Kosh32 – I don’t know what religion you were connected to before, since you said you were religious before, but as a Christian myself, it’s amazing to me how Judeo-Christian your comments here are. Different parallel verses in the Christian Bible kept popping out to me in my mind as I read your post. I don’t think your current worldview is that contrary to Judeo-Christian thinking and you may perceive it to be.
If I may share these with you:
K32: “I think it is amoral to consider that consumption and reproduction are the highest goods of life. Seeing these things are only primal cures this dilemma (sorry if I misunderstand you). Sex is primal and is one of the lowest forms of good even in its purest (fully rebooted) sense.”
* Bible – well, the basic “goods” of life aren’t always that complex; Ecclesiastes 2:24: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.” Ecc. 8:15: “So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.” Proverbs 5:18,19: “May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.“
K32: “There are other goods beside reproduction. Meditation and wonderment at the universe for example. The infinite complexity of our world and what may be beyond it. How absolutely pathetic and obscure we are in relation to the universe.”
* Bible – Psalm 8:3-6 “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?” And yet, vs. 5-6: “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet.” Do we not have the ability/responsibility to care for the world in a way that no other creature on our planet can/ought?
K32: “"Transcendent worth", "purpose", "meaning", these are all illusions. Particularly human purpose. “
* Bible – it often feels this way, doesn’t it? Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 “The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher,
“Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”
What benefit do people get from all the effort
which they expend on earth?
A generation comes and a generation goes,
but the earth remains the same through the ages.
The sun rises and the sun sets;
it hurries away to a place from which it rises again.
The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north;
round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns.
All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full,
and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again.
All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it:
The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing.
What exists now is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing truly new on earth. Is there anything about which someone can say, “Look at this! It is new!”?
It was already done long ago, before our time. No one remembers the former events,
nor will anyone remember the events that are yet to happen;
they will not be remembered by the future generations.“
K32: “It is illusory to believe we are not walking on a razor's edge and a great cataclysm can erase everything humans have worked for in the blink of an eye.”
* Bible – this would be true if it were not for God being in ultimate control: Colossians 1:7 “He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him.”
K32: “The idea of heaven is materialistic as it appears to me. Upon death, why would we go to a world that looks constructed by humans? Pearly gates, golden architecture, high in the clouds, this seems like a human fantasy, not divine awesomeness. It sounds material.”
• Bible --The aforementioned descriptors aren’t meant to be taken literally. They are metaphors. If you showed an ancient person an airplane, how would they describe it? Perhaps like an dragon in the sky? Their frame of reference is limited to their experience and ability to comprehend. If one was to show an earthly person a heavenly thing, how could he describe it, but by earthly comparisons?
o Though beyond that, the great hope that Scripture proclaims isn’t humans becoming disembodied spirits floating on the clouds playing harps. Rather, it is, as 2 Peter 3:13 notes, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” And REvelaiton 21:1 “Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” What the Book of Revelation ultimately describes is the “New Jerusalem” coming down from heaven to earth. In other words, it is a joining, a co-mingling of the two, where there will be no more division between the realm and reign of God with the earthly sphere. We were not created to be angels, we are humans, created for earth.
K32: “If there is a god, then it is likely genderless and far beyond definition or comprehension.”
* Bible – God is indeed genderless, for both men and women are equally created in his image—“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) And God is indeed transcendent and beyond our full comprehension: “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22); ““Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?” (Job 11:7); “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)
K32: “This is why I see sex as a lower form of good; it is not the meaning of life to pair-bond necessarily, rather to extend love and compassion without expectation of reward.”
* Bible – “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40); Jesus says again, “ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)
K38: “Perhaps the meaning of life is "nothing". But we as humans can't define nothing because we haven't died yet.”
* Bible – The writer of Ecclesiates felt in a similar way to you: “I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth,
and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile—like chasing the wind! What is bent cannot be straightened,
and what is missing cannot be supplied.”
Though in the New Testament, Jesus prays for his disciples (recorded in John 17:3), and says “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” We ourselves can’t know what exactly lies beyond the grave, this is true. But the Bible clearly asserts that we can know the One who is Himself eternal, who has conquered and passed beyond death, and through faith in him, we can and will receive that gift of eternal life, which he alone possesses.
