What if everything I believe and hope for is ultimately proven wrong, and in the end, there is only destruction waiting for me and for everyone, that there will be no resurrection or happy reunions.
Well, so what?
What have I really lost by believing such things?
Have I truly lost anything by opting out of the actuarial reasoning that rules the world?
On the contrary; I believe that opting out of most everything that rules the world results in the most valuable gains
ReplyDelete"Have I truly lost anything by opting out of the actuarial reasoning that rules the world?"
ReplyDelete...and yet we get harangued again and again by anti-theists that we have! }-/
I have seen anti-theists respond to surveys that show that people-of-faith are happier with "Well, we're not SUPPOSED to be happy! The world sucks!"
...AS IF there was something noble in unhappiness, per se.
The world certainly isn't sweetness&light (as you discussed below on the Julian post). We're right to be, well, bothered about it (everything from deep sadness to righteous rage).
But that bother is to a purpose: the purpose of turning things around, and making life more like the (analogous) Garden of Eden it's supposed to be. THAT is what faith (i.e. TRUST) in Something More is for: to SEE the Could Be/Should Be/Would Be/But Isn't YET.
Faith need not be in the "G" word (for heaven's sake!). But it's in a Something More that is REALER than our own/everyone we know/everyone ever mortality. Mortality isn't the LAST word.
Well, that's what I trust. I haven't heard anything (from fundy theists or fundy anti-theists) to break that trust.
Excellent JCF.
ReplyDeleteI suppose there are 2 ways to look at death, as the outward circumference of everything that is, or as a horizon beyond which we cannot see. We'll never know in this mortal life, but we will all find out at the end. I say, make the most of it and enjoy the uncertainty while it lasts.
If utter destruction, oblivion, waits, you won't know about it, so it doesn't matter. On the other hand, I firmly believe in making the Kingdom here and now, rather than waiting for God to come and do it for us.
ReplyDelete"enjoy the uncertainty"
ReplyDeletePrecisely! (Or, should I say, "more or less" ;-/)
Fundies (theist and anti-), and their friggin' certitude. Bunch of "Deciders-in-Chief". Feh!
[You recall that classic episode of "South Park" where, in the future, atheists make war on each other, accusing each other of having "incorrect atheism"? * I've seen anti-theists verbally attack atheists, whom they thought weren't atheist enough!
* There's also those bits where Richard Dawkins screws his ladylove Ms (nee Mr) Garrison. ;-p]
If you are wrong you wasted your time praying for stuff and you wasted your life expecting the "after life" to be all better! People who waste this life because they think the next is where they get their "rewards" are worthless! This life is the ONLY one we are sure we have, so making the best of IT and enjoying IT is what we shoudl all do! Suffering for "God" or in hope of the next life is just wasting what you have!!
ReplyDeleteI am not saying I am sure their is no afterlife, but I AM sure that if you waste this life you deserve NOTHING!
Unto me my hope, and unto you your nothingness. Either way, it costs us nothing.
ReplyDelete