God? Death? Afterlife?

At the moment of death, the greatest mystery of mankind will immediately be answered for each and every one of us. My loved ones who passed, know. I do not. Even just one individual who has passed away has more knowledge of our existence then anyone walking this planet, right now.

We have four thousand religions, numerous deep scientific theories and philosophical ideas fighting for just this simple answer. The confusion lies in which one is actually correct?

How odd is it, that we randomly appeared on earth when we were born, having absolutely no knowledge of where we came from or if we actually came from anywhere? We feel so deeply valuable, our minds are always active and working yet we do not remember anything before we were born. We just…appeared. Since then, our lives have formed into what they are now. Maybe you have your own family. You’re focused on your goals and passions. You are actively studying for a career. It almost seems that we’ve never not existed. Do you remember anything before you were three years old? You were alive then, yet we lack any knowledge of this time frame. Our brains lacked the capacity at that time to retain information. The idea of us not existing forever is difficult to imagine. It almost feels like we are valuable enough to have always existed, doesn’t it?

A part of me, typically in the evenings when I’m alone sits and feels a certain level of anxiety when I process that I must one day die. I have no clue when it will be. As much as I deeply ponder my existence and the afterlife, I’m at times overwhelmed with the idea of death. If we did, hypothetically cease to exist, then how would that hurt? How could that somehow cause suffering? The reality is if that would be the case, it wouldn’t cause any anguish. We wouldn’t even know it. To not think. To not have anything…just disappear quit literally. To become nothing. The anxiety I have lies in knowing that if that were true, we ultimately have no real meaning to life. Humanity would have no more meaning than a colony of ants if we cease to exist at death. Even for one to say that their purpose is to support their families or change humanity, it is ultimately meaningless. You would be supporting your family so they too, one day can cease to exist? Change humanity for what? For people way down the road and benefit from only to cease to exist one day? The only logical conclusion an atheist can have to meaning is to optimize well-being in the moment. This of course is in no way bad, but to argue that we have any overall purpose as humanity if we all disappear at death is absurd. On top of all of this, just the idea of myself ceasing to exist is dreadful. To know that all my moments and relationships will mean nothing to me, forever destroyed, is a nightmare.

I heavily lean to the idea of a higher power of some sort. Not saying I know which God of the four thousand he is, I cannot describe him, but just some sort of creator. There has to be a beginning at some point. One cannot honestly accept reality for what it is and deny the idea of a start. Everything has a cause. Most theists already know about this argument for God. I must admit I question his motives, why he would allow there to be such mass confusion in the world. The fact that there are so many different religions complete with unique Gods and doctrines is uncomfortable to me. I would think that any God who actually wanted his followers to go his way, would at the very least, provide a narrower path. unfortunately, we have thousands of options to choose from, each believing they are in fact, the correct religion. What makes it even more difficult is that many of these religions claim to pray to God and receive confirmation that their religion is true, thus making it impossible to truly know which one is truth. We have no solid scientific evidence of God, for instance God has not come down on Fox news to chat with a reporter and explain which doctrines are accurate, we only have people’s subjective experience to determine truth, which of course is the main reason there are so many countless religions. Some religions have sacred books to base their faith off of which gives them a foundation, but there still is a point where faith comes in. Take Islam and Christianity. Both have sacred books. Both claims to be the true church. Both believe their prayers have been answered by God as a confirmation that they are right. Both are extremely popular in the world. If an innocent open mind is honestly searching for truth, he is tossing his dice for truth here. How would a loving God above expect us to know here? Your answer is as good as mine.

The other weird ideas of course are that we get passed into a different dimension, we wake up somewhere else. One must realize that our own consciousness is abstract, cannot be seen or studied. It quite literally, by scientific terms is supernatural. If we have no clue about it, then who’s to say it doesn’t go somewhere else? After all we can’t see it. It might float to another world or time. Our severely lacking knowledge of our conscious is fascinating to me. The more I look into our minds, study it the more I firmly think there is more to life after we die. I’ve seen countless atheists, smart and intellectual, who simply ignored the idea of an afterlife while simultaneously knowing that our own consciousness is a mystery. I have no idea how they can jump to such conclusions without knowing more about the human mind. Rather you believe in God or not, one must have more information before acting on answers. If anyone is overly confident of no life after death, they are in an odd way committing a massive act of faith themselves.

The last issue I see is that of suffering in the world. This alone is probably a fundamental aspect of many current atheist today. To be honest, they do have a point. Just imagine all the thousands of years before us, the billions of people who suffered. Consider in your mind, the worst possible way to die. Whatever in your mind you would imagine as the absolute worst, dramatic, painful way to humanly die. Now know that the worst possible pain imaginable in your mind is not close to the actual pain someone has felt. The extent a human conscious can suffer is far greater than we can understand unless we are actually feeling it ourselves. The terrible events from World wars. Medieval slaughters. Terrible accidents. Children being born, seemingly set up for failure based off no fault of their own. Being born and dying at the age of five. We have uniquely painful situations of someone losing their entire families all at once. The list of various sufferings is countless. The point here is, another human being can feel such incomprehensible pain who is just as valuable as you are. They have goals, passions and romantic hopes. They too want to be happy and content. They hope to live until they’re ninety years old also. Yet they don’t. This idea deeply bothers me, it’s something I to this day, cannot grasp. A part of me almost feels a certain level of guilt for not suffering. This may not make sense, but to my intellectual mind it’s a reality.

Lots of thoughts tossed into my brain. The goal for every one of us is to find answers to questions and be open to healthy dialogue. To be able to discuss deep issues without emotion is a beautiful thing. We should work on reducing bad ideas and finding good ones. To increase world peace and happiness is the ultimate goal for humanity. The biggest questions to all humanity are still very much left unanswered. Be open minded and always consider new ideas.