What is Life?

Whenever I look out at the morning’s first light, I think about Life. And it always makes me wonder about other folks who are seeing a similar first light.  And then, later in the day, I see a notice on Facebook. Someone has posted a notice of someone famous who has now passed. Or, someone I know has posted a note about a loved family member who is now “on the other side”. And there are the frequent comments about those now-passed folks who are looking down upon us all.

And they make me wonder about Life. I concluded long ago that Life is solely about what we observe here on this place we call Earth.  That there is nothing that follows. No folks sitting gently on a cloud gazing down on us all. And when I “depart”, I will not “see” any of the people I used to hold dear. I will, in fact, no longer “see” anything or anyone.

No, nothing follows Life. Now that is a hard concept to grasp, that nothingness.  I mean, how could that be?  But, I think, what about the butterflies, or the pesky mosquitoes? When they cease to exist in life, is there a cloud somewhere, filled with butterflies, or still pesky mosquitoes?  Well, No, I conclude. There is no such place.

And so it is only (we assume) we humans that continue to pretend that something follows Life.  And we pretend that simply because the alternative is too difficult to grasp.  Now, to be fair, over the millennia, humans have developed this thing I call the Great Ponzi Scheme—or Organized Religion.  And under this scheme, not only is there something following Life here, but there is a whole entity filled with a God(s) and other extraordinary creatures who assure that our lives continue, albeit in a different form.  Now this religion thing exists so as to keep humans in line.  See, not only is there this free floating place called “Heaven”, a cloudy-filled place filled with the remnants of life here on Earth, with otherwise dead folks peering down on their still-alive friends and family, and no doubt frowning on their activities.  But also, the good inventors of Heaven also created this other place called Hell, with yet another God of sorts. Only this God, who is called Satan, is in place within his fiery domain to keep the bad folks in line, by burning them forever within the “Fires of Hell”. It has never been clear to me whether the bad dudes who are consigned to this Hellacious place have to remain there forever, or whether there is some kind of “statute of limitations’ after which the bad dudes also become elevated to the Heaven place, since they have doubtless learned their lesson. Right???

See, questions, lots of questions.

And since there are these knotty questions and no actual answers, I finally concluded that the religious scenario is simply a device to get folks to behave. See, that’s what organized religion actually is—a mechanism to get ordinary humans to behave themselves.  Oh, and the various religions also have this other characteristic—they elevate a few folks to positions above you ordinary folks, you know to supervise you. They get to call you out as a designee for Heaven or Hell. And then you get to choose whether you wish to begin behaving as the superdudes want, or you are ok with the Hell place.

Now suppose, just suppose, that no one had invented this religion thing. Or that, because it seems too silly, everyone on Earth simply ceased believing in it. What might happen then? You know, you awakened one morning and discovered that everyone had finally decided that there is no Heaven and, more to the point, there is no Hell. And then folks began behaving accordingly.  What would that be like?? Whoa Richard, what are you thinking? That would be terminally awful, right?  I mean, were there no payment at the end, would folks not begin behaving so as to achieve all the good stuff while they are still here?  And if there is no penalty box at the end should you misbehave, would that not prompt everyone to begin behaving badly?? Isn’t that the explanation for Donald Trump???  He behaves like a cretin precisely because he believes there is only a payment or a penalty here on Earth, and that nothing he does here will follow him after he ceases to exist? Hmmm, that could be troublesome. Suppose that conclusion led to the creation of thousands, maybe even millions of Donald Trumps. How awful would that be?

Well, that would indeed be awful.  Humankind can only afford to tolerate so many Donald Trumps in one lifetime.  I mean, I have been alive since 1934, and I have experienced Adolph Hitler, and Donald Trump, and Vlad the Impaler Putin, and Donald Trump, and even Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon, not to mention Donald Trump.

Would my Father have been better behaved had he believed that Nothing follows Life?  Well, it is by no means clear that he would have behaved worse, so maybe that question answers itself.  The fact is, whether he believed in a God and that Heaven and Hell thing, he behaved really badly. So, the promises of organized religion failed utterly to dissuade him from acting badly.  Now to be fair, he did not behave so as to kill people like Adolph, or even to cheat people like Donald Trump. No he simply failed at the promises of a decent life.  And what are those promises? Well:

·         After you are created, it is incumbent on you to educate yourself to the best of your ability, so as to understand the world in which you live;

·         As you mature, it is a good thing to consider forging a relationship with someone with whom you might share your time here on Earth;

·         Generally, it is a wise thing to try to secure some method to acquire the resources generally needed to live a pleasant life, as long as you are here;

·         Assuming you succeed in creating other living creatures, it is better to be kind to those creatures and to at least try to pass on what you know concerning how to exist peaceably and well;

·         Concepts such as Love and Helpfulness to others will come to you as you age, and you are encouraged to accept them and to act on their promises;

·         Generally, it is accepted that being kind and helpful to others creates a more just and pleasant world, so you are encouraged to act accordingly.

So, without religion, would Wars increase or decrease?  We cannot know, can we? But I believe that the evidence we have at our disposal at least suggests that the presence of the Heaven or Hell thing dissuades no one from attempting to control others via warfare, and that without religion, it is at least conceivable that War would not increase. Why? Well, I now believe that religion acts to convince certain people that they have the backing of God to act the way they do. At least rhetorically, they are able to claim that mantle. Hitler claimed that Jews were responsible for all the problems of Germany and that he could restore Germany if given the power to destroy all the Jews in his land.  That is one definition of Evil, but he employed the designation of religious groupings to claim a right to power. Now Donald Trump, on the other hand, simply promises the body faithful that he will assure their place in history. They will gain power so long as the folks give him their power as the leader of their pack. Now, to be fair, all political leaders promise something similar, but not all appeal directly to organized religion.

Now it is not the case that Trump, or even Hitler made explicit claims that religious groups, Christians for example, were his central authority base, and that he asserted his power directly from God.  Rather, folks like him recognize that humans tend to organize themselves into groupings, some of which have a religious orientation. But mainly, he sees that the people have themselves created a group and that, if he promises to deliver some power to those groups, he will himself gain power.

I suppose that, lacking religion, humans would still create groups, but those groups might not have the aura of power. If you create a group that is based on being a family member, there is kinship presence but not much in the way of power.  Now, to be fair, if you create or join a group because you are White, you might begin to corrupt that simple premise of skin color into a “We are better then you” mentality. Humans do so love to express themselves that way, don’t they? And again, that mentality can/will express itself eventually into some form of power corruption.

So, even without religion, humans might well become as power-mad as with religion. But it is at least conceivable that humans might not all do such a thing. Maybe even more than now, humans might begin rejecting the power trips, and begin treating other humans as, simply, other humans.  At least that is my premise. Give Love a chance could be a new slogan of humans.  And maybe politicians would be forced to inform us about what issues they plan to address through legislation, rather than which groups they plan on suffocating. That might be nice, huh?

But I know, I’m just being simple-minded. Most folks seem to prefer the power of religious bigotry. I have given it up, not that I ever had much to begin with. Maybe I should give many thanks to my entire family for never forcing me to adopt the rigorous rules of organized religion. And for never teaching me that I was better than other folks who in some way were different from me.  Yeah, we’re all just humans living on this planet for a very brief time. And then we are gone forever. Let us hope we are remembered for the good things we did for others.

So, Be Kind. Peace bro.