To live a happy life, I believe you need two things:
A sense that life has meaning.
A sense that the afterlife has meaning.
The first one is, of course, to make this life happy. You’re here for a purpose and that purpose gives your life meaning and meaning gives happiness.
The second one is to give even death meaning.
Both is needed to give your life balance.
If you only believed in 1, you’d probably live in fear of death.
If you only believed in 2, you would rob your current life of meaning, and also of happiness. (And, worst case scenario, join a death cult or something similarly crazy… :))
If you believe that life has a meaning, you can go into bad situations, even horrible ones, with the mindset that you’re going to learn something, find the meaning, understand the purpose.
Even if the purpose is to only experience pain and sorrow, these are experiences, and they are important to you, and the path you’re on.
Maybe one meaning of life, as we live it on this planet, in this universe, is to learn to deal with randomness?
– Do you believe in God?
– No, I think people make some things up just to make themselves feel better.
– If that makes you feel better, then by all means, be my guest…
If you talk to God, using whichever name and ritual your religion requires, then surely God is almighty enough to be there and listen.
Paraphrased quote from an unknown Tibetan monk (if you know the source, and the correct phrasing, please feel free to comment!)
God beyond religion?
The closest I’d come to a religious symbol would be the tao/yin-yang.
I like this quote because it speaks of a God beyond religion. A God that does not take part in religious conflict or war. Whatever name you use, God will be there and listen. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc, etc.
This quote tells, at least me, religion is not important, God is, and speaking to God is what matters, not the ritual surrounding it. I can use whichever ritual I like to communicate with God. If I communicate with God by standing on my head, singing a song, or even if I lash out in furious despair; God is almighty enough to be able to be there and listen.
If God can listen, perhaps so can you?
If you remove religion from the equation, how do you get to know what’s right and wrong? Perhaps God is not only almighty enough to listen, perhaps God is also almighty enough to speak to you?
Sure, mankind is not known for being the best of listeners – or even when we hear – the best of believers. But perhaps the only way to really know what’s right and wrong in your life is to listen, not to your religion or religious/political leaders, or even parents, but listen to God.
Does it feel right?
Does it feel right?
I don’t mean in your wallet, or your pride or sense of duty or the kind of right that comes from pleasure, food, drink, or happiness. Nor do I mean, the best thing to do right now.
I mean, does it feel right in your heart? Uncompromisingly right? In the deepest room of your conscience? In that place where there is an inner observer, this being that is your true self – that can see thoughts and emotions but is not part of them – if it feels right in there… then perhaps it is right?
You’re a flock animal!
So, we’re supposed to just go around and do what feels right and everyone else be damned?
Would you like to live in a world where everyone else were damned? I wouldn’t!
We’re flock animals, we depend on each other. We cannot solve our problems alone. If you were the only person on the planet you wouldn’t even get out the door… if there even was a door.
To figure out what’s right and wrong, legal and illegal, we should have democratic elections to elect representatives to draw up laws. In very small societies we could have direct democracy, but in larger societies it probably need to be representative.
The point is, use politics to come up with the juridical rules (murder, theft, etc) and use what feels right to come up with the personal and social rules (those that you won’t go to jail for, but that you may lose friends over…)
This is what you might call a pseudo scientific article on Metatron, an angel whose exact origin got me thinking. I also got the name from the movie Dogma. But as you may notice, this is not real science, just playing around for fun…
Some people say, “I’ll believe in God the day he or she show themselves to me…”
Well… ever watched the TV-show Stargate SG-1? Just imagine it. We go travel to the stars and bumps into a civilization on the stone-age stadium. Now, will they think we’re Gods? Perhaps.
That’s the reason a real God can never show themselves to us, or prove themselves to us, because if they could prove themselves in the material world, would they not just be flesh and blood but far more advanced than us?
Nope. God has to be something completely different than the physical world we’re living in.
Side-note: Never underestimate the knowledge of those more advanced than yourself, and never reject this knowledge just because you may not understand it… they could give you cure for cancer and world peace without having to be gods…
