Dan
The New Helper.Net gives me great Anxiety... o.O;;
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In my opinion, and from what I consider to be a logical standpoint, an afterlife does not exist.
Firstly, consider any major religion. They were all devised hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago, when life was many times more difficult and just as much less sure. People didn't know if they'd be able to feed their children through the winter, or be able to clothe them and keep them warm. They didn't know if they were going to live through the month, many times. Famine, illness, and disaster were far more damaging, far more destructive, to the point that these people needed something.
They needed hope.
That's where the evolution of religion began - out of the fear of death, and the creeping dread that it was just around the corner. Now, we don't have to worry about those sorts of things; sure, we still need to worry about murder, or accidents, but those are things that people of old also had to cope with, among many others. Because of this, as well as the fact that there are already established religions and that the average level of education is vastly increased, no new religions will ever rise to the same ranks as Christianity, Hinduism or Islam. But I guess that's all beside the point.
I realized one day, standing there and thinking about it, that belief in that afterlife is illogical. The afterlife is a concept devised by the human mind as a defense mechanism. The idea of death, when actually, truly confronted, is so terrifying that we need a way to cope with the idea. That method of coping is an idea of the afterlife, which exists in some form in every religion.
It's in every religion because that's what religion is for - to convince your mind of a lie, the lie that death is not truly the end. It may seem like a bleak way to view things, but psychologically speaking, it makes a lot more sense. At least to me, I know we all view the world a little differently.
I'm not even arguing the existence of a God-like being, although the question is mind-boggling: where did it all come from? Was it created by some God? And if it was, who created said God? And then where did God's creator come from? And where did his creator, and his creator, and his creator come from? At what point did existence itself come into being? Considering this question, just saying, 'God' seems like the lazy man's answer. But for all I know, a God could exist.
And it's not like I have proof that the afterlife doesn't exist, it's just that, considering the way that the human mind works, it seems far too unlikely a thing to be possible.
No matter what, before worshiping God or Gods or anything else, the most important thing to focus on in life is to work toward the betterment of those you care about, your friends and family that make your life, your life. Without these people, life holds no true meaning, no purpose. It's shallow and bland and wasteful. Love those who love you, and if you can spare, love the rest.
I'm not religious, but the ideals of Jesus Christ are excellent. If a man asks for your money, you give him your shirt and your shoes, too (I'm sure that's not really how it goes, but I know it's something along those lines). Only through practicing these sorts of generous, selfless gestures can we, as a people, work against this tide of corruption that has seemingly swallowed us whole. Because at the rate we're going, we're just going to end up destroying ourselves. And with no afterlife, guess what?
We're all fucked.
Finally someone with a viewpoint that is opposing to my own and yet reasonably stated. I respect your opinion greatly!
Some points I would like to make: First of all, most would agree that if any religion is correct, then only one could be--though, there are some people who believe that several could be true. Based on this, it would stand to reason and logic that other religions would hijack principles from the one true religion, bend it different directions, and build on it for their own purposes. I believe that Christianity is the one true religion, and that others share some ideas from it, but with big differences. If this is true, then it would make a lot of sense why a ton of religions were made long ago and share a lot of ideas.
Another point to be made is that new religions have been made in recent times. Mormonism, for example is extremely new and one of the most rapidly growing religions on earth as far as I know. There are also numerous sects and branches of religion that all have the same roots and all use the Bible as their source of knowledge.
I would also like to point out that we still suffer and die just as we have for thousands of years. We have longer lives now, but still pretty torturous ones. Fear of death is one thing, but it is also seems to be unimaginable to not exist. There has never been a day that has gone by that either of us has not had a memory of the day before or a few moments ago, let alone not being able to experience the present time. It is true that some people lose their memories and that some people have different brain malfunctions that disallow them to recall times in the past, but surely they are experiencing the present at any moment in time.
It stands to reason and logic again that we would wonder what life after death is and what it would be like. It stands to reason and logic that we would think about the idea of being self aware. These are timeless ideas.
I agree that God is a lazy answer to the beginning of time. I agree that heaven is a lazy answer to what happens after you die. That doesn't equate to them being automatically incorrect assumptions, though. Sometimes things are exactly as they seem and sometimes they are not. Sometimes we need to go to the limits of human knowledge to understand something, and sometimes the answer is written in a book and all we need to do is pick it up and read it.
Lastly, Christianity is truly a beautiful vision of peace on earth. It is completely selfless. You are to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That doesn't mean you are required to love everything your neighbor does (no one even loves everything they do themselves) but it does mean that you should treat them with respect, pity, and remorse. You say that before you should worship God, you should be able to help those around you, but Christianity is about helping those around you. Worshiping God doesn't mean that you are in your room praying all day. Worship can be done by helping others, being patient and loving when you are tempted by anger, etc. The Bible gives a very clear vision of how to live a good life and worship God in doing so. Some of the happiest people I know are Christians who are devoted to family, friends, and church.
Again some of that is not argumentative, but I'm glad to be able to share what I know in an attempt at understanding one another. I respect that a lot of people don't believe in Christianity and that many don't believe in the existence of God, but it helps to share with each other so that we can understand one another's points of view. Neither of us should ever be angry with each other. Mostly, I just want the assumption that belief in God is irrational and illogical to be put to death. I am a lot of things, but I wouldn't call myself irrational or illogical.