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Part 26: On Ethics and Spirituality:
Concerning Immortality:
October 28,2002:
In my last essay, Part 25, I began the task of laying out what
we know and can believe about our spirituality. I discussed the
idea that we are not separate individuals, but are part of a larger
process. We are bound together through some kind of common connection.
We can call it what we like. I choose to call it the connection
mystery. I will think of it as a basis for building a believable
spiritual grounding for our system of human ethics.
Before I begin discussing that I want to lay some unnecessary stuff aside. I speak of these notions of immortality which infect us. One of the most compelling things about the religious twaddle being laid on us by the fundamentalists is they offer us immortality in exchange for blind obedience. This is something I need to examine carefully. When we return into the world, do we continue as individuals? Are we immortal and does it matter?
There is no compelling evidence to support the notion of immortality. There is, however, evidence to the contrary. So far as I know immortality does not exist in nature. Even the universe is not immortal so astronomy tells us. The universe is a process which will end in quiescence. The human being too is an evolving process as is humankind. The universe and all of nature is an evolving process. Each process that we observe is part of another more inclusive process. All processes eventually reach a stable state after which no further change occurs.
Think it through. We come out of the world process into individual existence. We learn, grow, and mature. Then we return into the world process. Seance spiritualists notwithstanding, there is no convincing evidence to support the notion that we continue any individual existence after death. The only one we know of who went and came back was Jesus, but he was divine. At least that is the myth. When we look at it carefully, we discover that immortality is really nothing more than a promise. We should be as suspicious of that as we would be of the promise of any huckster, be he hawking a version of God or a new kind of erection pill.
I am not saying there is nothing more to know as far as some divine mystery is concerned. All I am saying is, we don't know. Lets look at what we do know and what we do have. I think we can go with that. We don't need any soothing childish nonsense. We don't need to pretend we know things we don't know. We can let the infinite remain infinite and we can let the mystery remain a mystery.
I contend that immortality is irrelevant. When all is said and done, the idea of immortality is about recovering our youth. But, how in the world did we spend out youth? How do we spend our time now? Let's look at that.
Most of us have this childish wish for immortality, yet, when we look at what we are doing, most of us are wasting most of the time we have. Why should we want more time when we are so bored that we just idle the time away? Is going very fast in small circles on noisy, environmentally destructive machines worthy? Do we want immortality to continue that? Would we promise to do something different in the hereafter? Then, why are we not doing it in this life? Why are we wasting the time we know we have? Do we want immortality in the land of perpetual golf? Do we expect to be young again so that we may be hedonistic? Do we want to live forever so we may spend eternity showing off, getting drunk, and over eating? How about spending eternity watching mind numbing reruns or spectator sports?
Now, even as I write this, I sense an uneasiness within myself. There are people who I love and would not want to die, yet I believe immortality would be wasted on most of us. When someone we love is dying it becomes a personal tragedy. Personal tragedy can give us clearer understanding and a better grasp of our own responsibility. So I ask the question, do I want my friends to be immortal, or do I just wish a full life for them? Perhaps the latter.
I believe it is important to be active and have a full meaningful life. Most of us make such a great fuss when we have to face death, but, when we look at our lives, we have not done anything. We have not even tried to do anything. Could that be the reason for our distress? A full life then, must include doing meaningful things. Perhaps with that, death would not loom so large that we need retreat into childish wishful thinking.
In my next philosophy, I will begin laying the foundation for
a believable spiritual position. Upon that, I can begin to build
an acceptable body of ethics.
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