Make the Best of It

First, at least glance at this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven

In an interview with the UK Guardian, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking discusses his belief that heaven or an afterlife is nothing more than a "fairy story" for people who fear death. Well, who am I to argue with the smartest guy on the planet? Certainly, Dr. Hawking is not the first person to say that there is no God or anything related to that, but this is a dude who is so off-the-charts brilliant that when he posits something, you would do well to listen and consider.

This is a subject which I often discuss, and could have written about at any time, but this presented me an opportunity to emphasize a particular point. Dr. Hawking says that he does not fear death, but that he is in no hurry to die, either, adding that we as humans should seek the greatest value of our action. I've suggested this myself on a number of occasions, though I say it in a different context. Let me explain.

Where Dr. Hawking has increasingly become an outspoken atheist, I find myself to be more in the agnostic camp. When it comes to God, my thinking is that I don't know and can't know whether there is a God or, if there is, what his/her/its nature is. Frankly, I have not seen any convincing evidence either for or against, and that is what I overwhelmingly base my beliefs on. If I have a good reason to believe something, then I am likely to believe it. However, my agnosticism has little bearing on the way I live my life from day to day. My behavior is much more influenced by my philosophical leanings. I am an existentialist of sorts, and more specifically, an absurdist and discordian.

In the absence of any concrete evidence in favor of or against the existence of a God, my personal feeling is that life and the universe is devoid of any inherent meaning (which, if true, would seem to preclude the existence of God, but again, I don't know). However, true to the absurdist way of thinking, it is my belief that a person can give meaning to his or her life through her actions; or, as Dr. Hawking put it, one should seek the greatest value of your action. In short, do something worthwhile! It doesn't really matter what someone else says you should do in order for your life to be important or meaningful, it matters what is important to you. For me, it isn't important that I try to force myself to believe in something that strikes me as imaginary, a man-made fable meant to frighten people into complacency and submission. What is important to me is my ability to draw my own conclusions based on observation and reason. I see no sense in grasping at straws when it simply isn't necessary. There are perfectly good facts presented to us on a daily basis; we need only not ignore them. And where there are no facts, there is no need to fear the dark. There is no monster waiting to grab you there. Just deal with the fact that you can't know everything, just like everybody else. Not everything has to have a pretty picture painted over it. You're here, that's all, just make the best of it.