2001
The death of Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) was a British writer, educated at Cambridge, and known for his humour and wry observations on the human condition. His best-known work was The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which appeared first as a radio series, then a television series, and then a worthless piece of cinematic junk. (However rotten the movie treatment of the Guide was, it was infinitely better than the unspeakably dreadful TV series made of his Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The fact that this series has been granted a second instalment is one of the more profound arguments against the existence of God.) Adams also wrote for, and appeared in, Monty Python skits, as well as authoring a number of Dr Who episodes. He died of heart failure in the United States.
Here are some of his lines:
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty- five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
- He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.
Douglas Adams was an outspoken atheist.