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Philosophy/religion

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Searching for the Ultimate Answer

16 replies

GreatNews · 01/01/2018 18:17

Hello everybody, hope you all had a brilliant end of year celebrations.

I'm new on MN and it's a new year so, thought I'd start with something meaningful that has been in the back of my mind for a long time.

Why are we (humans) on this planet earth..?

Where have we come from?

Did someone create us and put us on here? And for what purpose?

Does anyone has any plausible answer? With some degree of certainty, and not just some blind faith or nothingness.

Atheists/Humanist do not believe in any sort of deity, religious people believe in a deity but differ amongst themselves what sort of dirty it is.

Surely, we didn't just appear on this planet for no reason or a purpose.

What happens to us when we die?

Our bodies decay but what happens to the soul or consciousness?

Yet to find an convincing answer that makes sense other than there is a life after death.

Learning about various religions and non to have better understanding for the peace of mind.

Sorry for this long monologue.

OP posts:
speakout · 01/01/2018 21:46

I am happy not knowing. We can't answer all questions. We can be curious.

And you may even be asking the wrong questions.

Why are we here- there may be no "why". And I am OK with that. I have peace of mind without god or religion.

Any religion that claims to have these answers are making it up.

Jason118 · 02/01/2018 21:20

Douglas Adams has the best answerSmile

Julie8008 · 02/01/2018 23:07

Why are we (humans) on this planet earth..? Can't see any reason you would think there is a 'why'?

Where have we come from? Can't see any reason you would think we come from 'somewhere'.

Did someone create us and put us on here? And for what purpose? Quite obviously no one 'put' us on this rock, we evolved here. No purpose involved.

Does anyone has any plausible answer? With some degree of certainty, and not just some blind faith or nothingness Yes there are lots of answers but it seems like you are looking confirmation of your religious beliefs rather than the actual truth.

Atheists/Humanist do not believe in any sort of deity, religious people believe in a deity but differ amongst themselves what sort of dirty it is Religious people also disbelieve in most deities.

Surely, we didn't just appear on this planet for no reason or a purpose Why are you sure about that? Seems pretty irrational.

What happens to us when we die? The same as happened to us before we were born. We dont exist.

Our bodies decay but what happens to the soul or consciousness? 'Soul'? What is that? Consciousness, even if we have it, just ceases.

Yet to find an convincing answer that makes sense other than there is a life after death If your wanting to be convinced then your not really looking for the truth. Start with sceptical thinking, build upon what provides a high confidence of truth and dont believe anything based upon 'feeling'. Its all pretty straight forward.

Learning about various religions and non to have better understanding for the peace of mind If you restrict yourself to learning via religion then you will never get very far as the best they can offer is faith and that has zero explanatory power.

Vitalogy · 03/01/2018 15:27

Op, have a listen to Alan Watts and other's like him.

Tickety7 · 04/01/2018 02:39

I'd recommend reading a book called 'Not enough faith to be an atheist.' By a guy called Frank Turek.

You can also find some of his videos on YouTube. He will blow your mind.

MrsTerryPratchett · 04/01/2018 03:00

Surely, we didn't just appear on this planet for no reason or a purpose.

Evolution is pretty awesome and makes total sense. The one bit, as a confirmed atheist, that weirds me out is the 'spark'. The whatever that turns a rock into an animal. It's odd and I can see why people think it comes from a deity.

And I know rocks don't turn into animals. You know what I mean!

SBGA · 04/01/2018 12:26

Hi GreatNews. Nice username, what is the story behind that?

In answer to your very good questions:

Why are we (humans) on this planet earth..? Where have we come from? Did someone create us and put us on here? And for what purpose?

We are here for one purpose only, and that is for God's pleasure. Yes, you read that correctly, He gets actual real live pleasure from us humans. It's sometimes hard to see why, when we ruin our planet and often each other, but I would think the best place you could view it from is from that of a parent. Are you a parent? If so, you may get a small glimpse of the pleasure parents get from their children and extrapolate that to the pleasure God gets from us (his children). This isn't a case of us being some form of amusement or pantomime entertainment, but the sort of pleasure a person gets from a meaningful encounter and a deep, personal relationship; a lasting love. Genesis 1 says we were made in "God's image", though we are not equal to him, obviously. He didn't need us for friendship, but he chose to create us despite being self-sufficient already. Colossians 1 says all things were created by him, and for him. Revelations 4 says God is worthy to receive glory, honour and power, and that for him all things were created.

Does anyone has any plausible answer? With some degree of certainty, and not just some blind faith or nothingness.
It is not socially acceptable to say you have certain faith, which is quite ironic because the people insisting you cannot speak of such certain, do so with certainty that their way is right (see the irony there?). I am certain, not with some blind wishful thinking, but because I have diligently searched and questioned, and because God is true to him word when he says "if you seek me you shall find me".
My search has involved looking into the credibility of the bible (yes, it really is very credible, historically, archaeologically, prophetically, to name but a few - though again, you will always find people insisting that can't possibly be the case). No one has ever been able to evidentially provide a serious case against the bible which stands up to critical scrutiny.
Then there's my personal experience, which nobody can take from me. It is the hope and the assurance that; no matter what I experience in this life, God has a hand in it all and has a purpose. Just because I don't always know what that is, doesn't mean it's not there. And there is the promise of not just a perfect eternal life, but also wonderful real help in this life too. It is about a relationship with the one who created me, and there is nothing on earth like it.

Atheists/Humanist do not believe in any sort of deity, religious people believe in a deity but differ amongst themselves what sort of dirty it is.

That's exactly right, and they can't all be right, can they? One god says you have to work harder and give more, another god says you can just do your best and wish for a good end, atheists say we all live and die then nothing. Some religions say you are born repeatedly (reincarnation) and the bible says it is appointed unto man to live once and then die. You can sincerely believe that you are able to fly, but if you jump off a bridge you'll find that you can't. No matter how much you believed you can. So it's important that you trust in something (someone) utterly trustworthy, and not of yourself when it comes to your eternal life. The bible is so clear, we can't buy our way to heaven, we can't earn it by our good works, the only way to the father is through Jesus, the son. He took our penalty and clothes us in his righteousness. It is a free gift with no strings attached, but like any free gift you have to choose whether you will accept it or not.

Surely, we didn't just appear on this planet for no reason or a purpose.
You're exactly right, we didn't. God created every living thing, and Psalm 139 speaks of how he lovingly watches us grow, and how we can't escape him anywhere in the universe, he is there.

What happens to us when we die?
We will be present with God, or we will not be. This is not a changeable status once you're dead. Sometimes people think that a loving God wouldn't turn people away once they regret their choice after death, but sadly God makes it clear there are consequences for sin, and if you don't accept Christ's gift of Jesus' righteousness, they you will be trying to be in God's presence under your own steam, which does isn't possible. The consequence of sin is death (because God is completely holy and we are not) but, as Romans 8 tells us, the free gift of God is eternal life (HIS holiness given to us).

Our bodies decay but what happens to the soul or consciousness?
The soul lives on eternally. We were created to be eternal beings.

Yet to find an convincing answer that makes sense other than there is a life after death.
Romans 1 says that the evidence of God is all around us. It is in the kindness of a stranger, it is in the beauty of nature. It is in the miracle of a newborn baby, it is in the still during a storm. As a result of this, the bible says man is without excuse. There is an inbuilt knowledge of God that is making you ask all of these questions!

Learning about various religions and non to have better understanding for the peace of mind.
Well its good to ask your questions but remember they all contradict. The main difference is that they all expect a level of hard work from you, without really ever knowing if you've done quite enough. Other gods are aloof and distant. Whereas with God, we have the way paved out for us by way of a free gift offered, a life guided by the hand of a God who IS love, and who loves you more than you could ever imagine. A Creator who sees everything about you that you don't like and loves you in spite of it.

noego · 04/01/2018 13:57

Suggest you look at Advaita Vedanta guides. Gets away from the dogma and the esoteric.
Try Mooji, Adyashanti, Sadhguru, Eckart Tolle or Rupert Spira.

Vitalogy · 04/01/2018 14:04

GreatNews/SBGA same person perchance.

Julie8008 · 04/01/2018 17:55

We are here for one purpose only, and that is for God's pleasure
If that were true then god is a sadomasochist (I mean that literally not as an insult). What else would you call a parent who had children only to torture and kill them for pleasure?

Fortunately there is no credible evidence that any of the worlds gods are actually real, so lets move on...

The whatever that turns a rock into an animal
Abiogenesis is actually quite a logical process. Chemical evolution, including replication, variation, and natural selection, can occur in populations of molecules as well as in organisms. There probably wasn't an exact moment where chemistry became biology, rather just a gradual process of increasing complexity. The magic ingredient was time, not 'magic'.

Vitalogy · 04/01/2018 18:40

Doesn't make sense though, something coming from nothing.

MrsTerryPratchett · 04/01/2018 19:14

Abiogenesis is actually quite a logical process.

frantically!

Doesn't make sense though, something coming from nothing.

Matter is neither created nor destroyed though. So it didn't 'come from nothing'.

Julie8008 · 05/01/2018 17:15

Doesn't make sense though, something coming from nothing
All the 'ingredients' for life were present on earth 4 billion years. 'Life' didn't come from 'nothing'.

This is not the dark ages anymore, if we come upon an unanswered question we no longer jump to the juvenile response of, "well then it must be magic god wat done it". Confused

And before anyone makes more throwaway comments about things not making sense then study some quantum mechanics. Which doesn't seem to make sense but nevertheless works perfectly fine. Our 'senses' evolved to cope with lions and tigers and bears oh my, it is not very adept at comprehending the extremes of existence.

Vitalogy · 05/01/2018 17:27

And before anyone makes more throwaway comments about things not making sense That's me told then Grin

specialsubject · 07/01/2018 13:29

We are here by chemical coincidence, the right amino acids in the right place on a planet that orbits in the goldilocks zone.

All life has only one purpose - to reproduce. As (allegedly) thinking and reasoning life forms, the only ones on the planet, we have more options. Unfortunately we tend to make rather a mess.

When the chemical reactions of your body stop, everything you knew, remembered or were is gone forever. Write your memoirs.

Don't waste time, you only have so much of it.

newtlover · 08/01/2018 00:17

It's 42

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