I should not be allowed near a keyboard when flatlining
What are we living for?
We live, we die; no one can escape this fate. When we die, where do we go? Nowhere, faded into atoms into the ground? Or do we ascend to Heaven, where we sing praises of a God who doesn't show His face? Why do we sing his praises? Is that our only purpose? What about those we can't sing? Those who are unable to ascend? Do we stay in Purgatory, then, living out our lives again and again until we have fixed our mistakes? Or do we go to Hell, where we suffer for eternity for the mistakes we have made in one short life?
There is no free will. We make choices based on our personalities and the circumstances. Our personalities are based on our upbringing and our DNA - who can control that? Who can control who to be his parents, or what combination of DNA he will receive? And who can control the circumstances? We are thrown into this world with our fate pretty much set in front of us. Social class, personality, gender, DNA, race, sexuality, fuck, even religion!
Tell me, then, where is our freedom when everything is already so set in stone? There is none. Perhaps there is no one set route for each of us, but there is certainly a set destination.
It is the Royalty and the great Scientists who are remembered. They were destined to be remembered - born to royalty, born with intelligence, born into a social class that will eventually lead him (or her, but much more rarely) to his Great discovery.
Even those who are remembered... how much is remembered? Does anyone remember Albert Einstein's smile? Does anyone remember his quirks, his sorrows? Does anyone remember Darwin's anguish, his confusion, his determination?
Humans don't remember people; they remember deeds. Names are remembered, perhaps appearances if portraits and photographs are posed for. But what makes a person a person is forgotten. Always. We remember Elizabeth I as a great Queen, but who remembers her as a woman? Who remembers her as a human.
What about those nameless peasants, anonymous soldiers, or even just the normal people who die everyday? Does anyone here remember their grandparents in perfect clarity? Memory fades. My uncle died recently. All I remember of him is his hands and his laughter and his voices, and even those are indistinct.
A human's life is shorter and even more insignificant than a mayfly's when compared to the age of Earth, much less the universe. Do we make our mark? Can we? Is there immortality? In deeds, in children, in Heaven?
Perhaps we live a purposeless, meaningless existence that is erased the moment we leave. The brightest of us burns like comets: fleetingly bright before fading into oblivion, burnt away by the atmosphere.
Consciousness is the greatest curse Man had ever received. Language to express those thoughts is the second curse.
We live, we die; no one can escape this fate. When we die, where do we go? Nowhere, faded into atoms into the ground? Or do we ascend to Heaven, where we sing praises of a God who doesn't show His face? Why do we sing his praises? Is that our only purpose? What about those we can't sing? Those who are unable to ascend? Do we stay in Purgatory, then, living out our lives again and again until we have fixed our mistakes? Or do we go to Hell, where we suffer for eternity for the mistakes we have made in one short life?
There is no free will. We make choices based on our personalities and the circumstances. Our personalities are based on our upbringing and our DNA - who can control that? Who can control who to be his parents, or what combination of DNA he will receive? And who can control the circumstances? We are thrown into this world with our fate pretty much set in front of us. Social class, personality, gender, DNA, race, sexuality, fuck, even religion!
Tell me, then, where is our freedom when everything is already so set in stone? There is none. Perhaps there is no one set route for each of us, but there is certainly a set destination.
It is the Royalty and the great Scientists who are remembered. They were destined to be remembered - born to royalty, born with intelligence, born into a social class that will eventually lead him (or her, but much more rarely) to his Great discovery.
Even those who are remembered... how much is remembered? Does anyone remember Albert Einstein's smile? Does anyone remember his quirks, his sorrows? Does anyone remember Darwin's anguish, his confusion, his determination?
Humans don't remember people; they remember deeds. Names are remembered, perhaps appearances if portraits and photographs are posed for. But what makes a person a person is forgotten. Always. We remember Elizabeth I as a great Queen, but who remembers her as a woman? Who remembers her as a human.
What about those nameless peasants, anonymous soldiers, or even just the normal people who die everyday? Does anyone here remember their grandparents in perfect clarity? Memory fades. My uncle died recently. All I remember of him is his hands and his laughter and his voices, and even those are indistinct.
A human's life is shorter and even more insignificant than a mayfly's when compared to the age of Earth, much less the universe. Do we make our mark? Can we? Is there immortality? In deeds, in children, in Heaven?
Perhaps we live a purposeless, meaningless existence that is erased the moment we leave. The brightest of us burns like comets: fleetingly bright before fading into oblivion, burnt away by the atmosphere.
Consciousness is the greatest curse Man had ever received. Language to express those thoughts is the second curse.