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Nothingness, Reincarnation, or Resurrection? |
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In all of history, there is no greater mystery than this: What happens when we die? There is no more pressing a question that each of us will eventually face. In all of history, only three answers have become widely accepted views: Nothingness, Reincarnation, and Resurrection. Nothingness: Do you remember what it was like before you were born? Most of us can smile and admit that we don't. To go a little further, if we try to remember a time before we were born its simply: a blank. Our recollection of events before birth is not unlike our memory of being asleep or unconscious. It just isn't there. Aside from what we learn while we are conscience in this life, we have reason to assume that: We emerge from nothingness, and we return to nothingness. But, something deep down tells us that life would be tragically pointless if in the end, we won't even remember it. If we return to nothingness then nothing we do in life, good or bad, great or small, matters. Why would nature provide us with any moral sense whatsoever? It would be delusional to think that any action or reaction truly amounted to anything. Pain or pleasure would be equally forgotten. Conciseness itself would be a waste at best, and a sadistic cosmic joke at worst. -Expect no one would be left around to even laugh at that joke. Paradoxically, human beings act as though our lives do count. We try to do the right thing, we try to leave behind a legacy, we strive to accomplish something. Most of us can't shake the feeling that: Life has purpose and history is leading up to something. This is why few people have ever wholeheartedly accepted that life is void of meaning, except for the most depraved criminals. Possibly only lunatics and fools have fully bought into nothingness as an explanation. Because nothingness is not an explanation, it's the lack of one. Reincarnation: Reincarnation is the belief that after we die, we are recycled into another being. Logically, there are glaring problems with this explanation. The principle one is: Where then did we come from in the first place? The fact is, we have over 7-billion people alive right now, far more people than use to be alive. So where are all the new souls coming from? If even one new soul has come into existence, why are they not all new? Some suppose we come from recycled animals or insects, even there we are faced with impossible math. This is the same dilemma. Where did the first ones come from? A second glaring problem with Reincarnation is: If we forget what we were before, what difference does our past lives make? We are brought right back to the non-explanation of nothingness. What purpose is served if 99.9% of us don't remember the lessons of our past lives? If we assume that we are here "to get it right" one of these times, which of us has succeeded at doing so? Is it anyone you know? Is it anyone you have heard about? How could we possibly hope to "get it right" if we don't clearly retain the memories of our past lives? It's difficult enough to learn the lessons of the one life time we do remember. Resurrection: Its popular in some circles to point out that resurrection is not an idea that started with Jesus Christ. The ancient Egyptians fully accepted this belief, and they weren't the only ones. Other cultures believed that people were translated into another realm of existence after they died, like the Native Americans, the Aztec, the Greeks and the Norse. It is interesting to realize that in every religion that believes in resurrection (or reincarnation) there exists the belief that the choices we make now, directly impacts the quality of our life after death. The Egyptians for example held that once one experienced resurrection, ones heart was weighed against a feather. If one doesn't measure up, one is put to a 2nd death. It is remarkable to note the similarities between this doctrine and the doctrine of the New Testament. When Christ came, he and his disciples essentially taught that no one could earn their way into heaven at all. It didn't matter how good a persons heart was, it wasn't good enough. That it was only by accepting the perfect sacrifice for wrongs committed against God and against humanity, that one could hope to enter into the heavenly realm. The whole of human life is based on sacrifice. We kill and devour plants and animals, so that we ourselves may continue to live. The seed dies in the ground, so that a new and better form can emerge.
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