Uncle Eric hangs it up

May 14, 2013 • 5:56 am

After two and a half years of posting on Choice in Dying, Uncle Eric MacDonald has finished. He is an ex-blogger.  In “The Last Post,” put up yesterday, Eric explains that he wants to devote his time to either writing a book (my vote!) or pursuing a newfound interest in photography.

Either way, I’ll miss him.  As someone once on the inside—a former Anglican priest—I found his insights valuable, and they were important in shaping my own thinking about religion (I was always in favor of assisted dying).

I can only hope that Eric will post here from time to time so that we don’t lose touch. In the meantime, get over to his site and, if you ever read it, thank him and bid him CeilingCatSpeed.

EricMacDonald
Uncle Eric, friend and mentor

19 thoughts on “Uncle Eric hangs it up”

      1. Count me in…

        Many thanks Eric, for your insight, and your personal support.

  2. And he thanks Prof Ceiling Cat for the many exchanges you had. He wrote well and his arguments against religion were always on the mark.

  3. I’d read that book.

    I remember him in the comments. He would write such wonderful ones – insightful and well written. I wanted to read his blog only there wasn’t one. And then there was. A book would be just that much better.

  5. “to everything there is a season”
    winds at your back, eric,
    with immeasurable gratitude
    tmcm

  6. Thank you, Eric.

    On this special occasion, as a parting gift of sorts for Eric, I’d like to celebrate the death of one of my scientific heroes: Christian de Duve, the Belgian cell biologist best known for his classic study of lysosomes and peroxisomes (“organelles” Nobel prize 1974, together with Albert Claude [mitochondria] and George Palade [ribosomes])

    I half expected to find a notice of his death on Eric’s website. As it was not so, I beg leave to mention it here.

    I’m deliberately using the simple word death. Not passing, or any other euphemism.

    Christian de Duve died of his own volition — assisted suicide — on May 4.
    He was 95. He exercised his right to choose his own death. He had announced it in an interview that was to be published post-mortem (behind a paywall, alas).

    In another carefully scheduled posthumous interview, de Duve said:

    »Towards the end of my periple, I had arrived at a Platonic worldview. I called “ultimate reality” something exiting out there to be discovered. I have arrived at the conclusion that this notion is wrong, and that the reality I thought I was discovering was created by myself.
    It is a product of our brain. Truth, beauty, virtue, all this is not something that lives outside for us to discover: we create it.…
    Q: No existence for a God, either?
    A: I understand that this is a preoccupation for many humans and the source of at least three religions. Let’s say, simply: the existence of a God cannot be demonstrated, and neither can the non-existence. Napoleon had asked Laplace: “And God in all this?” Laplace answered: “I have no need for that hypothesis.”

    I feel the same way.«

  7. I was a fan of Eric here before he started his own blog.

    I’ve been urging him to write a book for ages and ages. I hope he does.

  8. One of the most insightful (ex)bloggers on the interwebs. I will also miss him, and look forward to reading his book(s). Thanks, Eric!

  9. The other day, upon reading “The Language of Speciation” by Rick Harrison during a discussion for which Coyne & Orr 2004 is the textbook, someone said:

    “….Orr, you could just Coyne new terms for discoveries in the field of speciation.”

  10. I was wondering why Eric had not posted comments here recently. I will miss his insight.

    Goodbye, Eric, and “thanks for all the fish.”

  11. I have been mostly moved by his courage in writing what must have been personal agony to remember his beloved Elizabeth and to do so with clear headed reason in the face of the relentless attacks by the religious armies.
    We all know the internet and we all know that Eric had the Herculean task of reading the comments to his thoughtful posts in order to delete the spittle flecked invective that is so often the religious response to his carefully crafted argument to the problem of human suffering. I mean, how many versions of ‘Elizabeth is burning in hell’ does he have to take before he breaks under the strain?
    Anyway, he’s just resting, and not in peace, we’re going to see a great humanist document and I am so much looking forward to reading it.

  12. That’s a shame, I enjoyed reading his blog. He always had something interesting to say.

    I hope he finds pleasure and happiness in whatever he chooses to do.

  13. Can I urge Jerry to put in a good effort in having uncle Eric do guest posts here from time to time? I understand the need to move on, but can’t we get the occasional wonderful sprinkle of his person as a treat from time to time? I think his insight and knowledge demands it on us (he selfishly declared).

  14. There are a couple of great documentaries on this:
    How To Die In Oregon
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1715802/

    The other one I can’t remember the title but it was on the PBS website about 6 months ago.

    Those of us who have seen a family member suffer from terminal disease or who are suffering from it know how important this is.

  16. I visited Eric’s blog often. His writing was excellent and there were many great conversations following his posts.
    I remember getting into it with Edward Feser about Natural Law for a bit int Eric’s blog, and many people, certainly Eric himself, made excellent contributions in those threads.

    Just as Prof. Coyne has said, Eric brought a valuable and enriched perspective on many of the issues regarding religion (and not to mention the right to die).

    You will be missed. Thanks Eric.

    Vaal

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