Over and again, I note that even in regard to “I” in the either/or world, there is that gap between what we seem able to know about ourselves objectively – biology, demographics, empirical facts etc. – and an objective understaning of how that all fits into a thorough understanding of existence itself.
We don’t even know beyond any and all doubt if we embody actual free will in this exchange!
Or, okay, “I” don’t.
Let alone the part where we are able to encompass a complete understanding of “I” grappling with morality here and now and immortality there and then…through God and/or religion.
On a thread like this.
Unless, of course, that’s just me. Maybe others have encompassed this understanding. Maybe I will come upon one here at ILP.
And how on earth would one – I, you, anyone – know that?!! We’re all in the same boat here: “They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more”…“Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on”.
So, sure, some find their own antidote here in God and religion. Either in being brainwashed by others as children or in groping with questions of this sort on their own as philosophers in places like this.
So, okay, to them I say, “tell me about it”. How do others connect the dots between here and now and there and then given their own understanding of God and religion. In all earnestness, polemics aside.
Look, I set aside a few hours a day groping with and then grappling to understand questions of this sort. Why? Because the stakes couldn’t be higher. But I’m running out of time. So I also set aside many more hours a day for things – distractions – that take me away from these things and bring me enormous amounts of existential fulfillment and satisfaction. That part doesn’t go away just because I construe life as being essentially meaningless in a No God world.
But there it is – oblivion – getting closer and closer. No more “fulfillment and satisfaction” of any kind ever again. Unless someone in a place like this is in fact actually able to link their arguments to demonstrable proof that practicing objective morality on their path here and now can bring about immortality [and even salvation] there and then.
Sorry, I can’t explain it better than not. Not even to myself.
On the other hand, let me say that posts like this from you are actually a pleasure to read. You note what I construe to be important points that actually prompt me to think through my own. And I truly do appreciate that. Above you are not only not Curly, you’re not even a stooge.