Francois Mitterrand, the late president of France, was an intellectual and an atheist.  Yet in the latter years of his life, he had a fascination with death and a desire to know what lies beyond the grave--something which challenged the atheism which he held to, at least philosophically.  Possessed by a strange fascination with death, he visited the graves of many of France's leading citizens pondering how they lived and how they died.  He once said that "he who loves death loves life."