God or no God, is there an afterlife? MUKUL SHARMA TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2006 12:00:00 AM]
Its funny how belief in an afterlife is inexorably linked with religion and ultimately God. Its also linked with some sort of cause and effect event, in the sense that such an afterlife is usually seen as a consequence of the kind of life led while living so that either reckoning or reward can take place. Thus the argument axiomatically presupposes a reckoner or reward giver i.e., a judgmental creator. But why should this be? For one thing it takes for granted that such a being is primarily interested in forever testing its creation in one little neck of the cosmos, as if something that could bring into being the entirety of creation couldnt have other things to do. Thus if we take a leaf out of deism, which is the belief that God may have created the universe but thereafter does not intervene in its functioning for the simple reason that its the best of all possible worlds and does not require intervention, we can get a different handle on afterlife. Mainly, that there isnt one because theres no need for it as no ones doling out any kind of decisions. True, this means the moral life gets a kick upstairs but it also brings into sharp focus that the moral life was only being propagated or lived due to fear (or love) of consequences. Surely, morality should have a firmer basis for existing if it does at all. But now watch what happens on the other hand. Unbelievers take it for granted that all they have to do is disbelieve everything believers believe in to get an ism going. Therefore, their case automatically becomes one where if theres no first cause, prime mover, divine essence or whatever then obviously there can be no afterlife. After all, what possible purpose would it serve? This is the only life, directed by blind evolution and discontinued by death. However, such an argument can also be viewed as blindly pre-emptive. First of all, are all the facts in as far as rationality is concerned? Of course not. They werent in 2000 years ago when Aristotle thought he had the world curled up in his fist and they arent in today with quantum mechanics predicting up to 11 additional dimensions curled up inside our 3-D world. How extra mind-boggling is that really from accepting reincarnation for which there is a fair bit of suggestive evidence too? Two thousand years from now it may become overwhelming enough to be casually accepted without any reference to God. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1882746.cms Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
