(The Dead Have Risen!)
The Earth is positioned so perfectly for life. I just think that everything would be really ironic if it was just a random occurrence.
If events hadn't happened in such a way as to allow for the generation of life, its propagation, and its gradual rise to sentience, then we would never have been here to ask questions about how utterly unlikely the occurrence of our existence is. Whether this be from a world-creating entity, or the random happenings emergent from physical laws, I can't say, nor do I feel it is important... all I can say is that we exist, thus any arguments over the unlikelyhood of how and why are irrelevant!
Solifuge Waxes Philosophical:In my mind, I feel that Death may quite likely be a great Nothing, where I would be without the ability to perceive, remember, or know anything, as the physical brain in which these things are housed would be gone.
Even so, I know that it is very important to be a "Good" person in life. On a simple level, pro-social behavior helps everyone attain a better quality of life, myself included. More importantly, if this life is the only chance I will have to experience the universe, to add to the collective body of human knowledge, and to create and change things that will remain and influence the future, then it's a damned good reason to live a good life! Artists, Scientists, and Philosophers who died long ago are still making the world a better place today, by leaving their knowledge and findings for the future to experience and share. It is this gift, our language and recorded knowledge, that allows us to live beyond ourselves and our lifetimes, as a greater entity: Civilization.
As Human knowledge expanded through history, we stopped fighting with our neighbors over local territory and formed cooperative social groups to help each other. Eventually, these social groups stopped stealing food from other social groups, and have continued to form successively larger groups, with wider-affecting rules of conduct, since then.
As much as we like to think of the present as the pinnacle of development, we're still fighting with our neighbors, though what once were Hunting Troops and Tribes have become Nations and Continents. It is my hope that we will be able to continue to learn the value of cooperation, and stop taking advantage of our Human neighbors the world over. Perhaps eventually, people will stop taking advantage of their Non-Human neighbors as well, and we can begin to act as an entire Planet... and at this point, our neighbors will be other Planets, or perhaps things I cannot even begin to fathom.
Basically, any small part my life can play to bring Humans, life on Earth, and indeed some small part of the Universe closer to this ultimate goal of cooperation and coexistence is a life well-lived... and perhaps that is what I feel an Afterlife truly is... the legacy each individual leaves behind that contributes to a more promising future for those outside ourselves.
Besides, if I can know that I've tried my best to do that, I'd need no other afterlife to reward me.
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Topic: Is Death the End? - Bay 12's Musings of the Afterlife (Read 30405 times)