In a day of such invention, such growth, it can sometimes be unbearable to think that we are unable to do something as simple as cure the common cold. While we have people walking on the moon, human-controlled devices on Mars, circling Saturn, and other human-made devices shooting out beyond our solar system, the ability to monitor the inner crater of a Volcano, live in Antarctica and explore some of the deepest reaches of the ocean, it is hard to think that we have areas on this earth where the human life expectancy is in the early 30's. Being that I just turned a quarter-century old, I consider myself lucky to be in a country where my life expectancy is triple my current age. However, Aids and Cancer, not to mention chemical warfare and nuclear weaponry still haunt the back of my mind as ways to very quickly shorten one's lifespan. Over the last year I've lost a Grandmother, a Great Aunt and two Great Uncles to cancer, and almost lost a Grandfather to a Heart Attack. In all cases, beyond all medical research, and through the vast extent of human knowledge, in the end, there was nothing that could be done, except pray...but, in the end, do you pray for a cure or for safe passage...in the end, after everything provided us on this tiny planet has failed, can one still hold the belief that the one whom deemed it time to fail also exists to greet on the other side...not only that, but can one then be sure that safe passage was granted or has our views in the multitude of splittings of the many denominations and in the plethora of religions screwed the true path and are we now all condemned based on the choices of our ancestors?
Over the past few days I've bared whiteness to the passing of my fiancé’s Aunt and the following turmoil that followed as family could not stand to bare the loss. Much of the family chose to embrace religion as a way to cope. The children of the Aunt braced each other, as much as possible. One of the children, while at the church ceremony the morning of the burial condemned religion while in front of friends, family, and much of the congregation, posing the question that how could a god allow his mother to die before he had a chance to get there to say goodbye (he had to fly cross-country). At that moment, I understood what he meant. In front of everyone he swore off religion and swore to never step into a church again...
So then comes the question, based on the idea that there is a larger power out there that has a hand in our lives and our world, is it reasonable to assume, then, that our ideas and inventions are given to us, or that we were only provided a means by which to do as we will. Was the Nuclear Bomb part of God's agenda? Nuclear Warfare? And on this thought, was aids and cancer?
It is hard to think of a world without a God. If there is no god, then there is no heaven or no other kind of afterlife. To consider the idea that we just stop existing is a near impossible feat. It is no wonder, then, that 98% of the human beings on this planet believe in some form of afterlife, whether it be another plain of existence or reincarnation. But does this, alone, explain the numbers. In our own development of self awareness, did we dream up our gods in order to be able to live with ourselves? Without gods would we all be so caught up with the idea of our own deaths that it'd make living unbearable. I've always found this reasoning interesting because it ultimately chops up religion as an aftereffect of evolution (that comment aughta tork off a few theologists out there). A funny side-note to this comment, have you ever seen those "Truth" fishies stuck to the back of a car that are eating the Darwin fishie? That's a good example of survival of the fittest (big fish eating little fish) if I ever saw one...I love the irony!
So, in the end, I find myself in the same conundrum...I need to know how the world turns, and have strong beliefs in scientific theory and method, but I also need to believe in God, and could not survive the idea that my existence will blink out at the end of my short time on this earth. Even hell, and its idea of eternal pain, sounds better than nothingness (I find it funny that even in hell you survive, because it seems that the best hell would be to just not exist at all...but we, as humans, won't except this fate). I have the confidence that we, as human beings, will overcome the illnesses that plague the world today, that evolution will bring new illnesses to control population and weed out the weak, and that all, weak or strong, will have a spiritual place to turn to when our minds can no longer handle the thought of death.
...oh, yeah, and I still plan on living forever ;0)