At the risk of sounding very selfish, if there is no afterlife, does anything we do here really matter in the long-term for anyone? I don't see how it can.
Please explain, I'm genuinely curious. I would assume death of the individual or eventually humanity as a whole would render the accomplishments of humanity as a whole completely meaningless.
I guess my counter argument would be that in (random number here) 200 years from now everyone on the face of this planet will be dead and gone. This is repeated to infinity. What has been accomplished?
Another example. Say there is a society where half live in a utopia and the other half are slaves who are abused in every way throughout their lives. When both die their experience or non-existence is equal. Ultimately everything is equalized out and the whole exercise is completely meaningless for both individuals as they're right back where they started...not existing.
Well... interesting.
To me, it all just makes sense.
If you boil it down to the bare minimum, of course in the long-run, it all might appear to be meaningless and thus make life a worthless venture.
To a degree, that is how I see things. Life is truly meaningless, and I desire an atheist civilization. And I don't think that would be impossible at all, as I don't think everyone is going to run around thinking nothing matters and everyone just bites down on the barrel or will go on a crime spree or anything.
I give religion +1 for giving humans something to strive for, purpose and meaning. We as an advanced species have to first survive our earliest struggle, and that is, overcoming our competent but fragile mental self.
But I think we can start moving to a point where we don't need that crutch anymore. That's how I view it, so shoot me, I have a different take on religion that a religious person might have.
I won't deny that at sometimes you feel a little weak and need to find a way, on your own, to push forward. The "spiritual" section of the brain, a very real section of the brain, is a difficult part of the brain to common consciously. It provides pain relief and direction, which is a powerful tool.
The way I see it, the objective of any animal's life, is to make babies and contribute to the group, so that the group will survive over time. Sometimes that means sacrifice, or putting yourself into a situation where your life is on the line for the group. That's what animals do for each other. We're selfish little pricks if you look across the animal kingdom. We don't do for fellow man what other creatures do for their own.
And yet, isn't that what is supposed to drive people? Sacrifice is supposed to be something divine, going out of your own way, putting your way of life on the line for others is supposed to buy you a ticket for heaven. Yet, you see very few actually committing
that much to the end. We are severely crippled in the "for the tribe" mentality.
What makes me tick? Besides making a goal of having at least one male child to carry on my family name, I have a personal goal of making that family name remembered. My own personal immortality - the spirit lives on in name, but the soul is gone forever. The way I see it, there is nothing there for
me once I decompose, but that doesn't mean I don't strive to make myself such a person that will go to great lengths for his family and community. IMHO, everyone needs to have a high-reaching goal, of doing something go
right, that everyone will remember you for your contribution to a better way of life in the future. Progress. We have no limits as a species, so why not devote your life to ensuring our civilization does indeed take one step forward while you are still here and alive.
That is basically why I can be quite vocal in my beliefs, because I am trying (even if I am wrong, somehow... that's got to count for something in the eyes of some egotistical ruler) to put our species on the right track. As a whole, our entire civilization needs to move forward - because ultimately, yes I want to help our species get to a point where we can avoid certain extinction. And, well... you can't do that if you put all your marbles on one Earth-shaped basket. Our future is only guaranteed in this universe, if we get some of our people off this rock. And to do that, we have to move forward - we can't even see past culture, skin color, or nationality at this point... we aren't going to make it as a species, not in the long-term, if we can't get our act together.
And that is why, I hope... oh do I ever hope... that some alien species decides it wants to stir up some shit here on Earth. We desperately need an enemy species, not an enemy group within our own species. If we have another species that makes it a personal goal to kill/eat humans, we might finally unite together under the one true natural banner - that banner reads, "Let's Survive This Shit!"
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