Contemplations
What is the point of life
Life is a result of chemical reactions that evolved over millennia. Before we had modern science, we made up the answers we needed because any answer is better than no answer at all. For roughly the first 200 000 years of our existence as fully formed humans, we evolved very slowly psychologically and mentally. Then we discovered hallucinogenic plants and our daily activities began to expand from humble tasks of seeking shelter from the elements and wild animals, procreating and hunting, to concepts of the imagination. Art, agency (gods and causes) the future, and death. In all honesty, the purpose of life is what you make it. You are a result of luck. A fleeting life form, that probably has more brain capacity than is good for you. We are intelligent apes that are here on this earth for a few years. Until we die. Death is the opposite of life. It is nonliving, devoid of consciousness, like before you were born. Some make-believe in great fantasies, of afterlives (a contradiction in terms) or past lives or parallel universes, and they are welcome to do so. But there is no evidence of such concepts. The truth is, nothing in nature rejuvenates or becomes young again. Nothing is reborn in its original form. You are born, you reach maturity, your age and then you die. make the most of it.
Is Shamanism a Religion?
No, shamanism is not a religion. Shaman is an empathic phenomenon of the human condition. The judge, the doctor, the policeman, the teacher, the aunty, that wants to know everybody's business and tries to help others. These are all shamanic personalities, even they may not identify as shamans. Shamanism is the canvas on which religion, law and order, psychology, and medicine, developed. It is the blank from which the surfboard is shaped, the page, on which the words appear, that we call a book. It is the background on which creative resource on which the created is rendered.
What is Spirituality ?
Spirituality is a state of mind. That is why there are so many different versions of it. What we call spiritual is the mental aspect of ourselves that grapples with that which we cannot understand.
Most importantly, spirituality is consciousness and agency intertwined. Agency is the belief that there must be a cause for everything. This is a primitive survival tactic we developed in the infancy of our psychology. For example, it is better to believe that there is a leopard in the rustling grass than it is probably just the wind. if we think it's just the wind and it is in fact a leopard, we end up as lunch. The job of adults is to grow out of it, like children that grow out of a belief in Santa Claus. unfortunately, institutionalized religion encourages us to not only, not grow out of it, but to do terrible things in its name. Things rational people would never do are often done in the name of spirituality and religion, its bullying big brother
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Does God exist ?
Well, the first question would be, which God? In the 250 000 years that humans have existed, they have believed, equally fervently, in no less than a thousand gods. Animists, in prehistory, believed in the spirits of the wind, the river, the trees. Our Pagan ancestors believed in Inanna, El, Anu, Zeus, Apollo, Odin, Thor, Demeter, Aphrodite, Krishna, Kali, Vishnu, Ganesha, Nkulunkulu, and hundreds more. Modern people have believed in Ahura Mazda, Ra, Jehovah, Allah, Jesus, and Joseph Smith for a few hundred years. It seems we are getting closer to the true number slowly but surely. It is more likely that none of these gods exist, except in the human psyche. Faith is the only concept that begs us to believe in things without the slightest shred of evidence. If a God did exist, I believe we would have a very clear understanding of such a being. He ...or she would be uncompromising among all other concepts and no other concept of a like being could exist, because this being would be so amazing, we mere mortals would not be able to compare our imaginings to it. . The second question would be. If God exists and in fact created us, who created such a magnificent being? We are all atheists, to the thousand other gods we simply don't believe in, some of us have just gone that one god further.
What happens to us when we die?
Our bodies begin to decay and our consciousness ceases forthwith. We will not know that you ever lived. Dead is the opposite of alive. Nothing will matter. Nothing will rejuvenate or be reborn. Live your life to the full, without hurting anyone or anything, if you can help it. Be authentic, be creative. or don't. It doesn't really matter. Try to be happy with what you have. Money does not bring happiness, nor does love, children, or success. Happiness is something you need to find within your own being. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.