The Religion of Life and Death

 

My formative years included strict adherence to the Baptist religion. There was never an excuse to not show up for Sunday School because there was an old bus that was used to pick us all up to go to church. 

Some of my neighborhood friends also went to my church. We often tried to recruit other friends from the neighborhood. Of course recruitment was an important goal, because it brought in more who could donate.   

In boot camp for the U.S. Navy, Sunday was still set aside as a day for rest as an adherence to religion. These Sundays were the only days we looked forward to, because any other day was just a day of being broken down and built back up to be good sailors. 

I don't think I've attended church since graduating Navy boot camp. This does not mean that I've lost my religion. I simply do not subscribe to organized religion. 

What is the history of religion? We know there were polytheistic periods long before the Abrahamic religions which brought us a monotheistic world.  

There has been a path of religion that has carried civilizations for millennia. From the Ra of Egyptian mythology to the Greco-Roman gods and on into current monotheism, history is replete with gods and a God. These gospels have one common core, they all condition our lives to be accepted  into an afterlife. 

The afterlife. What is the afterlife? Conventional thought in an era of science dictates that there is no empirical evidence of an afterlife. Some scientists have even attempted to weigh the body microseconds before and after death to try and determine if the spirit can be measured leaving the body. None of those experiments succeeded in doing so . 

What has my childhood benefited from attending church? It seems nothing important in a scientific world. The stories, or allegories, can be used to create morality in a society without moral direction. Many historians tell of a barbaric world transitioning into one of morality with the rise of Christianity.  

There was a Germanic historian named  Tacitus who wrote of the man known as Jesus who was dissenting against the Roman Empire. Crucifixion were gruesome displays of execution under the Roman Empire. Few Christians survived this slaughter. Those that did went on to write the New Testament. 

The majority of religions founded today stem from this Judeo-Christian beginning. ,Yet there are so many interpretations of this religion that any view that does not conform to another view becomes hieratical. This is why I do not subscribe to any organized religion, 

To look at religion under the modern microscope of science-based society, is to look at an antiquated ideology. I would love to see my loved ones who have died when I die. I would also like my loved ones that I leave behind to greet me when they die. However, there really isn't any evidence that this will happen. This is why we call it "faith". 

I'm not atheist, but rather agnostic. It is not rational to devote our lives to living a certain way to have a palace on streets of gold after death, or to live a life that leads to a higher celestial plain, or die as a martyr and be welcomed by virgins. I do not know what, if anything, awaits me after death.  

This is why I want a legacy. This is the crux of "the who and what" of death. What I am will die forever. Who I am could live on indefinitely. 

I have lived an exciting life. I will share stories here that I find extraordinary. To leave this electronic foot print, so that "who" I am can live on. 

I should have lead with this particular blog. It is more difficult to write about this subject than it seems. We think of the "now" and only take tomorrow for granted. I cannot take tomorrow for granted and I find myself wanting to explain my life. Shouting into the ether; "I AM HERE" or "I WAS HERE".  My retrospection.  I want to leave this with the Live song "Thunder Crashes" It really touches me in this moment of retrospection. 

I also want to leave you with a great agnostic's list of what God should say. This comes from Baruch de Spinoza: 

God would have said:

Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest!

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house! My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing! Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... you will find me in no book! Trust me and stop asking me. Would you tell me how to do my job?

Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or seek to punish you. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of God would do that?

Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, that only create guilt in you.

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that your consciousness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing that exists here and now, and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues... no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.

I could tell you if there's anything after this life, but I won't... but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is nothing after... as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me... I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised, I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy!... that's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, and that this world is full of wonders.

What do you need more miracles for? Why so many explanations?

Look for me outside... you won't find me. Find me inside... there I am beating within you.

Spinoza.