“I was at a rehearsal of the Brahms German Requiem. Though not an atheistic work, the genius and humanity at the great achievement of Brahms came through to me and coupled with this was the disaster of death and the cessation of being.

It struck me suddenly that to be such a deeply conscious aware human being in life and then to "not exist” is a far more powerful thing than an afterlife or anything God could do. The heroism and tragedy of human life which is so marvellous and yet is capable of ending had a very big impact on me.

It was partly the feeling that the universe had created something greater than itself – conscious, aware, striving man who is doomed after a short spell of the miracle of awareness to complete oblivion.

The power and impact of such a thought (this is the important bit of the experience that really got me thinking) was completely lost if God existed, or was even thought to exist, which really struck me as remarkable. This was really very shocking and disturbed me very much.

It seemed to me that death is one of the most natural things for living beings and it is something which is denied us by many religions. It places a special dignity on human conscious life – aware and striving – and so vulnerable!“

– Steve Locks