Life and Death

    

Having spent an evening debating various problems, we eventually settled on the big one, Life After Death and the issues surrounding Religion and Faith.
One understands why so much heat and emotional desperation is raised when people from opposite persuasions discuss the matter.

Fundamentally it is down to a matter of faith.
Faith in there being a god or a supreme being who created everything and has a hand in events as they unfurl. 

Or, one has a "faith" in the finite position represented by mankind today, of a journey which started millions of years ago with a "singularity" of which one hypothesis is the Big Bang !!  
The faith (or confidence) in the revelations that science has revealed.
The issues of a time scale far more massive than the cosy "time event" that involve living beings. 
The issues of a quantum, subatomic random world that contradicts any understanding of a predetermined creative element as a basis of what has happened.

We are not arrogant in our search for a Heavenly Father only confused that, at the end of a rich experience, such as a span of years, it comes to an abrupt end and we have nothing else. Our only sense of who we are and what we stand for depends on our being alive. 

Death brings an end to everything, other than the memories of others still alive or the writings that others might read, the creation of something that continues after our death and has a perceived value.
The issue of our sensitivity to loved ones who have died and the belief that there is a sort of spiritual world in which we and our loved ones can inhabit when dead, is purely a wish.
The hope we can be born again in what ever form has a fairytale element to it which I would be the last to spoil for someone who has this belief. 

I find the philosophical basis for these beliefs enthralling and deeply stimulating in so far as they describe man's condition. The interpretation of our psyche and our earthy actions to formulate a code of living and thinking can only be for the good but we return to the question of faith. Faith is based on conviction, not proof.

Faith in science is not wholly substantiated by proof but there is far more analysis and the search for proof is more fundamental than in say religion.

The concepts and the views of scientists can also be a leap of faith but are largely backed by experiments and contributions, gathered through the ages.

We are what we think we are.
We are not what we think we are.
What we think we are is not who we are.
We are where we train our minds to think we are.
The evidence around us in our daily lives sours the essence of who we could be.
But if we achieve a cleansing of our desires, what have we become and, what we have become, is it recognisable to anyone else, and does it matter ?