Afterlife (Endings)

by dhw, Thursday, January 10, 2013, 20:08 (4333 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: I have faith out of love and appreciation for all of the wonderful gifts in my life. If all I received for that faith were this one life, that would be sufficient, and every moment of it is a precious gift that I treasure. If I died this very instant, and all of my beliefs about the future never came to pass, I would still be 100% satisfied with my life. Every trial makes me appreciate the good things that much more. [...] And, just like sending loving thoughts to a loved one is not enough to let you know you appreciate them, I try to demonstrate that love through my actions.-I have "cherry-picked" from a post which merits full quotation for its beauty, its humility, and its philosophy. For me, it represents everything that is best in humanity. If faith is what has inspired you to such sentiments, your post also represents everything that is best in religion. It hardly needs saying that I don't share that faith, but I do share your feeling of immense gratitude and love for the gift of life ... and I do try to demonstrate it through my actions, not to or for God, but to or for my fellow creatures. In The God Delusion, Dawkins quotes a list of Ten Commandments which he found on an atheist website. Two of them are: 
"Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect." 
And: "Live life with a sense of joy and wonder."
 
I suspect that most of us on this forum do just that, or aspire to do just that, even though we all have very different beliefs. Who knows, if God does exist, and if he is half the god you think he is, maybe that's all he requires of us.


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