First post, Feedback welcome

Here’s a little something I was working on today, it’s a little rough so some help would be welcomed. However, please don’t start insulting my logic or whatever…

[i]Life, quite possibly the longest thing anyone will ever do. However, many people believe in an afterlife. This, in my mind, is quite foolish considering there is little to no proof to any form of an afterlife, heaven/hell/nirvana/Valhalla/etc. Why is it then that people so strongly defend theses notions, defend them to the point of war. It is simple, my thesis being that humans simply cannot handle the unknown, the unpredictable, or the just plain scary, so they make up little thought and notions to help rationalize whatever they don’t know/fear.

Take for example the ancient nomadic tribes, early humans, or the Native Americans even. Many ancient peoples had complex polytheistic religions, with many “Gods” and “Goddesses”. Why the need for so many “Gods”? They needed to explain the many “frightening” things happening to them. Isn’t it far easier to blame something on someone then to try to figure it out, especially if you haven’t the technology to figure it out. Take for example hurricanes, now we know that they are caused by sudden changes in air pressure, but the early humans didn’t. I suppose they’d say one of their “Gods” are angry or perhaps it was an ill omen. Both of which we’re pretty sure didn’t cause the hurricane.

Another example would be people praying to save a loved one, sure I’m not saying it doesn’t help but I’m not saying it will. People are unwilling to accept the loss, so they pray and hope that supernatural forces of some kind will intervene. Should the loved one make it people thank whatever they prayed to, should they not make it they’ll curse whatever they prayed to. People aren’t willing to accept that it was the person’s will that may or may not have helped them live. They seldom acknowledge whoever helped them should they pull through. People don’t want to think that it was the person’s fault they died; instead they blame it on “Gods”/ Karma/ etc.

Just as people believe that should something great happen to them the “Gods” had given them the means (or just straightforward gave them what they got) to achieve it. Just the same should a sudden affliction or loss befall them, they believe that it happened to them for a reason and that they should learn from it. People don’t give “Luck” and “Chance” their due credit. People aren’t willing to accept the fact that things happen to them just because they do.

We cannot accept the fact that it happened for no good reason so we invent a pseudo-reason.  Which is how many of the worlds (perhaps all) religions started. People seeking answers but are too afraid of what they might find. People invent these “Gods” to rationalize this world, take for example hurricanes and afterlife. People don’t know how to deal with the stress of the real worlds so they seek escapism, what better way to escape the real world than to say that everything is happening for a reason.  As humans, we know that we will someday die, “Men know that they will one day meet their demise, however they don’t know the hour.” People are afraid of what lies waiting for them after we die, we need to rationalize it. Thinking that we just suddenly stop existing is a very scary thought; I have spent many a night frightened by this very notion. People just don’t want to accept that so they invent an afterlife. My mother, Diana C. Fortier, when asked if she believed in an afterlife and why replied as such. “Of course we have an afterlife.” “Why?” “Because if we didn’t where would our souls go when we die?” This is what I was talking about, people hate the idea of dying so we rationalize in our minds that we will go to some sort of an afterlife to ease the pain.

Humans are little more than little people playing “God”. We invent religions to make up for the fact that we have no idea what happens beyond the grave. We invent religions to explain everything that happens to us and around us. Our mind is not able to realize that there is no reason for whatever may have just happened. Humans are controlling by nature, so our minds have to be in control of the situation. We cannot not know what is happening, we simply can’t have it. People don’t want to say “When I die I cease to exist”, no this is a very scary thought. People want to do something to ease their nerves so they pray to “Gods” to make it seem (in their own minds) that they actually did something. All we are, are scared little kittens in a rainstorm. Who knows what the kittens do to rationalize the situation, but we pray and make up reasons why it’s happening to us. We need meaning and order in our lives, we don’t want chaos. In my mind when we’re scared we revert back to our primal ways and make up little stories to explain what’s happening.

“There really is no ‘meaning’ to an experience. Events just ‘are’ and we supply their meaning from within ourselves, based on the interpretations supplied by the ‘myths’ we have chosen to live, by the masks we have chosen to wear.” Reg Harris.
[/i]

“This, in my mind, is quite foolish considering there is little to no proof to any form of an afterlife”

True, but on atheist grounds there could not ever be proof. If you believe that your life ends at your death then not only can there be no proof for an afterlife, you can’t even ask the question of what an afterlife is like. To do, so would be to negate the Cartesian ego, your enduring self, which is impossible. In short, you are barking up the wrong tree by claiming there is no proof of an afterlife, the fact is that ‘proof’ of an afterlife is a meaningless concept.

“In my mind when we’re scared we revert back to our primal ways and make up little stories to explain what’s happening.”

The problem is that a theist will claim that it is you who revert back to your primal ways. Because you are scared of Christianity, you choose to ignore it. For example, you are scared of what hell would be like so the simplest way to cure your fear is to claim hell doesn’t exist. Now don’t get me wrong, I have sympathy for your position, but you’ve gone about it the wrong way. You cannot appeal to experience to refute an afterlife. Everything you claim can be completely consistent with theism.

My advice? Read Wittgenstein (early), Nietzche and Schopenhauer.

You said you wanted some help with it so I’ll give you some technical feedback about your writing.

  1. watch your use of quotation marks, you use too many, and you don’t use them in the right way. Also, when you put an entire sentence in quotation, indicating that you are quoting someone, cite the quote consistently, or don’t put the sentence in quotes if it’s not a quotation.

I know what you’re trying to say, but you’ve said it in a very convouted way. For example, you must believe that praying for someone won’t help, or else why would you bring the topic up? If praying did help, it would negate your whole argument, so you must think it won’t help. Furthermore, if you think it won’t help, say so.

You go on to say that it was the person’s will that may or may not have helped them live but this an unsatisfactory explanation. A person may have an incredible will to live, but a .45 may overcome that will. There are a myriad of factors that affect health outcomes. Will cannot be assigned the primary role without a lot more work on your part.

  1. I also have an issue with the way you use the word ‘we’.

I think you are in danger of oversimplification in these sentences and you should be careful. There are many more motivations at play in human actions than a single one. It is a very dangerous reduction to attribute such complex behaviours and thoughts to a single motivation.

cheers,
gemty

Dakotadean,
Good to hear from you. IMHO, your ideas are worth more than anything I could say about your grammar. The latter is mechanical and its breakdowns can be repaired. Gemty gives good advice here. The former elicits good debate. I would agree that

  1. without fear of death, there would be no religion
  2. that most religious persons see God as Santa Claus, not as an incentive toward personal responsibility
  3. you might want to see mythology as the kindergarden for more advanced types of thinking
    Read, read, read!!!