~The major concern of life is death.
I’d say the main goal of essentially all philosophy is to understand & reconcile with the innate human fear of death.
Religion is a type of philosophy that incorporates supernatural basis to existence.
I think religion is fundamentally flawed because of that unscientific element, but I cannot judge those who adhere to those systems (i.e: those for whom that worldview has been instilled). They are faithful for the same reason any secular philosopher is thoughtful… we are all afraid to die, & there should be no shame in that.
For better or worse, we apes who’ve called ourselves ‘humans’ have evolved these incredible brains which enable us to be aware of the fact we exist, much less in such a terrifying universe!
We are thrown into being from birth, pushed into constant chaos & tribulation… into ‘dasein’.
We mustn’t be fooled… there is not one single person who is more knowledgeable of the nature of being & death than others… not the poorest pauper, nor richest robber, nor the most pious priest, nor most grounded pagan, nor most ascetic monk, nor wisest guru, nor most pragmatic physicist, nor most apathetic anybody who pretends they don’t care anyhow.
We are all ignorant in equal measure.
Certainly, there can be varying levels of anxiety & comfort.
With the proper foundation of philosophy, that anxiety which can be so dreadful & debilitating may be, at least, mitigated. And that, I believe, is what it’s all about… The question is not just: “What is existence?”. The question should be: “We exist, & we’ll probably never know how or why… now what?”
How should we live?
Well, the odds are stacked against us by the systems we’ve set up for ourselves. Not by yourself or myself, nor anyone in particular, but throughout eons of evolution & civilization, we’ve come to reside in some pretty harrowing societies.
I don’t want to get too radical… just kidding, I absolutely do. I will say as much that I think we’ve gotta rebuild the whole thing from the bottom up. Sooner or later, we’ve gotta put our feet down & our hands in the air & tear the whole mess apart, so it can be reorganized to truly be for people…
The wall between a great future & absolute annihilation is a thin & weak one, & we’re stuck right on top.
It’s nice to imagine we could build a ladder towards the salvation of some heavenly paradise, or build some ship & sail to a new land to rebuild from lessons learned (or a spaceship to a new planet, if you want to be sadly more realistic).
But, it’s naïve. I don’t believe there is such a paradise, nor that hopeful land. We are stuck on that wall, & no one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves.
We have no choice but to dismantle the wall & let the oppressive systems come crashing together.
Like a noble phoenix rising from the ashes, we’ll have to do some burning, a scary thought though it may be. And we are so sadly unprepared with what little time we have now.
If things don’t change, all life we know to currently exist in the Universe may cease to be, & that should be inspiration enough.
These systems of money, of power, of hierarchy, subjugation, of the self against all else: they ain’t no good, & we’re worse off with ‘em.
We’re primates, we’re animals. By our nature, we should be living communally, with family nearby, eating nuts & berries & dancing & prancing & making art. But we’ve got it all muddled. But just as much by our nature, we should create in this world those things of our uniquely human minds: of buildings & spaceships & fun technology. But we must remain grounded in nature, & we’ve gotten too carried away.
From the day we’re born, we’re brought-up in a world focused not on those great goals, but on growth & progress & power & viciousness. It may feel so good to do those nice things, & to help others, but like hell you’ll have the time or money, so just forget about it…
It stinks.
Do we get very much help from the government? Not hardly. No, see, government exists to exert itself; we can scrounge around for stuff like mental & physical wellbeing, financial & nutritional security, & living - those are all things you’ve gotta buy-into by beating everyone else down. Because they’ll take it from you, you see?
What’s the point of government besides aiding us? Nothing, I think. So long as we have to have government (of note, I don’t think we do), they may as well cover those bases. Yet here we are.
And we’re so sorely segmented… I believe anyone who thinks we won’t inevitably coalesce into a unified global community of one species with a predisposition for helping each other out is fooling themselves (that is, if we don’t destroy ourselves first).
Yet, here we are with all our borders & nations & myriad ideologies & religions which are pitted against each other. It’s small potatoes (have you even looked up? We’re a friggin’ mote in a universe of stars & galaxies & black-holes & beauty, but nah, we’d better go kill each other instead).
We are one species. We are literally the Universe exploring itself.
It’s so easy to think of ourselves & our human affairs as something different which is somehow separate from nature & the wider cosmos, but it’sn’t so. We’re all made of the same quarks, atoms, & molecules, buzzing around in a void. We have so much potential - we’ve got the greatest set of LEGOS to work with, but we’re stuck in the 9-5 rut.
So how, then, are we supposed to make sense of it all? If things can be different, what can we do?
Well, we could pray. We could harness our hopes on just one God & go about our days knowing it’s all according to plan, so why bother?
That’s all good & well. It’s comforting to think we’re being watched-over, & that things are under control; I envy those who do. It makes sense why we created those ideas, & why so many stick to them.
I believe the fundamental comfort at the heart of it all is that of afterlife - Don’t fret in this life, ‘cuz it’s the Ritz when it’s done!
Nobody wants to think about nonbeing… that everything goes dark & you never think another thought or hear another song or feel another fuzzy cat or hold another person’s hand again when your wick’s burnt-up, but as far as we can reasonably say we know for sure right now, that’s what it is.
I think we’ll probably never know what happens after death, & I think that’s for the better. Perhaps only with the knowledge that it’s all gone in the end can we truly live fulfilling lives while we’re able.
So is that really worth it? Is it worth it to delude ourselves, & consequently, restrict what agency (if any) we have to create meaning & purpose for our own lives?
Because that is what we can do when we know we are the Universe. We are all, ultimately, one thing, one substance (or at least, the same many “substances”. That question hasn't been answered, yet).
We are the sensory organs of the Universe. In a strictly rational & scientific sense, you could even say the Universe as a whole is technically a single living being because we are single living beings, & we ARE the Universe.
If there is a God - it’s us, so we’d better start acting like it!
I hate to come across as jaded, & I try not to be too antitheistic, but it all stems from an indomitable optimism. We deserve so much better… and we can make it happen! But we won’t if we’re stuck in the past.
The future lies before us, with its potentials spread out like a tempting feast. But we can’t have it, right now. You eat that one juicy grape & some sickly pale beast will stick its eyeballs in its palms & gobble you up. But we’re Ofelia, each & every one of us - our stomachs are rumbling, & we want it all so badly (if you haven’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth/El Laberinto Del Fauno, it’s an incredible movie).
Despite the dogma, the oppression, the authority, verily I say unto thee: there is one thing religion does right, & which much rational atheistic philosophy is sorely lacking… Structure.
Comfort is structure. Comfort is rigidity. Comfort is routine. Comfort is ritual.
If I close my eyes & envision a perfect world, I see a land of harmonious community. People sit beneath the shade of linden trees around a garden of glorious roses, sharing sips of mate & eating Andy Capp’s Hot Fries. They rest or they read or they paint or they write. Behind them, a beautiful building of geometric architecture like a great Persian mosque blends nicely with the countryside.
Inside, idols are revered. They are not depictions of gods that are worshiped: they’re reminders - metaphors called Mother Matter, Father Force, & the Mind-Child that is born from their union, all incarnate with the flesh of time. They created the cosmos. They are us, & we are them.
Those idols are mirrors we gaze into, & stars shine back.
Songs are sung like hymns, but they praise not some distant divinity - they praise ourselves, & this uncertain Universe we are among that is trying so hard to understand itself. It may not be doing a very good job of it, but it’s doing its best… we’re doing our best.
So long as we have a structure for remembering the basis of it all, we’ll do well enough.
It is, perhaps, a little too idealistic. I do, however, believe we are baseless without a spiritual structure. Not spiritual in terms of magical crystals & palm-readings & Bible-studies & fasting alone on a cold mountaintop for your entire life, but spiritual in stopping to smell flowers & appreciate what we’re so lucky to have: Everything.
Far from being cold & devoid of spiritual beauty, a proper existential philosophy is brimming with it… we’ve just gotta tap it.
And we can do that through something that could be described as ritual. Perhaps, a carefully designed “secular paganism” of sorts, like I’ve described.
It would need to be very thoughtfully done, or we’re toast - It must not be co-opted by charlatans who seek to twist it into perverted coercion for power, though it would be always at risk of that. We can’t let our minds wander too high in the sky.
We would need to remind ourselves it’s not magic - it just is, & it's just us & the bees & trees.
I think it could do some good.
We live in our modern age, more secular by the day, where religion is on the decline. But for millennia, religion has been the structure, the glue that holds it all together. Without that grip, we’re lost. Losing faith without something else to hold it all together is a recipe for disaster, & I think we can see the effects of such disaster.
So many people are aimless. So many people are completely apathetic to even the basic musings of being & existence, those thoughts of life that are so important. They may or may not be religious - if they are, they may not really give it much thought. It just is how it is, because that’s what they’ve always been told, & why should that be any other way?
Parents are raised without guidance, thus their kids may be raised with less still. It’s a sad state of affairs.
To be frank, many people are just not very bright.
It’s not their fault in the slightest. This wicked society we’ve wrought has conditioned them (us; no one is free from it all) to be careless. People may feel it’s too geeky to care about those things… It's just plain uncool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
People cannot take care of themselves. Government cannot take care of people. We are drowning in this world, & it’s worse day by day.
In the words of John Donne:
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
…
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
To take care of ourselves, we must take care of each other. It takes a village.
Philosophy is not idle idealism. It is worldview. The two cannot be separate from each other, & a life of goodness & wellbeing cannot be lacking either.
That may just be the biggest problem behind the ills of the world.
We are so scared of death, we’ve built ourselves into a corner.
We shouldn’t be ashamed, but we must recognize it, & get ourselves outta here.
So it may be. So it must be. So it will be, or being will be no more.
Amen.~
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