if as I claim, the material world is transitory, momentary, impermanent…
what exactly is permanent? what is that which is lasting, perpetual?
some claim the soul is permanent… but we have no evidence for that claim…
to say, my soul is permanent is no different then saying, “there is a Santa Claus”
or to say, “There is an Easter bunny”. We do not have evidence for an everlasting
soul or a god or heaven or hell… they are just assumptions that help one’s
ego, nothing more. But if there is no heaven or hell, then what will keep
human beings doing good, keeping society running, help keep order within
society? Do we really need some external goal to do the right thing?
Some might say, yes, as you have pointed out, human beings have
neglected the voices of those who have cried out for human beings to
be religious or to raise their souls to meet heaven or to do the right thing?
the people have followed the materialistic regardless of the preaching of the
moralist, the thinker, the philosopher… we must find some way to
follow some path besides the materialistic……. but the real goal is to
discover the end goal. The goal tells us what our path should be…….
If we are really to go to heaven, then the path must be to follow the word
of god, but, but if the path is to find happiness, then another road must be found,
and if the path is to freedom, then another road is needed and if the path is
understanding/wisdom, then another road/path is needed for us to go along.
For the road to wisdom is different then the path to happiness and the road
to heaven is different then the path to wisdom or happiness. What is our goal?
Where are we going to? I have denied the path of human beings is happiness.
I have denied the path of human beings is heaven. So I am left with some other
path/road to proclaim… or better yet, to follow…….
I have rejected materialism and I have rejected metaphysics…
we can follow the path of doing the right thing without, without
religion or metaphysics and we can engage in the material world without
recourse to the rampant materialism of the modern world.
we can exist without any attempt to engage in asceticism or renunciation of
the modern world and its ego driven goal to die with the most toys…
the middle road… we don’t need to engage with asceticism nor do we
need to engage with modern materialism and its addiction to material goods
like money or cars or houses or TV’s…… we can live the good life and not have
all the fancy gadgets of life… if we engage with the soul, but not in a religious
manner… and that is the trick…….our engagement with our soul without
any engagement with religion or metaphysics…or as Nietzsche said,
“How do we find meaning in a meaningless world?”
How do we find meaning without recourse to religion or to metaphysics
or to the materialism that dominates the modern world?
what path do we take?
what is our goal to find meaning in a meaningless world?
many questions without any obvious answers…
Kropotkin