Laura Darlene Lansberry
Life: What is it ... really? Is there a "Why" to it? We all want a "Why." Our individual and
collective souls cry out for, "Why?"
What is the difference between one belief and another, or lack of belief and belief? Objectively,
seen from outside the species, are we not all human animals, all struggling, surviving, wanting,
grasping, needing animals? Life is eating, excreting, sleeping, waking, working, playing, learning,
ignorance, joy, sorrow, gladness, sadness, loving, hating, living, dying, ... trying to make
something out of life and knowing we didn't have anything to do with our being here
... or we would have made it different.
The intelligent mind cries out, atheist and believer alike ... is this all there is? The subjective mind answers ... no, it can not
be, then elevating their unproven hope to a certainty as consolation for their fear.The objective mind answers, yes, this
is all there is ... but, with the certainity of death, it is better than to have never been!
Believers cry, "Oh, there must be a god! What would we do without a moral code? Where would the
universe come from if there were no god! Life would be futile and death ... forever! The believing
mind contends it can not conceive of non-existence.
The answers:
More answers:
And more answers:
O ye of little imagination ... living forever would be a frightful thing to do to a sentient creature. Even if one didn't have to serve the purpose of a god, it would be fightful. How is it that believers desire immortality, their life, not devoted to their own pursuits, but to the pursuits of their god? And what are those pursuits? They are secret, a mystery! But think what living forever means ... if we do, in a form recognizable as what we are ... then, in a short time, we would have done it all ... and the repetition would drive us insane. If we are somehow changed, the modificaiton would no longer be us, our personal identity would cease.
And that brings me to oblivion. Believers claim they can not conceive of life ending. We are alive and therefore there will never be a time when we don't exist. The universe is still conceived to revolve around human survival. However, strong evidence suggests the universe takes no notice of individual human survival. After all, eternity stretches in both directions. Time and space will always exist, as they have always existed. Before our fortunate brith, fortunate for us, there was an eternity of oblivion, a time when we did not exist. It is only reasonable and logical to conclude that when we die, we return to that eternal oblivion.
Here is a strange thought ...
An agnostic, atheist, or skeptic could be seen as their own god, a mortal god, but a god nevertheless. No, they
would not call themselves such, but, in fact, within their own person, they embody the description of
godhood (such description as we are given by believers.) Non-believers elevate their capacity for reason and exalt in their embrace of hard cold reality. Is this not the province of a god? They make all
the decisions in their life. Again, the province believers usually grant only to their god. For skeptics, everything must be
examined, nothing left unchallenged. To the extent it is possible skeptics control their life, make it, shape
it, bend it to their will. This too is said to be the province of a god. Skeptics, in a strange twist, of perspective are closer to the fantasy of god than the faithful.
So, is there a, "Why?" to the universe? Is there a god who oversees and watches down on us ... or is god an
answer to a question we have no business asking in the first place? Are we better off believing
there is a god or when we ourselves are godlike? Does it matter in the end? Aren't the
believer and non-believer alike trying to answer the same question, "What is the meaning of it all?"
The believer believes there is an answer, eternal, absolute, certain, and non-human! The non-believer believes he can create an answer. Still, the question cements us all together. We are all huddled, fearful animals, vulnerable and no different in
that vulnerability then any other animal. "What is the meaning of it all" is our armor against our fears, and each of us embraces it
in our own way.
Warmly,
The Philosopher's Stone
just woke up in one of my philosophic moods ... let the reader beware. If you generally
don't like what I write ... you might do better to skip this one.
Moral codes come and go, always attached to some religion and they are used not to uplift men, but to tear down those who
disagree. Moral codes get in the way of humans treating one another humanely. If there was a god and
a moral code was a good thing, wouldn't it hold true for god as well? And yet god has designed life so that life must consume
life to survive. God would, therefore, be immoral! Then too, there is the sloppiness of life! To produce s human being 30 million sperm must die and only one egg out of a half million drops, the rest will die. An immoral god, or sloppy, wholesale slaughter indicating chance, not design. This sloppiness is everywhere! When life began therer were billions and billions of strands of DNA! Throbbing, almost living things, in the soup from which, here and there, a simple cell would be born. Unforgiveable sloppiness if brought about by such a thing as a "creator." The heavens too ... vast distances between the stellar bodies and yet, they crash into one another, suns super nova, and the forces and energies are in eternal conflict. Sloppy work, for a creator, immoral, or ... simply chance!
Intelligence of any sort, limited or sublime, when found in nature is always associated with living organic matter. It is not found in dead organic matter, nor is it found in inorganic matter. What is this thing that some call god? It is claimed to have intelligence, to be creative, to be larger than the universe, containing everything within itself. There is not now, nor ever has been, any example that such a thing is possible, let alone that it is true. It is but an illusion created by those who can not conceive of living without something to direct them, to tell them what they should and should not do.
The desire for a god, by all indications, springs from our long childhood. We are protected, sheltered, fed, and nourished by our parents (or we should have been) for nearly two decades before we become adult and forage on our own. All of our decisions are made for us. As adults turned out into the world we are frightened and alone, and so we create god the mother, or god the father, and
we grant the priests (men who pretend to know the words of the god) the title of father, and the women priests (nuns, whatever) the title of mother. Thus, through imaginaion, we retain the security we felt in childhood. At the same time we create the deception that we will live forever.
The believer believes in an external, immortal god, all powerful, all wise, and mean as hell when
pissed off. The believer exalts his belief that there is a god to a divine perspective, infallible,
certain knowledge. In this he has elevated himself to godhood and therefore has created himself in
the image of his god. He becomes his own divinity. Believers make of their belief a reason
for being, an answer to the question which assumes an answer, "Why?"
Laura
The Face of God: A Paramythic Vision
A Rational Perspective on Life
Ten Rational Commandments
Quotes of the Founding Fathers and Other Notables on Religion
The Inner Circle
