Fear of the Unknown
What happens when we die? Is it the end? The beginning? Or a fresh start? Since the dawn of time humankind's most pondered question in life has always been centered around the idea of death and what comes next. Around the globe, despite the multiple religious distinctions that divide this planet, the population of the world has really only been split up into two differing groups. There are those who believe that death is the end and that this is all the time we get. And there are those who believe that death is merely an ending to this chapter of our life here on earth meant to signal our passing into another place. Those who do not believe in the possibility of an afterlife however do so on the basis of fear.
To the secularists of the world like Gretchen Weirob, the idea of a life after death is too irrational to believe because of all the logistics that go into thinking about what that could mean for us as people. Why would God put us here in the first place? How could a soul exist as a separate but connected entity? Would we even be the same people in an afterlife that we are now? Non believers in an afterlife like Gretchen draw there rationals for not believing in an afterlife from fear of the unknown.
Fear of the unknown is something that troubles all of us as people, but those who use it to base there distinctions on death do so because they cannot fathom the idea that something greater than us exists. It is more logical to base your arguments on things based purely on this world we live in today, but that doesn't mean that the possibility of some form of life after death cannot exist. To believe in something that people do not fully understand is not something to be looked down upon by those who don't, but rather to appreciate those who have the courage to put something so shrouded in the unknown above themselves. Those who do not believe in an afterlife do so out of fear. Those who do believe in an afterlife do so out of faith.
To the secularists of the world like Gretchen Weirob, the idea of a life after death is too irrational to believe because of all the logistics that go into thinking about what that could mean for us as people. Why would God put us here in the first place? How could a soul exist as a separate but connected entity? Would we even be the same people in an afterlife that we are now? Non believers in an afterlife like Gretchen draw there rationals for not believing in an afterlife from fear of the unknown.
Fear of the unknown is something that troubles all of us as people, but those who use it to base there distinctions on death do so because they cannot fathom the idea that something greater than us exists. It is more logical to base your arguments on things based purely on this world we live in today, but that doesn't mean that the possibility of some form of life after death cannot exist. To believe in something that people do not fully understand is not something to be looked down upon by those who don't, but rather to appreciate those who have the courage to put something so shrouded in the unknown above themselves. Those who do not believe in an afterlife do so out of fear. Those who do believe in an afterlife do so out of faith.
I agree with all the claims you stated. Those who do not believe in life after death do so based on fear. This is because they believe that the only time, we have on Earth is the only time we will ever get. Therefore, they have this underlying fear about death since nothing seems to happen after it. Those who do not believe in afterlife simply cannot believe in something that is intangible. This thing that is intangible is God. But those who do believe in this intangible being do so based on faith. Faith is having confidence in something or someone disregarding the fact whether it is tangible.
ReplyDeleteThis post and the other comment here both agree on the point that "those who do not believe in life after death do so based on fear." This is a very bold assertion, as it quite a generalization; in the post it was already acknowledged that the world includes two kinds of people, and that no other such kinds fall under this dichotomy: those who do believe in life after death, and those who don't. Wikipedia estimates that the world is home to 450 million to 500 million convinced atheists and agnostics (and most of them probably do not believe in life after death, if their faith--or lack thereof-- gives them no reason to). As one of them, I can guarantee that this generalized assertion is false. However, no one besides myself can know if I am telling the truth about my motivations, so I cannot prove the generalization to be false, it is certainly logically invalid so long as it is over-generalized; the only reason offered as to why the fear of the unknown would cause someone to be without faith and to not believe in life after death is "because they cannot fathom the idea that something greater than us exists." How does one infer the inability to do something to be the reason that EVERYONE who does not do that thing does not do that thing? I am an agnostic IN SPITE OF my fear of the unknown. I spent the first decade or so of my life fearing damnation so much that, in spite of being very troubled by the lack of reason to believe in God, I believed in him anyway because of Pascal's Wager---you have nothing to lose if you believe in God, everything to gain (heaven), and if you don't believe in God, you have everything to lose (hell). Then, at one point, I was struck with a revelation-- if morality is so important to this God, then either he will respect that I have no moral obligation to believe in him, or I refuse to worship him, even if it means damnation if God does turn out to exist, because why should I? Self preservation? I have been given no reason to believe that he exists, nor can I think of any moral obligation to believe in him, and if he purports himself to be a God of morals, then what right does he have to damn me? I still fear the prospect of damnation-- I just don't find the prospect particularly likely or justified. The prospect of damnation is essentially designed to be the most horrifying prospect imaginable-- ultimate, unending suffering--but I have literally been given no objective, logical, or empirical reason to believe that it is something that will happen. It has a lot to do with fear, but it is certainly not BASED on fear, but spite. Camus and the Sisyphus he imagined would approve of a man's spite in the face of a god, and it is very similar; in spite of the fact that I don't believe in the salvation I keep being promised, I keep going anyway, not because I fear damnation and want to make amends and prove my faith; I have no faith in God. I place my faith in myself and my fellow man and woman and child and whatever organic good fortune this chaotic universe has to offer; although my fellow humans, and especially myself have let me down infinite times, they have also done a lot for me, and God has done nothing in support or opposition of me, as far as I can tell, so I keep pushing the rock. I do not have an inability to have faith; I just invest it elsewhere, and fear does not affect my belief in the afterlife, only logic.
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