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We have religions with afterlife, religions with reincarnation, and religions where the ultimate goal is being snuffed out (notably Buddhism).
But let's look at the wording of all of these, shall we?
Buddhism states that people are reborn, not reincarnated. That life is basically just spiritual "crap" from past lives and the self is not maintained. But this "crap" keeps reforming into living things through the Six Paths, becoming an animal, plant, human, ghost, god, or demon. When the soul somehow makes it out of the Six Paths of the Desire Realm, they become enlightened and released from this wheel, to merge with higher consciousness.
Hinduism (and alot of reincarnation religions) basically view reincarnation as souls entering the Material World from the Spirit World. The self is preserved, although the memory is wiped. I actually agree more with this, since I have had distinct deja vu experiences. The point of life is that the Spirit World is basically empty of good/evil, so souls travel to the Material World to learn about life and grow as souls.
Once again, when the soul reaches its final state, it passes on, and merges with the cosmos or something.
Finally, we have Christianity, which is actually surprisingly vague, until you demystify several of the myths. We have that there is an afterlife, probably Heaven and Hell, and souls go there to be joined with God. But... there's more to it than that.
Let's have a look at Genesis 2 & 3, shall we? Yes. The first three chapters.
We have God, a being who brought the universe into existence. We have a man created. We have woman created from man (biologists can tell you this is actually backwards, that in cases where there is no T, the default of human is vaguely female). We have people, created "in God's image". We have evil thrown into the mix, in the form of a tree of "knowledge of good and evil" and we have the condition that humans must die.
What, you may ask, is being said here?
I'm going to tell you a secret. There is something disturbing about reality, that you may not know, and may not like either. I'm gonna tell you what this story is all about. Fair warning, if it freak you out, you should stop reading now, and not try to highlight the rest. (Quick version: although there is an afterlife, souls do get reincarnated after Heaven or Hell, because eternal does not mean everlasting but "timeless")
In the beginning, there was God. God was alone, because God was a Soul. What, why do you think atheists always deny that human beings have a soul. No, it's not as you might think, because this entails an afterlife. It's because it marks that humans have a tie to God. Atheists are essentially dualists, separating themselves from the creation (so they can arrogantly exploit it). God had existed in spiritual mastery for eternity (again, timelessness; consider it an extraordinarily long moment), and was bored and lonely. Don't believe me, right? God is perfect, so God has no needs, right? Well... if this is true, why was the creation to make a universe, complete with all that was needed for life? Trust me, you create life because it bring joy to you. This is why we have mothers and families and all the rest.
Anyway, this is only partly true. Re-examine the passage. Humans were in a world where they had no "knowledge of good and evil" they were "made in God's image, male and female." So, what's this about? The original souls were pieces of the Soul, who were then split into male and female. As in, God was intersex. Not only that, the world God created? This would be the Spirit World described above. Not only that, Heaven/Hell? This is our subjective reality. It doesn't exist in the Spirit World. Heaven and Hell are manifestations on Earth (think of all the ****ty jobs where you think "I'm in Hell", or grand romantic moments where "I'm in Heaven"). But we're getting after of ourselves. Adam and Eve were in the garden of the Spirit World, and had a number of fruits to choose from. Ideas, if you will. But they said, we want to experience good/evil. So, these souls, being from God, made a world where they could learn and grow. The Material World. Now the horrifying part. This world? It's actually less real than the Spirit World. The experiences you perceive in this world are of your own making, the people mirror your own personality, etc. In other words, you try to leave your impression on this world, only to find that it's actually a mirror of what you yourself feel. The longer you live the more alike and alone you feel because you are part of God.
So, let's get back to the original idea. God created us as souls from an original Soul. Okay, while we could reach spiritual perfection, and reunite with the original God, let's look at that. (1) God made individual humanity, with free will. (2) Humans surrender free will, and decide to be "good" so they can merge with God. (3) Does this seem like God's intention? Or a pointless exercise? Theorem 1: Our purpose of life in this world is not to re-merge with God. It is to merge as a new soul, to become a Mate for God. Go back to Genesis. "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper for him." Theorem 2: Humans were not meant through endless incarnations to develop into a single entity, but rather a series of "Co-Creators" which each would realize their purpose, and help build creation into something new. I prefer this one. I've seen the extreme loneliness of being the one in charge of a project. It sucks. It's better to let other people in.
Human existence mirrors divine existence. While it is ultimately our decision where we want to end up (our souls, our God, our rules), the purpose of life is to become one's self, and help other people out. Because doing that means rather than the mirror world, other people gradually become different from you.
11-24-2014, 12:39 PM
2K5Gx2km
n/a posts
Theorem 3 - Both Theorem 1 and 2 are wrong thus proceed to develop theorem 4.
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