Gene Wilder - Atheist
Sad to see him go. He was suffering from Alzheimer's.
He came out as an atheist at a time when one could be severely ostracized for their non-belief. The man had guts.
In the book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish (by Abigail Pogrebin) Wilder states, "Well, I'm a Jewish-Buddhist-Atheist, I guess." He was Jewish in descent and a Godless Buddhist.[1]
Wilder was the subject of a prolonged interview on "Inside the Actor's Studio." That program was cablecast during Fall of 1998 on Bravo, a US-based cable television network. The instructor-host asked the famous comic actor what heaven is. Wilder responded by saying that he is not sure if heaven exists and immediately added that everyday life can be thought of as heaven.
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Gutsy for sure. I tried to find it on YouTube. Lot's of other Actor's Studio but not that one. 
Okay, what is? Gene Wilder the baby? Christopher Hitchens the adolescent? None of us are even the same person from moment to moment.
I know, Death is spooky black stark nothing, and this is supposed to be the great looming threat which drives us all into the warm embrace of the holy church.
Ignoring the fact that the scenery is made of balsawood and you can see the ropes holding up the angels.
But nothing is "nothing". Certainly not nothing. There's no such thing as nothing. So-called "empty space" is teeming with things popping in and out of existence all the time, borrowing time and matter and energy and probability from the randomness, uncertainty and chaos that is the REAL firmament underlying everything.
It's not that I'm not scared of anything, but I'm certainly not scared of nothing, Rug.
(It also may be completely meaningless to try and speak of what is "outside" existence, because by definition there is no outside, but that's a post for a different day)
Gene Wilder - and Christopher Hitchens to boot- the individual, the ego, the organizational system of molecules holding forth for however many decades against the relentless and always victorious forces of entropy? Gone. But where? Back to the nameless, the Tao, the great mother of the ten thousand things which has no name and can never be created or destroyed. That's not Misty-eyed, that IS the stark reality.
At least, that's what I choose to think this week. You think whatever the fuck you want, holmes. Your head, not mine.
How's that, for "preaching"? 
Phew, what a relief!
Although, come to think of it, I've always been here. 
Nonetheless, the idea of Wilder and Radner "together again" does show a lack of understanding (at best; at worst, disrespect) for their Jewishness and Wilder's atheism 
