Life on earth is subject to morally questionable trials. We
often liken ourselves to mere animals and in the end ground human development
on theories in the evolutionary process of the animal kingdom. Perhaps the
saddest development in human philosophy is that the mind is subject to natural
selection. This creates an automatic bias in so much that we then fight to be
the top opponent in the food chain. Instead of fighting you should take a laid
back approach. Life is not about getting on top, earning the biggest salary or
even having the most say. There will always be fighting for the top position.
In the process people get replaced. No one is irreplaceable! Don't waste your
strength on futile arguments, on gossip and simply playing games. Doing this
will eventually wear down the best parts of you. In the end you become just
like the competitors. Before you know it, you have lost all sense of
individuality. It is very wise to isolate you from the hustle and bustle of
power and wealth. Get into a space that is void of any noise and think hard
about issues that truly matter. Most likely you will discover that most things
in life should be enjoyed, but that they are temporary and immaterial. In other
words, all the effort you put in to attain things that are material will be a
waste of time and energy. Thus, stop wasting your time by trying to convince
people of your views, they are subjective in any case! Stop trying to impress
others with knowledge that any man can pick up from reading Google related
searches. Most of all, stop punishing yourself by always being dissatisfied
with what you currently have.
You will soon discover that there exists only one choices in
life. That is, belief in God and disbelief. All the other things in life are an
outflow of these choices. If you believe in God you should live a life
completely devoted to Him. The other choice has more grim consequences - if you do not believe in God why exist at
all? In the end, what does it then matter that existence precedes essence?
Interesting post. While I agree with the notion that we should not lose ourselves in material things and pursuits, I have a problem with your assertion that if you do not believe in God why bother existing at all? There are many people, myself included, that do not need to believe in a God as described by any major religions and are content with knowing that they are just a minuscule cog in an infinite universe which we do not know much about. We are also comfortable with admitting to that which we do not understand and do not feel the need to subscribe to certain mainstream views (this can be based on knowledge or some feeling that we have, i.e. having a feeling that something is not right is common to all). This also means that sometimes we cannot explain things because the language and our ideas sometimes fail us, but that does not mean that we don’t know certain things (Charles Wallace knew many things about his sister Meg, but could not explain how he knew). This “knowledge”, much like your knowledge (faith), is not necessarily grounded in the things that are seen (or obvious), but more in the things that are unseen (or not that obvious) - cue Aunt Beast. It is in our perceptions of the unseen that we differ and instead of focusing on the fact that we are all “looking” at the same unseen, we focus on our differences in how we perceive this unseen. To say that a person should not bother existing if they do not believe in God is a very narrow assertion - this world is full of different individuals, on different levels/planes of thinking, reasoning, feeling, believing, etc. who find purpose in things that might seem insignificant (particularly when compared to some grandiose ideas of purpose). Being a parent or a supportive friend, for example, does not necessitate belief in a God. One can find purpose in the smallest things and in the most insignificant places. The joy that one experiences once they have found that purpose also does not necessarily have to be assigned to a God - it is sufficient to know that this is just part of human existence. We are born, we do something with our lives, and then we die. What happens before we are born and after we die is open to speculation and we know too little (if anything) to be arguing our views so strongly. What we all have in common is the in between, this life, and it is important to do something while we are here in this world. What drives us to do something is different for every individual, and to argue that my driver is more significant than somebody else’s is wrong, not only from a logical perspective, but also because it feels wrong (that is my belief). Whether we happen to be planned (put on this world by a God) or unplanned (randomly here in this world), we are here and we are here to do something. So instead of arguing blindly about who is right and who is wrong, why not stay true to ourselves and our purpose and essence, and respect all others and their purpose and essence...
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comments. The essence of the original post was to highlight the futility of short sighted arguments and thoughts and to make the reader aware of more pertinent questions other than the ones we face about our status or possessions. I agree that we all share common themes, but this has almost nothing to do with the most crucial question of life - why do we exist (the question alone emphasises the futility of living a life only to become rich and famous)? Obviously we can make life about families and find happiness in the things we do, but it still does not answer, in my view, why we exist and whether it matters that we exist at all. Very soon you'll discover that there exists only a few, perhaps only one real question in life. Why have families? Why work hard for money? Why pay taxes? Why conform to social trends? Those questions seem rather base and seem to be pointing to more important questions such as, why do I have the need to start a family? Why do I want to be richer? Why should I pay taxes? Why should I follow social trends? Now the focus is on the I and not the general question. From this we can dig deeper and ask who am I that I need to ask such questions? Now this becomes tough. Do I define myself in relation to another (see previous posts) or do I get the definition of myself from a creator? One question further pins down the sole question of life then and defines the boundaries of my thoughts - do I believe in God or not? Once again you will live life, most probably, differently if you make God the protagonist of the universe's story or if you are the main character in this story. If you are the main character in this story then every decision in life made would be justifiable and even right...even if you were to end life (please don't do this).
ReplyDeleteMy question towards the end of the post might have been a bit misleading. It was meant as an open question. Putting opposing views next to each other, why does it matter whether we live or die? If everything is temporal and everything follows an inevitable path - death, why worry about being alive. I definitely don't attach any Nihilistic arguments to the post and apologise to the readers if it comes across that way. As in my previous post there is almost no way that logic could successfully initiate faith. But I do believe, and this will be a post for later, that there is perhaps a ontotheological discussion that could lead to some revelation of God. And this makes staying alive worthwhile.
More importantly, whether you believe in a god or not, you should not focus on things that are immaterial to the progress of this world. There are worthy pursuits that help mankind improve and there are other pursuits that lead to man's destruction. Given the theme of this blog, make that pursuit to be one that helps man.