In memory of...
A great deal of religious thought and energy is spent on contemplating "afterlife" or, in other words, on surviving the natural state of being dead as a door nail. Somehow this kind of thinking makes no sense to most non-religious people, me included.
Being saved to live on after death, ascending into Heaven (or going to Hell) or being raptured to live with Jesus, Allah, God or whomever one dreams holds the keys to his escape from ultimate oblivion has no real substance to give critical thinking minds reason enough to accept faith in an afterlife. So, what of it? Why does the devout believer go through so much personal sacrifice and torment on account of this empty hopefulness for surviving death when death is so obviously and empirically inescapable? What brings them to believe such nonsense?
The answer might be found somewhere hidden within the words "In memory of" since, as the preachers often put it, "Ones rightful place in heaven will be decided by how one lived his life."
It is argued by religionists, by Christians and others, that one cannot "buy" his way into Heaven - that making donations and doing good deeds is not enough; and yet, there are a seemingly endless stampedes of the faithful, each stumbling over the next and competing with his neighbor to be recognized for what good he gives to others and to his lord. I'm of a mind to say that this behavior, that of being focused on seeking positive recognition, is in deed an attempt to buy a seat in Heaven and to be thought of well enough by ones peers during life to insure being remembered equally well after death.
Eastern religions seem to have a better idea of how to treat the want we may have to be remembered well. They tout honoring their dead ancestors, but not as living souls having managed to cheat death, rather, as truly bygone lives, as passed lives, as dead people each having contributed a small part to the whole of humanity. and to life By this form of "afterlife remembrance" they gain comfort in spite of death's onset. Easterners allow themselves to know that each will ultimately die, truly die, and that each will become oblivious to everything that is such that they're able to realistically recognize the fact that all life is ifinite. This honest affirmation ultimately yields one very few concerns for imagining his own impending doom. Short of knowing that one may know pain and suffering during the process of daeth, living such a philosophy as theirs causes no dependence upon false beliefs. For anyone who has conducted his life honestly and morally, deadness is not feared.
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Being saved to live on after death, ascending into Heaven (or going to Hell) or being raptured to live with Jesus, Allah, God or whomever one dreams holds the keys to his escape from ultimate oblivion has no real substance to give critical thinking minds reason enough to accept faith in an afterlife. So, what of it? Why does the devout believer go through so much personal sacrifice and torment on account of this empty hopefulness for surviving death when death is so obviously and empirically inescapable? What brings them to believe such nonsense?
The answer might be found somewhere hidden within the words "In memory of" since, as the preachers often put it, "Ones rightful place in heaven will be decided by how one lived his life."
It is argued by religionists, by Christians and others, that one cannot "buy" his way into Heaven - that making donations and doing good deeds is not enough; and yet, there are a seemingly endless stampedes of the faithful, each stumbling over the next and competing with his neighbor to be recognized for what good he gives to others and to his lord. I'm of a mind to say that this behavior, that of being focused on seeking positive recognition, is in deed an attempt to buy a seat in Heaven and to be thought of well enough by ones peers during life to insure being remembered equally well after death.
Eastern religions seem to have a better idea of how to treat the want we may have to be remembered well. They tout honoring their dead ancestors, but not as living souls having managed to cheat death, rather, as truly bygone lives, as passed lives, as dead people each having contributed a small part to the whole of humanity. and to life By this form of "afterlife remembrance" they gain comfort in spite of death's onset. Easterners allow themselves to know that each will ultimately die, truly die, and that each will become oblivious to everything that is such that they're able to realistically recognize the fact that all life is ifinite. This honest affirmation ultimately yields one very few concerns for imagining his own impending doom. Short of knowing that one may know pain and suffering during the process of daeth, living such a philosophy as theirs causes no dependence upon false beliefs. For anyone who has conducted his life honestly and morally, deadness is not feared.
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