Crossposted from another board

I started out with a default belief in God and Christianity, given it by parents who made sure we were at church every time the doors opened. Every activity I was encouraged to participate in was church-sponsored, or church-oriented. Church parents went out of their way to provide facilities, transportation and supervision, in a vain attempt to keep children and teenagers from finding interests elsewhere.

It's almost always a vain attempt, because it's the nature of humans to want to know what's over the next hill, who are those people over there, and why do they do things differently. If we manage to keep the other innate trait, fear of the unknown, at bay, we manage to not automatically label "different from our way" as "wrong." Unfortunately, at this moment in history, fear is by far the strongest motivator, of Christians, and of the population in general. I think fear drives a lot of people to seek solace and salvation in religion. And I think fear keeps a lot of people blind to the possibility that other cultures have religious and philosophical practices and beliefs which evolved in their societies the way Christianity has done in European and USian societies.

From an observational point of view it seems clear to me that humans share a need for a greater being than themselves, to serve as both a protector and a guarantee that, in some form, each human will continue after death. That another life, another plane of existence, another consciousness will provide the fulfillment a person may fail to achieve in this life. That we will meet again with those we've lost, that things that went wrong here on earth will be put right in the afterlife, or the next life, that some justice, some fairness, will be reached. I think it's natural for humans to long for fairness, to recognise the briefness of existence, and to expect a reward for enduring pain, privation, and suffering here on earth. And I think it's natural for humans to fear their expectations may be wrong, which is why every society builds myths and theologies, to give their people heart and hope.

Events in my life have led me to believe that any higher being who may have had a hand in creation has since gotten bored and wandered away. If there was ever such a being at all. I do believe in a life force which drives the planet. The Buddhist theory I've heard described comes closest to what I believe, that life is the same, and precious, no matter the size of the container, and that when a butterfly or a redwood or a human dies, the animating spark returns to the collective energy that powers life, to be portioned out in new containers at need. The consciousness, the id, the self, doesn't continue, and I'm okay with that.

I know many people who cling fiercely to this life, to this experience, because they are so afraid of whatever comes next. Most of them profess a belief in the Christian afterlife, but rather than rushing toward it in joy, they back away from it in dread and paralyzing fear. It's a hampered way to live.

Because I believe this is all I'll ever have in this container, this consciousness, this identity, everything I do matters. There is so much pain in the word, that I add to it with a harsh word or a thoughtless or careless dead gives me pain. That humans thoughtlessly, even willfully, do harm to others for personal gain or advancement fills me with sadness, and with helpless frustration. And by others I don't just mean other humans. I include a reckless disregard for other species--the fishing to extinction of food species, the destruction of habitat for farmland to support a burgeoning human population, factory farms and slaughterhouses, the bulldozing of acres of old-growth forest for human housing and shopping plazas. This is the reason why the present administration has me in such despair, because it actively promotes and rewards these practices, in the name of commerce, of "progress" and, in some cases I believe, in the fervor to hasten Armageddon and the Second Coming.

Death, since I've been an adult, has held no terror for me. I have always been by nature a fatalist, and at times suicidal. Death has beckoned, sweet oblivion, peace, and rest at last. So take my personal philosophy with a grain of salt.

I do not fear going into darkness unremembered and unremarked. My children will remember me, and I will continue as long as they live. The lives I've touched retain the memory of me, as long as those people live, and if I've done any good at all, their touch will carry a bit of me onward as well. And in another generation or two, if humankind still lives on this planet, if we as a species survive, someone may tell a story their grandmother told them, and I will be remembered.

Of course the guy I cut off in traffic will remember me, too, and tell stories about the aggressive bitch driver, so, it all evens out in the end.

Crossposted from another board

I started out with a default belief in God and Christianity, given it by parents who made sure we were at church every time the doors opened. Every activity I was encouraged to participate in was church-sponsored, or church-oriented. Church parents went out of their way to provide facilities, transportation and supervision, in a vain attempt to keep children and teenagers from finding interests elsewhere.

It's almost always a vain attempt, because it's the nature of humans to want to know what's over the next hill, who are those people over there, and why do they do things differently. If we manage to keep the other innate trait, fear of the unknown, at bay, we manage to not automatically label "different from our way" as "wrong." Unfortunately, at this moment in history, fear is by far the strongest motivator, of Christians, and of the population in general. I think fear drives a lot of people to seek solace and salvation in religion. And I think fear keeps a lot of people blind to the possibility that other cultures have religious and philosophical practices and beliefs which evolved in their societies the way Christianity has done in European and USian societies.

From an observational point of view it seems clear to me that humans share a need for a greater being than themselves, to serve as both a protector and a guarantee that, in some form, each human will continue after death. That another life, another plane of existence, another consciousness will provide the fulfillment a person may fail to achieve in this life. That we will meet again with those we've lost, that things that went wrong here on earth will be put right in the afterlife, or the next life, that some justice, some fairness, will be reached. I think it's natural for humans to long for fairness, to recognise the briefness of existence, and to expect a reward for enduring pain, privation, and suffering here on earth. And I think it's natural for humans to fear their expectations may be wrong, which is why every society builds myths and theologies, to give their people heart and hope.

Events in my life have led me to believe that any higher being who may have had a hand in creation has since gotten bored and wandered away. If there was ever such a being at all. I do believe in a life force which drives the planet. The Buddhist theory I've heard described comes closest to what I believe, that life is the same, and precious, no matter the size of the container, and that when a butterfly or a redwood or a human dies, the animating spark returns to the collective energy that powers life, to be portioned out in new containers at need. The consciousness, the id, the self, doesn't continue, and I'm okay with that.

I know many people who cling fiercely to this life, to this experience, because they are so afraid of whatever comes next. Most of them profess a belief in the Christian afterlife, but rather than rushing toward it in joy, they back away from it in dread and paralyzing fear. It's a hampered way to live.

Because I believe this is all I'll ever have in this container, this consciousness, this identity, everything I do matters. There is so much pain in the word, that I add to it with a harsh word or a thoughtless or careless dead gives me pain. That humans thoughtlessly, even willfully, do harm to others for personal gain or advancement fills me with sadness, and with helpless frustration. And by others I don't just mean other humans. I include a reckless disregard for other species--the fishing to extinction of food species, the destruction of habitat for farmland to support a burgeoning human population, factory farms and slaughterhouses, the bulldozing of acres of old-growth forest for human housing and shopping plazas. This is the reason why the present administration has me in such despair, because it actively promotes and rewards these practices, in the name of commerce, of "progress" and, in some cases I believe, in the fervor to hasten Armageddon and the Second Coming.

Death, since I've been an adult, has held no terror for me. I have always been by nature a fatalist, and at times suicidal. Death has beckoned, sweet oblivion, peace, and rest at last. So take my personal philosophy with a grain of salt.

I do not fear going into darkness unremembered and unremarked. My children will remember me, and I will continue as long as they live. The lives I've touched retain the memory of me, as long as those people live, and if I've done any good at all, their touch will carry a bit of me onward as well. And in another generation or two, if humankind still lives on this planet, if we as a species survive, someone may tell a story their grandmother told them, and I will be remembered.

Of course the guy I cut off in traffic will remember me, too, and tell stories about the aggressive bitch driver, so, it all evens out in the end.