The Eternal Question

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As for the meaning of life (or your life), it is whatever you want it to be. Your choice. You can make it whatever you want, and no-one can tell you what the meaning of your life must be. The meaning of your life is different and unique for every person -- it is self-determined by your own personal choice.

Why are we here? Because we were born. Any other meaning beyond that is subjective -- The "meaning" of life is whatever we want it to be.

What happens when we die? Our brains stop working, and we stop thinking.

This is why it's important to pursue your own goals, and not someone else's, throughout life. You cannot add any meaning to another person's life by living out their dreams for them. On the other hand, you can make yourself profoundly unhappy by not being true to yourself. Because, as long as your brain is still up for the challenge, happiness and unhappiness are part of your reality.

If I had to choose between "no afterlife at all" and hell itself then I will choose hell because hell is knowing that God exists and He's angry at you- this is much better than finding out there is no God at all.

If there is no God, there is no reason for existing. Sure we came about because of DNA and celled-organisms but this does not explain US... we are clearly more than the sum of our parts... if I perfectly cloned you, would there then be two of you? Of course not.

I would like to address some specific comments made by Sundy if I may.

>>During our lives, we create energy. That energy is used to keep life on the planet.<<

As Sagan once said, "To make an apple pie from scratch, one must first create the universe". We do not make energy, we transfer it from one thing to another. Every atom and cell in your body was somewhere else before you were born... you are quite literally 100% recycled. "If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture - that is immortality enough for me." -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

>>To me, god is not an authoritative figure and is not watching over us.<<

God is your bestest buddy. Think of your existence as a reality show with you as the star. When you die, you get to sit back and watch the video of your life. Punishment in the afterlife comes from within- looking back on your life and seeing all the good or bad you did throughout your life is a Heaven or a Hell depending on the person, but one thing is certain: all of the good or bad that you do within your lifetime is by your choice.

>>Every living thing has a part to play in the grand scheme of things. We each have our roles. Some of us play our parts better than others, and some of us were dealt crappy hands to begin with.<<

The job you have as a human being is to, over the entire course of your lifetime, do 51% good. If you did any less, than the universe would have been better off not making you in the first place... the world would have been better off if your atoms were a pile of compost instead of you. And God will accept 51%... as long as you do more good than bad, your existence will continue to have meaning.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth. So many people only think about the afterlife when this life is nearly up and only then do they look back objectively and see all the bad they really caused. This is because they know that when they die, their lifetime is going to be on Imax for all to see. To that end, so many people go through life pissing all over everyone only to end up trying to buy a ticket into Heaven. As Confucious wrote- Man forsakes health for wealth only in old age to spend all his wealth for health.

>>Why I’ve come to believe this way is due to the egocentric notions of life and the afterlife of most religions.<<

Life and the afterlife is as different and unique as every one of us. Religion serves to generalize these good thoughts and have a compendium of nice sayings and parables that preach more good over bad. To that end, no religion is perfect- no religion can possibly be perfect. And as imperfect as every religion is, would we better off if we got rid of religion? I think not- better a close but wrong answer than no answer at all. No one ever told you to stop learning.

>>What makes me so special and hand-picked by a deity that I can expect to go to paradise for eternity?<<

God.

>>I want my tough life to be all worthwhile and since I believed in this greater power, I should be allowed a break!<<

Considering that God can end your life any moment He chooses and send you off to judge yourself, I think He's already given you a break. Considering 15,000 children die from starvation every single day, you got a good break too. Considering you live in Texas and not Iraq or Lebanon, you got a really really good deal from God. So stop whining. You want to know suffering? Buy a plane ticket to any of the other 90% of the Earth and see how they live.

I believe our purpose here is to simply exist. When we die we can't exist to be failing at our purpose and as long as we live, we are succeeding.

I think people believe in heaven and hell because once reality is divided up that way in the mind it's hard to change perspective.

I believe anything is true from one context or another but the correctness of something depends on it's meeting with intention and purpose.

I suppose that means I'm a pantheist of sorts.