Letter to a friend

The spiritual world is among us, and it affects each person. According to the biblical perspective, relationships are the one thing that we take into the next life. Even among secular-minded groups, eulogies, funerals, obituaries, biographies, awards to deceased scientists or other ambitious individuals, it is a given that something about the effect that an individual had while alive, stays with the living friends. Sure, we can look at cause and effect and both arrive at the conclusion that ideas, thoughts, and social viewpoints reinforce this common social belief that a person can die, yet "live on in our hearts". I tend to believe my gut feelings, perhaps you do too, and as much as evidence doesn't make it clear which to choose (belief in afterlife or annihilation), I have sometimes chosen towards God. The bible says that it is possible to not obey God, even if you saw a body raised from the dead. Belief or unbelief is a choice among reasonable looking options. Its much like a walk in the woods at night with a flashlight, you only discover more of what you are exploring.

The origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of mathematics, the origin of a diverse and interesting set of physical laws, with edge cases such as electricity which can be exploited in order to do cool things that follow the edge of man's ability to dream, beauty, these things are all unexplained, mysterious, and an integral part of our existence. They emerge in our mind, possibly 100% explainable with physical laws, but there still is the question, of why this possibility, rather than other possibilities.

What does one do with a life? This cannot be answered without accepting one worldview, living out the life, and hopefully being attentive to feedback that life gives, so that you can tune your game, and completely change strategies when necessary. The fact that so many Christians, myself included until recently, can offend with activism and outreach, and think, "gee this is hard, I need to try harder", when "you only have the right to speak into a person's life as much as you become their friend" is the truth, that's a problem. As far as I am concerned, only 3 worldviews seem useful or correct enough in their compatibility with science, and the first is something that is either mostly correct, or just a very useful conceptual model that doesn't seem to contradict the other two in significant ways.

Buddism says that the point of life is to feast. To be yourself. The idea is that all pain and suffering comes from one's focus on self. Begin being aware of all, perceptive of what is outside of ourself, and there is an agreement in spirit and intent with the biblical message of "die to self and live". The ultimate goal is to feast on the experience of being alive by using your life to bless the other individuals around you, helping lead them, and being generous to them, and working with a servant's heart.

Christianity just goes a step further, and there is this second identity, really a unique person, whose personality is a superset of all personalities on this planet, in their purest form, without any corruption, shining brightly with the depth of the undiscovered abilities within us. Jesus is both Man and God, and He is limited in the same way that a man is limited by, which is to say that an eternity from now, there will be a complete revelation of God to each individual who lives in Heaven.

Atheism is a sensible worldview, in the sense that combined with activism, socialization, volunteerism, or other motivating viewpoints on what's important to do with one's life, it provides what currently appears to be a complete system within our universe, for both the origin of the universe and what to do with one's life.

I think that why do I exist and who am I are important questions, and would not be satisfied with just a realistic answer and then just going along in it. Eventually, we all could reach a place in life where we question our mortality, and the pointlessness of it all, and may choose to do anything. The world you see, it is a test, and it is a fucked up version of what is supposed to be, but still shows a taste of all the options in the afterlife, a clash of two systems. I think from how you've spent your time, you also figured out that paychecks aren't a reason to live a life, although they are nice to get, sure.