Imagine your pre-birth, intelligent self perceives two different worlds in which to live, and can choose which one it wants.
One world is a world where your total existence is contained in the time from conception until natural death. There is no "god," no afterlife...no reward for a life of virtue and no punishment for a life of evil. You are just dead, that's it.
The other world is one where there is a "god," and there is an afterlife where a life of virtue is rewarded for all eternity and a life of evil is either extinguished or punished, again for all eternity.
Both worlds are places where unfairness abounds. Some people are born to great wealth and privilege, and some in abject poverty, surrounded by disease and early death. Some people are talented, handsome, attractive, and healthy by nature, and others are lacking any discernible talents, ugly, un-intellegent, and sickly. Some people are mainly fortunate, raised by loving parents, living in happy places, seeing all sorts of opportunities to achieve any sort of success they want, while others lead a life where they never can catch a break.
Given the inevitability that we will live in a world where unfairness abounds and nothing can be done about it, would you choose to live in the world that ends with death, or the world where death is merely a pathway to your just desserts?
My point is that we all make this choice, wittingly or unwittingly. But we should make it with our eyes wide open.
One world is a world where your total existence is contained in the time from conception until natural death. There is no "god," no afterlife...no reward for a life of virtue and no punishment for a life of evil. You are just dead, that's it.
The other world is one where there is a "god," and there is an afterlife where a life of virtue is rewarded for all eternity and a life of evil is either extinguished or punished, again for all eternity.
Both worlds are places where unfairness abounds. Some people are born to great wealth and privilege, and some in abject poverty, surrounded by disease and early death. Some people are talented, handsome, attractive, and healthy by nature, and others are lacking any discernible talents, ugly, un-intellegent, and sickly. Some people are mainly fortunate, raised by loving parents, living in happy places, seeing all sorts of opportunities to achieve any sort of success they want, while others lead a life where they never can catch a break.
Given the inevitability that we will live in a world where unfairness abounds and nothing can be done about it, would you choose to live in the world that ends with death, or the world where death is merely a pathway to your just desserts?
My point is that we all make this choice, wittingly or unwittingly. But we should make it with our eyes wide open.