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'Returning to the primordial stew' would serve just fine; as would 'gone to meet his maker', 'fallen into a black hole', 'kicked the bucket', or 'bought the farm'.
I was simply following through on a particular metaphoric interpretation of death via the Carlin quote that King was referencing.
Don't pretend that atheism isn't a religion, my friend. Fundamentalism springs up in all of them, regardless of how evolved they are (yes, a modern, fact-based atheism is more evolved than fundamentalist Islam or Judaism or Christianity, et al.; but it can still manifest in a fundamentalist form, leading to very similar ends, if not always means).
The downfall of any belief system is believing that it is The Ultimate Belief System That Has All Of The Answers. There is a branch of TUBSTHAOTA that consists of atheists, and members of this branch are far too often promoted here on Salon--not that I don't learn something from whatever I read, just that relative to all the other shades of atheism they are the most prevalent here.
I just have one question for them: What started the chemical and electrical process?
...and where did that come from?
Oh, but where did that come from?
etc...