Posted by Isaac | Posted in Religion and Philosophy | Posted on 03-17-2001
Tags: afterlife, living life
I just finished watching the movie Gladiator with Travis.
I must say that I really enjoy this movie. It has great action, fun, direction, acting, cinematography–and it makes you think.
There are a lot of themes presented in the movie, but I’m only going to go into one insight. There is a lot of talk in the movie about the after-life. About being with people who have passed away after you die. In thinking about this, I got upset again.
If there is something else after life, if there is this great heaven, nirvana, or whatever, why are we living right now? If life is so terrible, what bother at all? What makes what is going on now important at all, if when you die you see everybody anyways?
Because of ideas like an afterlife/heaven/etc, people stop living in today. They stop worrying about what is going on, because everything becomes about tomorrow, about “after” death. Even if there is an afterlife (which, to make it clear, I do not believe in), or even if you just believe in an afterlife, there is no reason to stop living today. But, this is what people do. People stop trying to be happy, people basically give up on life, because there is really no point if it’s not the end. Why enjoy yourself (in this “oh so evil, evil” world) or why try to actually work or make an accomplishment (“Do work to have pride in? Not for me, thanks, I’m going to worry about what happens when I die…” try the fact that you will die) when life is just a stepping stone to another “plane of existence.”
It has been argued with me about people needing something to look forward to, to keep them going, something to believe or have faith in.
Believe in life. Have faith in life. Look forward to life.
LIVE.