If you get to it, it's not just asking religious people, but everyone why should we feel pity for the Boy in crimson rags, and the girl in the first verse being dead when we obviously cared so little for them when they were alive.
The second verse just points out how insane the belief that we should only feel pity when someone dies in this world of disease, suffering and decay,and go about having a weird sense that we're still better than the dead, mainly because they're missing out on some random major event, even though they no longer have to be in this world. It's inconsequential whether it's some golden afterlife, or just being ash or wormfood, they don't have to worry at all about the crap we, the living, still have to put up with.
And people ignore the may in the last vers, Greg, even an atheist who actually thinks on the question of is there life after death would admit we don't know anything beyond the body ceases to function at death, yes all signs may point to no guiding subtle light, etc, but we still don't know, however that body ceasing to function is the eternal silence and dormancy and everlasting peace (from the disease, suffering, and metaphorical decay) that's the very end of that verse.
Really it's asking the question of why do we even feel pity for someone who's gone, when they have it so much better than every single living person.
If you get to it, it's not just asking religious people, but everyone why should we feel pity for the Boy in crimson rags, and the girl in the first verse being dead when we obviously cared so little for them when they were alive.
The second verse just points out how insane the belief that we should only feel pity when someone dies in this world of disease, suffering and decay,and go about having a weird sense that we're still better than the dead, mainly because they're missing out on some random major event, even though they no longer have to be in this world. It's inconsequential whether it's some golden afterlife, or just being ash or wormfood, they don't have to worry at all about the crap we, the living, still have to put up with.
And people ignore the may in the last vers, Greg, even an atheist who actually thinks on the question of is there life after death would admit we don't know anything beyond the body ceases to function at death, yes all signs may point to no guiding subtle light, etc, but we still don't know, however that body ceasing to function is the eternal silence and dormancy and everlasting peace (from the disease, suffering, and metaphorical decay) that's the very end of that verse.
Really it's asking the question of why do we even feel pity for someone who's gone, when they have it so much better than every single living person.