Cancer Survivor Credits Lack of Faith in Higher Power

Los Angeles, CA - When Dan Robbins, 32, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in the Fall of 2007, he knew he had an uphill battle ahead.  Because the cancer was detected late, doctors gave Robbins, a systems analyst, a bleak prognosis.  The doctors said they would do what they could using a combination of chemotherapies and radiation treatment. But, said Robbins, “They also counseled that these regimens would be painful and draining, and that I should seek out solace wherever I could.  When I heard that, I thought ‘Thank goodness that the random chaos of the Universe has given me the knowledge that there’s no significance to the fact that I’m going to die a painful, drawn-out death.”

During the course of his treatment, Robbins' pain became so unbearable that he considered stopping treatment, and living out his last few weeks in a palliative care facility.  But in those times of trouble, Robbins found his lack of belief in an afterlife to support him like a rock.  “Just knowing that when I die, my body will decompose the same way as a worm, my dog, or my reams of research papers, made me able to face each day, each fight, with renewed vigor.”

Friends and family marveled at Robbins’ sanguine and steadfast determination. “It was like he just knew, “said fellow systems analyst Ross Lee, “that there was no point in believing in anything but the science behind his treatment program. His resolve was just amazing.” Robbins credits this solidarity to his unflappable knowledge that he is just a random collection of molecules, which, like everything else in the universe, has a finite life-span.  “When I was tempted to feel sorry for myself, I took great solace in the fact that I am not inherently special in any way, shape or form. Basking in the glow of that knowledge got me through innumerable, sleepless nights.”

Robbins’ doctors also couldn’t help but notice.  “Oftentimes during treatment," said Dr. Rick Madison, an oncologist at Cedar Sinai Hospital, “patients will give up, and find that the science they were so enveloped in as a child and throughout their lives has become meaningless.” Dr. Madison cited numerous examples in which patients would try to will themselves towards health, using everything from prayer circles to meditation.  But Robbins was different. “Even when clergy would visit his hospital room, and talk about how he was being ‘tested,’ and ‘could find comfort in surrender,’ Dan soldiered on, a bulwark of disbelief.”

Lounging outside of his home in suburban Los Angeles, with his body completely free of any signs of cancer, Robbins wonders if he would be here today without his atheism. “Every day, I see so many people shun the warmth of enlightenment, turning instead to crude re-translations of political and cultural treatises written thousands of years ago. I look at what my unflappable belief in visible cause-and-effect did for me, and I feel sorry for those people, those poor lost souls…no pun intended.”