I’m not religious at all, and right now I can’t say I believe in god, but I am wondering about existence in general and possibilities…. Because I can’t know anything for sure, it’s better to be open-minded I guess…
I mean, I just recently found out that soft tissue was found in dinosaurs… but previously scientists were completely sure that wasn’t possible… o__o;
I also have seen ancient artifacts depicting dinosaurs… So, I’m wondering about the real age of dinosaurs…
Anyway… right now what I’m thinking about is…since we cannot know what is after death,,,
There are only two options..
1. We die, that’s all there is. Life is pointless. Whether we die when we’re a child, or when we’re 90, it doesn’t matter. Because once you die, you don’t know if you lived, whether you lived a life full of struggles, or one full of fun… It wouldn’t matter either way… So based on that, why not just kill ourselves and be done with it all, since we won’t know one way or the other if we had lived anyway?...
2. There is something more after death… There is some reason for our existence…
Since we can’t actually know what is after death wouldn’t choosing to believe the better, second option make more sense? That’s something I’ve wondered about. Why be set on believing there is nothing after death? No one knows that there is nothing, but yet people choose to believe there is nothing. For what reason? Does it make them happy believing there is nothing? That this short existence in this crappy world is all they have? That their existence is random and pointless?
That seems pretty grim to me. I’m not trying to cause an argument by saying that, I just honestly wonder about it.
Since I can’t live a pointless life like that then the only alternative is to want to believe there is something more, right? I mean if given the option of having an eternal life, or not.
Well, right now, by no choice of my own, I exist, and am living life (not going out and killing myself) and so if life is a miracle that we should treasure and live for (because there are good things in life despite the bad, obviously). If I am living this life, then why wouldn’t I want to live beyond it? To live more, in a life that’s infinitely better than this crappy one?
But it’s pretty unbelievable to imagine a life beyond this one, to believe in god since all I know is my small life as it is now. But existence itself—the earth, planets, the whole universe is pretty unbelievable too. So if all that can exist, why couldn’t it be possible that a being behind it all, exists too? And since I’m a human, living on this earth, the most likely being behind it would be the god in the bible.
It’s just a lot harder for me to believe everything was created randomly for no reason. Thinking that just makes life not worth living to me ;P What is the point if I won’t know one way or the other if I lived anyway?
(Sorry in advance that I didn’t write this out better. Hopefully you get what I’m trying to say and can give me your open-minded thoughts and not lecture me or tell me I’m an idiot for wondering about this. Thanks.)
Posted: March 22nd 2011
SmartLX www
Wanting something to be true is a terrible reason to believe that it is. It’s been formalised as an argument from consequences.
If we do take that approach to this question, though, there are worse things than oblivion after death. The possibility of Hell, especially with poorly understood criteria for avoiding it, somewhat dampens the general hope that there’s just any old existence after death. If the life after this is going to be even worse than this life for the majority, I’d rather there wasn’t another life.
Posted: March 25th 2011
Blaise www
Your two options are right, but your analyses are flawed.
“We die, that’s all there is. Life is pointless.” If this is the only life we get, it’s immeasurably important, not pointless. Every second must be used wisely. The pointless bit would be to waste a large percentage of life on talking to, and doing the will of, an imaginary friend.
“There is something more after death… There is some reason for our existence” If there is another, greater life than this one, wouldn’t that make this one pointless and without reason? Why would you want to stick around, knowing there’s so much more to be seen “out there”?
Posted: March 24th 2011
George Locke
Either you want to live or you don’t. Pinning your desire to live on an abstract, intellectual assessment of an unanswerable philosophical question** is ridiculous. Surely, the things that make life worth living are not so esoteric! Whether there is an afterlife or not, you will never have an answer that satisfies you until you are dead. You had better make up your mind on whether to commit suicide sometime before then. (Please don’t!)
Note: It’s only unanswerable because you make it out to be. In your daily life, you do not believe in things merely because you cannot categorically disprove them or might prefer them to be true. (I speak not of the general “you” but directly to the questioner: you, questioner, do not believe your toaster will emit a gallon of Bavarian cream next Tuesday at 4:43 AM.)
Posted: March 24th 2011