evolutionary significance.

Sheldon Solomon's experiments are wonderful, but unnecessary. Nearly everything that human beings do--is based on the denial of death.

Even more significant is the denial that we human beings function according to the denial of death: the rrogant view that human behavior can be explained according to biological evolutionary principle. An entire discipline and industry has arisen--under the gues of 'science" pretend--that we are animals just like all other animals.

Human beings become human precisely when they flee from their animal nature, reaching for the stars, building monumental structures to pretend they are more than animals.

The essence of the human being is to pretend that we are an animal unlike other animals--one that does not die. This is the fantasy that drives "history."

In the name of this fantasy, millions-upon-millions of young men died in wars--to defend their society's principle of immortality. Most of these young men did not have the opportunity to pass their genes along.