Forever

 Suppose everyone knew that nothing followed death. That is, when you die, you no longer are aware of anything, including the fact that you are dead. How would people then react to others and how would they live out their lives? Think of yourself as a thirteen year old who has come into this knowledge. Thirteen year olds are just beginning to come alive as adult humans. They are still kids, but have begun stepping into that wilderness called adulthood.

For one thing, they are at an early stage of deciding who they want to be when they grow up. Do I want to be a scientist, a teacher, a soldier, an engineer, or just a working dude with no special skills.  And then, they are also just beginning to look at girls differently. They may be attracted to girls, but not quite sure why.  And then, at some stage, they may begin to think about this business of life creation –yeah, making one of their own.

That’s kind of a standard process called growing up.  But mainly, as we “grow up” we have always had this vague feeling of forever. Yeah. I will grow up and do stuff and maybe reproduce, and then “move on”. But “move on” to what? Well, we never really give that much thought, do we?  The whole process of finding a lovely, hooking up, then cementing a relationship and maybe reproducing, is so complicated that we tend not to think much beyond that. Oh but then there’s organized religion. Yeah, even if you are not much of a faithful religious believer, we have all grown up with that mindset of “forever” that we kind of take it in our stride.  We will go on forever, one way or another.

But what would we do, if we came to realize – all of us – that there is no “forever” regarding us. NO, we may be lucky and forge a nice relationship with some sweety, and then reproduce someone who vaguely resembles us, but then it will all be over for US. Yeah, we will reach some life stage and then we will cease being. And worse yet, we will not know we have ceased being. Nope, it will be one day we are here, and the next we are no longer here, and we do not know we are no longer here.  How would that certain knowledge affect how we grow up, and how we interact with others. More, how might that certainty affect how we decide to do anything?  Suppose you knew for certain that you would reach some age and then cease to exist, AND you would never know you had ceased to exist. Would you still want to go on doing stuff?

The answer to that question might be, SURE, Of Course I would want to go on. But it might as easily be, Hmmm, No, I think not. What would be the point to that?  And if that were the case, then what would happen to civilizations? How much of what we decide, and what we do is dependent on a belief that we will be around in some ethereal form, like watching from above, to see and know what happens after we leave this earth?

It is at least an interesting question. Does all life depend on a belief that Life continues after death?  Hmmm, I wonder.