(I pulled this from my facebook; thought it would do well here. Makes sure to read the whole thing before responding.)
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My mind has been in the gutter for several days, considering dark options and loathsome possibilities. I've spoken to my soul about death, how ultimate it is, and I've been asking myself a repeating question:
"Do you believe there is something for you beyond your death?"
For now, my answer is not important. Actually, let's go ahead and state that there is no afterlife. When a person dies, it is the cessation of brain activity, the irreversible ending to all that defines the person. Any memories that person held are gone forever, and when the people who knew his or her name also die, it will be as if that person had never even existed to begin with.
This will be considered fact for the time being.
And before I go any further, let me sidestep slightly. When I asked myself the above question, before answering it my thoughts immediately turned to the beginning of life: the birth of an infant into the world. That infant, wrought of chromosomes from its parents, has no say or power over its arrival into the living world, just as the whole of life on this planet has no say in its departure. No one asks the newborn if it does indeed wish to be alive.
And so, temporarily refraining from answering the first question, I arrived at a second:
"How cruel is it to bring a life into this world when it is doomed to fall prey to ultimate death?"
By that measure, it is indeed a cruelty. If death is the final event, the moment of unavoidable tragedy, then what point is there to bringing new life into the world? Why bother? My son or daughter would be just as spellbound to fate as I, and in his or her death my child would become nothing. My child would become but a memory in my mind, and when I too died there would be nothing left.
As I arrived to that conclusion, I returned to the one before - that of life's beginning - and I wondered from where a new life emerges. As it is with death, newborn life comes directly from nothing. It arrives from the shadows of the immaterial as a something that is as real as real could ever hope to be. It lives its life, and inexorably returns to those shadows.
So there you have it. On a biological level:
[Eternal Nothingness] -> [Life][Death] -> [Eternal Nothingness]
Once I really saw that timeline, could trace its path from first nothing to second nothing, I had my epiphany and the answer to my second question.
Life, if for nothing else, is one small ounce of time afforded to a being that is a complete separation from nothingness. Exiled from the cacophony of temporal abyss, each of us may live and love, grow and greet. Every joyous moment and every bitter sadness is part of the very fabric that defines you in this physical world - the only descriptions that separate you from nothingness - and it is directly under your control how wisely your time is consumed.
Life, the essence, the soul of every single one of us, is the most wonderful gift that could ever be given. And it's given by us, to that which becomes us. Each new animal or plant shares in that gift, is strengthened by it. We're each unique in both talent and stature, but every single living, breathing entity in this cosmos is unfathomably linked by our common prowess over the dominion of death, of the void of nothing, if only for a short while.
I cannot help but to be irrevocably changed by this insight. New purpose has come into my life because of it; I cannot, will not, allow my brief moment of life to be wasted on pursuits that would tarnish what has been granted to me. I must live each day as if no days had come before, as if no days will follow. My present supersedes all pasts and all futures. I am life. You are life. We are all life.
Having arrived to this sidestep's conclusion, I came back to the first question. At that moment, I was thinking as an atheist, denying the existence of any supernatural entities or a life-after-death. In that mindset, I concluded that atheists, those who consciously decided to be so, must be - by majority - the happiest people on the planet. They see life as I see it, as a gift to be treasured while you have it.
But is that what I believe? Do I accept the presence of the nothingness laying siege to my life, to the lives of everyone I love and care for? Is "nothing" really more believable than "something", or are they both equally plausible? What evidence is there to support either case?
As I'm sure you know, there are no answers but those which originate from within. No preacher or clergyman can lend proof to an afterlife, just as no doctor or scientist can disproof it. The wonder of not knowing, of requiring faith in your decision, is that in any case life is made more beautiful. The constant strife between those who hold one truth against those who hold another is a sin against what we share together, our common bond of life.
Yes, I repeat in this note that which I repeated in notes before - that I do believe God is an active participant in my life and the life of yours. I say that I feel his love for me and in the thick of the coldest moments he is always there to warm me. I believe that nothing is impossible with God: He has the power to do all things, and his presence replaces the nothing which precedes and follows our lives.
But that is only what I believe, and cannot be more or less informed or intelligent than what you believe. It's your life and your call. I stand where I am, and my hope is that - for any side - you look deep within your heart and make a decision. Whether or not you believe in one or the other, your life will improve, as your understanding of how precious you are becomes clear.
Tonight, I feel truly blessed. Loved.
Topic: On Life and Death. (Read 674 times)
