Life is Random
The Planet of Free Will
In the Christian Old Testament, the Book of Genisis states that before eating from the Tree of Life both Adam and Eve were innocent, almost child-like, and they were immortal. Once having eaten from the Tree of Life both Adam and Eve become aware of their “nakedness” their sexuality, and both good and evil. This implies that immortality is devoid of self-awareness, and fee-will.
By disobeying God’s wishes and exercising their own free-will Adam and Eve forfeited the right to immortality. So mortality brings with it self-awareness, knowledge, and free-will.
I see a parallel in this story with the belief that we, as beings, spend most of our time in the spirit world. A world that is more a kin to the garden of Eden. From this spirit world we can choose to come to Earth, the planet of free will, where we are left to our own devices to make our way through the time of mortality, which is our life on Earth.
During that time we work off the sins of the past and for some we learn and gain a higher awareness enabling us to operate on a higher spiritual plane.
So we trade a spiritual, immortal existence in the spirit world for a period of mortality which offers us a time of free-will, and growth in self-awareness.
Before venturing onto the Planet of Free-will we choose our parents, those who we will learn from, and that we visit this planet with many other “spirits” who we have spent time with on this planet in the past. Some are here to support us, some are here to teach us, and others are here so we can mend past wrongs.
This all sounds very nice and provides a neat explanation for why we are here, the purpose of our existence, as well as a pleasant place to go after death. It neatly explains both unknowns.
Creation Stories
Every group of people on Earth have a creation story. They all have their slight differences, but one thing that they all have in common is the belief that they have been chosen by their creator to do something special. Each story is about the chosen ones.
The monotheist beliefs take this a step further by stating that if you do not whole heartedly sign up to their creationist story and have rock-solid faith in their creator then you will not get to go to paradise or heaven after death, but rather you will suffer at the hands of evil for eternity.
Regardless of where you end up it is for eternity. Again, this desire for immortality, or “life after death” becomes a common theme.
With some groups your spirit lives on in the land, for others there is reincarnation through a series of lives throughout eternity.
For many there is a theme of fate. We must “follow the book”. All that happens is written by the creator and simply follow the story line that the creator has written for us. For others we have free-will, but we must suffer the consequences of our decisions. If we transgress too greatly then we forfeit our place in eternal paradise.
All of these stories attempt to answer the big unknowns; why are we here and what happens after death.
The Arrogance of Purpose
The Human regards itself as the most intelligent being on Earth. We do not refer to ourselves as an animal, unless it is a most derogatory reference to another Human’s behaviour or transgressions. But in fact we are an animal, a mammalian ape, a primate.
Why then do we Human’s assume that we must have a higher purpose for our being and in the same breath see no reason why a Chimpanzee, or a Gorilla, or a dog should have a higher purpose for their being?
Why is there a heaven and hell for Humans but not one for Cats, or Guinea Pigs?
Our very arrogance insists that we are superior, while all other creatures on this planet go back into the ground to feed the soil, and the worms, we do not. We are buried with dignity. Our bodies are contained in boxes, tombs, or cremated to keep us away from scavengers and the common open decomposition suffered by all other creatures.
I understand that burial and the rituals that surround death have arisen due to health and hygiene factors, as well as to keep scavengers and predators away from the living, but the very arrogance of the Human now demands that we search for our purpose for being here.
We Humans search for purpose and meaning, driven by our arrogant belief that our lives must have purpose and meaning.
Everything is Random
The truth is that there is no purpose for us being on this planet. We have as much purpose as a worm. As a species we fill a niche and when we are gone something else will fill that niche.
It goes without saying that rather than stay in our niche we have created our own world, a false unnatural world that is detrimental to all the creatures we share this planet. That being the case the Planet would be a lot better off without us. The Earth would be a much better place for all that inhabits it if the Chimpanzees were in charge.
I have no doubt that intelligent life forms like ours have evolved on other planets. Life itself and the presence of life is a random creation. A random coming together of chemicals. Life is extremely complex and I believe that we Homo Sapien Sapien do not understand life and its complexities at all. If we did we would have a symbiotic relationship with our host planet, but we do not, we are simply destroying our host and in turn ourselves.
The sheer fact that so many of us spend our time on this planet searching for the meaning of our lives is evidence enough that we have no understanding, whatsoever, of what life is.
Life, in all shapes and forms, in all varieties of chemical and climatic conditions, randomly springs up almost everywhere through-out the entire Universe. We are one result of that process. There is no purpose to our being. There is no life after death, no Vahallah, no Nirvana, no Heaven or Hell. We simply decay like all other life forms on this planet, and the energy that makes up what we are today is released to make up other things for tomorrow. It is as simple, but as complex, as that!
Craig Buller 20/12/2020
Copyright Craig Buller 2020. All rights reserved.
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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
We say they’ve gone to a better place
To console ourselves for the emptiness we face.
While in the solitude of the darkest night
We know the age old adage is right.
Although we find it hard to blindly trust
In the end it is simply ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Craig (25/06/2016)
Ó Copyright Craig Buller 2016. All rights reserved
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In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.
And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.
"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.
"Certainly," said man.
"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.
And He went away.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
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“Man is a creature who spends his entire life convincing himself that his existence is not absurd.”
- Albert Camus (French Philosopher)
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“How can one be so serious with the world when the world itself is so ridiculous?”
- Okakura Tenshin (Japanese Author)
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