Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work,The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie -- man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.
The way I see it, we are born religious and then turn atheists (not everyone, but whoever does) and then comes this book which will help you transcend the realm of atheism too... to try and understand the existential crisis that we are born with: an animal with a conscience. Physical beings conscious about their physical limitations. and as Ernest Becker refers to in the book: Gods with Anuses. The Denial of Death is such an eye-opener and has helped me grasp what existentialism is about (tr...