Two thoughts:
First, how does he "know" that death is final? He might believe it; he might have faith that it is so. But it is irrational to state that he knows it.
Second, if death is final, then ultimately nothing else matters. In the long run, we are all dead, as Keynes so famously said. And as soon as anyone dies—Rev. Miller included—the universe ceases to exist for that person.
If all is nothing more than atoms and void, it is ultimately pointless to talk about truth, rationality, or morality. The Universe cares nothing about those things, or about us. Do good, do evil, or do nothing—in the end, each is equally pointless.
First, how does he “know” that death is final? He might believe it; he might have faith that it is so. But it is irrational to state that he knows it.
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The great nothing may have briefly coalesced from chance quantum phenomenon, learned english, told him so, and then died.
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Second, if death is final, then ultimately nothing else matters. In the long run, we are all dead, as Keynes so famously said. And as soon as anyone dies—Rev. Miller included—the universe ceases to exist for that person.
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But until then he can have photos taken of him in sandals and socks, and he can lead his church of nothingness for the purpose of celebrating the meaningless. I think he just stopped reading before the end of the book. Here is where the Reverend stopped, I think.
Ecclesiastes 1
Everything Is Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow