One thing that gets brought up as you tack on another year is your own mortality. It's intensified as more people closer to your own age die. I look at the deaths of people like Tony Snow and Tim Russert and realize these people are younger than my parents. These are people I don't consider old.
I was reminded of this today as yet another figure in politics died. Today it was Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, a Democrat from Cleveland. Politically, I think she was somewhere between Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama. But the point is that we all see those we thought too young to die go on to somewhere else. And agree or disagree, each person we lose means we are one person closer to being next
This is where things like faith are the most important. To believe that there is something beyond the grave, beyond being reduced to worm food or the remnants of a campfire. There are some of my fellow bloggers who don't have this. I think it makes death harder to face.
Now I won't pretend I have the answer to what happens next. I've got other bloggers who could elaborate intensely, quoting chapter and verse. And still others are just curious. I think I fall into that camp.
I figure it this way. If we go into nonexistence, we won't notice it. And the possibilities for spiritual continuous are far too many, so I won't go into them all. I figure there's a combination of possibilities. What I know is that it can't be a ridiculous extreme, run by a myopic and hypercritical deity who likes to toss the majority into the heat. Wouldn't bother me. Between molten aluminum and Catholic school, hot don't mean shit.
Anyway, I'm just curious. Will I get to come back as a toaster oven? Can I haunt a girls' locker room or will I be forced to haunt a boys' locker room? Do I get to sit on a cloud, play a fucking harp, bored to tears? Or do I get to know more, learn more, and try to get it right again.
Either way, the improtant thing is getting there.
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Anyway, I'm just curious. Will I get to come back as a toaster oven? Can I haunt a girls' locker room or will I be forced to haunt a boys' locker room? Do I get to sit on a cloud, play a fucking harp, bored to tears? Or do I get to know more, learn more, and try to get it right again.
Want me to explain it all or were those rhetorical questions? :)
It actually makes death easier to face. Know I don't have to worry if I belonged to the right religion or if I was good enough in Gods eyes to sit and do nothing with him for the rest of eternity. Faith is an easy sell; when your parents die, they aren't really dead, they are in a better place. When you die you will see them again and or have 70 virgins. It would be great to know that both of those things are the case so people want to believe it.
I don't blame people for wanting to have faith I am just too grounded in logic to have it myself. Sure, I have faith that the sun will set at approximately 8:30 today but I derive that from something more than a compilation of books written by bronze age tribesmen.
That would be "now" I don't have to worry, not know.
Patrick, you could have guessed I would have something to add to this post.
First, I do not like that people of my generation are starting to die off at increasing numbers. It reminds me that my days are numbered.
Beyond that, and into your faith question, although some would lump me into the conservative Christian side of the equation, let me just add a few thoughts.
Toad, this faith you speak of, somewhat derisively, is not easy. I think that is part of faith. It is not blind, and many times it does not supply all of the answers. To follow any path, takes real sacrifice, courage, and effort.
I'll be honest with ya'll. I may be wrong. But I choose to live my life as a life of faith. Praying and hoping that what I believe to be true, will be.
I think that is what theologians called faith. Living as if something were true, even when you could not prove it.
And in spite of the questions or doubts, my life is fuller, richer, and better because of those choices.
Saty: Got the short answer? I don't usually go for the rhetorical.
Toad: Actually, although I don't know, I'd rather be surfing the lake of fire, get my skin burned off, snakes coming out of my eyes and shit listening to death metal rather than no longer existing when I die. But I suspect neither are the correct answer.
I think that is what theologians called faith. Living as if something were true, even when you could not prove it.
Dave: Amen to that. Give me time and I'll try to say it better. I'll be hard pressed to do so.
Dave:
Respectfully, blind is kind of the definition of faith. You need faith because you have no evidence to show you for sure. To me "blind faith" and "faith" are synonymous.
You can have all the faith you want until you start critisizing me for not having it or start making me live under the laws of your faith; thats when I start to have problems with religious people and their faith.
Patrick, so you would rather go to hell than just be dead? What if you could be reincarnated as a Horse or something? There are plenty of people in the world who have faith that will be their next life, not sitting around doing nothing all day with Jesus.
Toad: You're tying to pick a fight with Dave? He's too nice.
And yes, Hell would be preferable to nonexistence. [EGO ALERT] I can't believe that that a mind, like my own, that can sometimes stretch and perceive past the physical and perceptual limits of our species will immediately blink out of existence when the neurons in my brain stop firing. It just seems to be such a waste.
Which brings me to reincarnation. So yes, I'd take horse form. I might get some cute girl to ride me (You can find your own video there).
Whatever the answer is, I'll figger it out when I snuff it. Unless it's nonexistence.
Toad, in one of my rare days to get to an internet cafe twice while I am serving in Mexico, I have a chance to respond.
It is interesting to note that most people assume that when we talk of faith, we are almost always speaking of Christianity.
While that may be true in this sense, noted german theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich rightfully pointed out during WWII that everyone has faith... in something.
Faith for him was defined in that which you are willing to die for, or go to your grave believing to be true.
Who among us does not have something that near to hearts?
Many people rase science to that level. Others, atheism.
To knock others, or speak derisively of those whose faith is different than yours, is part of the problem in the world today.
Not trying to pick a fight. I said "respectfully".
Sure, I have always said I have faith that the sun will set and rise the next day. The difference is that I have empircal evidence to back up that faith which cannot be attributed to any other phenomenon. For instance, I don't think someone will be able to convince me that the big light in the sky is a giants flash light or that it may decide to set at 2 in the afternoon tomorrow. Having faith in those beliefs would be kind of silly.
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