Middleman
Defender of the month
I have had a few fixed beliefs all my life in the arena of spirituality.
The first is that dead is dead. Period. There is no after-life of any sort. I take great comfort in this notion because once I have died, there'll be nothing left of me to experience anxiety or any other sort of distress.
The second is that there is a God. Some evidence of divinity is visible to me in almost every human. In nature. In science. In math.
Consequently, I believe the ethical behavior of any human is desirable and pleasing to God, but the only punishment for unethical behavior is that the actor loses his self-regard, his humanity is diminished, and he moves away from God.
Prayer may be self-comforting but God does not alter the course of events because we send up entreaties. He might, however, boost our coping power if we ask nicely.
I think this is an unusual arrangement of beliefs, and I wondered if I was sharing it with anyone else.
And for those of you whose ethical systems are based on a reward in the hereafter, can anyone explain to me why I can find the instant reward in doing the right thing, but you need a dangling carrot of a promise of Heaven to follow your ethical precepts?
Do you honestly think that evil acts are satisfying? I see them as failures, lapses in judgment and future regrets.
This sounds like the beliefs of many Jews, who do not necessarily believe in an afterlife, but do believe in God and a defined system of ethics.