Tony\'s God (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Sunday, November 27, 2011, 16:49 (4746 days ago) @ dhw

As far as the boundary between belief and speculation for me is concerned, I believe there is a loving god, a creative UI with personality. Much beyond that and I am exiting the realm of my firm beliefs and entering the realm of speculation on the nature of said entity, trying to understand whatever I can in my own foolish way.

In regards to the afterlife, I do not subscribe to the heaven and hell models that are shouted by red faced sermonizers from the pulpits. I can't believe that any loving creator(the central tenent of my belief) would condemn someone to a fiery torment for an eternity for something that they could not avoid. Heaven, on the other hand, is to narcissistic of a concept for me. It absolutely reeks of elitist arrogance. 'I'm better than you so I'm gonna go to heaven' type garbage that caters to mans desire to govern over something, anything, as if being in heaven will give them some small measure of authority over things they could not control in life.

That being said, throughout the world, in every culture that has ever existed, there has been god, and an afterlife. Regardless of the variety, regardless of the form, that has been as universal than death and more-so than taxes. So, why, and in what form.

So, as in other things, I look at the world at large and study the patterns that I see and try to make sense of it all. The two things that I see as universal are cycles and evolution(And I use that word only in the sense of 'change')

My best guess on the after life takes one of three forms, and in the end will probably settle somewhere in the middle. Either we die, and that is it, (which I have a hard time accepting), we enter a cycle of rebirth(reincarnation) as we progressively come closer to our spiritual perfection, or the cycle is imposed on us from outside and we are guided into that point of spiritual attainment a few at a time.

Personally, I think that, given the evidence, the last option is the most likely. I also think that would be a better fit with the archaeological evidence as well as the mythology of the numerous cultures around the world.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.