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Afterlife

More, or no more?
Most people have 'chosen' to believe that they will not be terminated by death

By Ben Madadi
March 18, 2004
iranian.com unedited

Men have always had something to fear none because of any good intention but simply because of their simple instinct. Probably the most feared phenomenon is death though no-one has ever come back to say anything about any of its eventual horrifying consequences.

All kinds of people have always tried to justify their desires, or probably their gut feelings, pointing at the unexplainable, the imperceivable and the terrible, and the easiest way to confuse the audience has always been to mention the afterlife. No-one has ever returned from death, i.e. real death. So if there has never been any proof of the afterlife what is the fuss about it? Well, there is little theory about such a taboo subject but there are many hypotheses.

First of all it is human nature; greed, that never gives up wanting more and more. It is not a common human trait to suppress greed. This natural characteristic is so powerful that it quite easily challenges rationality and often overcomes it. Greed overcoming rationality pushes people to believe that this life is too sweet to be temporary. Although there is no evidence whatsoever that there may be any other alternative to giving up the sweet life, historically most people have 'chosen' to believe that they will not be terminated by death.

I have very often thought of a variety of possibilities that life may not end by death in one form or another, and so far come up with no clear understanding of my deliberations. No wonder there is also nobody else to be able to shed some light on the issue. There has never been.

Ancient Greeks, including Socrates and Aristotle, didn't even try to touch the subject that much. They simply 'adopted' the common knowledge of their fathers about the afterlife. They were men of objectivity, rationality and science and had nothing to do with mass manipulation. They didn't need to exploit the fear of death or the greed of endlessness. Nonetheless they did encounter some harsh treatment time to time from those who did not see them as beneficial but rather disruptive elements to the inclinations of the masses.

I can talk about my own understanding. Life is something granted for free and it has everything embodied in it to be very sweet and pleasant. I wonder whether there is really anything wrong to accept that it is actually very much temporary! It is good and pleasant and it actually ends. So what? If it was good and pleasant and it never ended wouldn't it have been better? Well, it probably would, especially if it would have been even more pleasant; without the threats of disease or all kinds of calamities. Let's see then!

Without these and without death there would have been no fear. Fear of what? In such a situation fear would be worthless. I personally believe that one major reason, or probably the only reason, human beings are greedy, is also because they are aware of the limited time they have so that they want to have, or to do, as much as possible before the time is up, before they need to pack up. So without death and without fear there would be no need for greed.

Now what I would like to personally understand is whether life without greed or fear would actually be 'pleasant' or rather boring. You know that you will wake up safe and sound and will go to earn yourself a living, come back home and so on and that's it. Let's not analyze the situation in which you wouldn't even need to do those because you will not die of hunger or lack of shelter or any other cause. Would life actually be interesting? Would it be called life, or rather something we cannot call life!

I think we should just enjoy this temporary life we have as much as possible because it's much better than the other way around!

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