INTRODUCTION
Long ago, in the early days of our species homo sapiens, males and females surely wondered, in their own way, How did our species begin and what happens when we end?? Namely, What came before our birth and what to expect after death? Roughly two hundred thousand years later, many if not most of us still wonder, though many people are uncomfortable with such speculation and prefer not to dwell on it.
Fair enough. Free country and all that, but I think escapism is a missed opportunity to broaden one’s intellectual horizon. This topic deserves a place as fair game for REAL wellness explorations.
PREFABRICATED ANSWERS
Unlike the conditions that existed during the times of our most distant ancestors, most children in recent centuries are given pre-packaged stories or myths that address these questions. However, myths do not encourage exploration or curiosity; rather, they provide answers, albeit not universally satisfactory ones. Almost limitless varieties of explanations have been offered in various parts of the Earth. The modern fables with which we are familiar touch on these questions, but they focus on why are we here and How should we behave?
The most popular packages have common features. They are based on revered books that are said to have been written or at least inspired by supernatural, omnipotent, and all-powerful beings. Unseen and mystical potentates are said to have created everything and are still in charge, not just of Earth but of the entire solar system, our galaxy and millions of billions of other galaxies in our amazing expanding universe.
The major explanatory systems of our own time have special representatives only authorized to interpret what the one controlling invisible force truly wants from us, aided and abetted in the performance of their roles by distinctive costumes, exclusive access and use of precious objects, rituals and procedures to be followed by members.
Most people are exposed and indoctrinated into one of the prepackaged explanatory systems. Followers of one system or another live their lives, with varying degrees of success, guided by the system embedded in their families and cultures. By the time they reach adulthood, young adults are fully indoctrinated and pass on the system they absorbed as children to their own offspring.
WHERE, WHY AND GO
One of the many problems with systems that address the aforementioned deep-seated existential questions (ie, where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going) is that the systems are incompatible. This leads to conflict, chaos and holy horrors. Another problem is that, at best, only one, at most, can be correct. Unfortunately, they are all impossible to verify. Many people today, called skeptics (or infidels, heretics, freethinkers, blasphemers, etc.), believe that the answers provided by all these systems are elaborate gibberish. They consider that what most are led and educated to believe about existential mysteries is nonsense. By the time people reach adulthood, they have benefited from education and life experiences. Therefore, not a few begin to suspect that the explanations given for such questions are at best suspicious and possibly simple folklore, such as stories about Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, goblins and leprechauns.
With the exception of true believers, followers of most faith systems privately have trouble accepting nebulous offerings like a proverbial hook and sinker. Some, about a third of the adult population of the United States, do not accept them at all. No wonder, perhaps, I am one of them.
REVALUING TRADITIONAL BELIEFS
How do skeptics resolve, to their own satisfaction, at least momentarily until new possibilities occur to them, these existential questions? How did our species really start, and what really happens when we’re done? Namely, What came before our birth and what to expect after death?
Of course I don’t know, but I find the explanations provided by science to be more plausible than the magical superstitions on offer. Science represents the best opportunity, statistical and logical, philosophical and otherwise, to understand reality. Naturally, we do not know and cannot know anything with confidence about ultimate beginnings or futures beyond hard to imagine. What, except an eternal emptiness, could there be? For us very soon, and our solar system just four or five billion years later, a void awaits us, as it was in the beginning.
Well, here’s my take on that…without worries.
It is invaluable to develop your own opinions about life’s great enigmas or existential puzzles, and to express them freely. My own views are quite simple: there is no reason for our existence, that is, there is no grand design.
Not that I care about an afterlife, if I could conceive of such a thing. I would love to have the opportunity to hug and pet my childhood best friend, old Rufus, my faithful childhood dog, again, perhaps to romp with him on Sugarcandy Mountain. According to moses the raven in George Orwell Farm, Sugarcandy Mountain is where animals go when they die to reap the rewards of their labor on the land. At Sugarcandy Mountain, the animals enjoy leisure, abundant food and sweets.
Sounds good, but I think the mountain would be overrun with dogs, so unless their sanitary habits magically evolve after death, I’d cut my time on dog mountain short.
Naturally, Robert Green Ingersoll, the great agnostic, had a whimsical idea about life after death. Concluding a speech at the twentieth anniversary of the Lotus Club on the evening of March 22, 1890, he concluded his remarks with these words:
When I’m in a meeting like this, I almost wish I had the creation of the world. What a world it would have made! In that world unhappiness would have been the only sin; melancholy the only crime; joy the only virtue. And if there is another world, nobody knows. Nobody can affirm it; nobody can deny it. No one can charge me tolls claiming to own a toll road, and no one can certainly say that the crooked road I follow, along which many roses grow, does not lead to that place. he doesn’t know. But if there is such a place, I hope all the good lads and ladies are welcome. Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)
RESUME
Life has no meaning, it always was and will continue to be as long as we last. Create your meanings, find your purposes. This reality should be perceived as good news. It means that we are free, not in debt or enslaved by great potentates in the sky, able to use our minds to reason, seek periods of exuberance, take care of ourselves, and experience as much freedom as we can. The moment of joy, of loving and being well, kind and useful is now.
Good luck.
