Most of humanity, in dealing with the prospect of the termination of their existence, during which they have NEVER had enough time to do all the things they wanted to do, nor experience all the stuff they wanted to experience, flounder and flop around for some explanation of the nature of things which would give them an extension on their brief lease here on this planet. If they are salvationists of one sort or another (e.g., Christians or Muslims), they resolve their angst by hypothesizing a Hereafter (Heaven or Paradise), in which living can be continued indefinitely. If they are Hindus or maybe one of the other oriental interpretations of existence, they go with the reincarnation idea. What I would consider more realistic concepts recognize that life is temporary, even for bristlecone pines (which have a LONG lifespan), and fragile. Life, like inanimate existence, is subject to constant change, eventually destructive of the integrity of whatever unit is under consideration, whether a star or a starfish; and I consider that humans are simply one version of life not particularly special with regard to life-span. All the theoretical struggling about a beginning, and a beginner-entity preexisting the official beginning (see Genesis), and genocide of all land species including innocent lambs and human babies (see Noah), and a divine being not constrained by any physical rules who is by turns cruel or kind, is just window dressing allowing for membership in one club as opposed to some other club. I agree with the post that there is little or no rationality in the story that a supreme being impregnated a woman so as to provide a victim to serve as a sacrifice to save the believing in-crowd from the wrath of the very same supreme being, and to condemn everyone else to eternal torture, constructed, again, by the self-same supreme being. That said, on some allegorical level or other, it is possible to see or at least imagine that we each and all become a sacrifice of the present to the future, and that while we as integral entities are constantly becoming something other than what we were a moment ago, and eventually totally disintegrate - our lives, our efforts, and our very physical substance continue as a basis for the next version of the present. (And that version of reality may very well be a misunderstanding by us, given that our comprehension of physics - see quantum mechanics - is clearly imperfect.)
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:19:53 +0000
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