If There Were No After Life
whether there's afterlife, the answer has never been the same. the atheists deny after life, believing that our life is no more than from the cradle to the grave. they may care about their illustrious names after death; they may feel attached to the affection of their offspring, but they never lay their hopes on their afterlife. they may also say that good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil, but they don't really believe any retribution in their after life.
however, in the religious world or among the superstitious people, the belief in afterlife is very popular. they do not only believe in afterlife, but thousands of reincarnations as well. in the mysterious world, there are the paradise and the hell, the celestial beings and the gods, the buddha and the bodhisattvas.
Development and the Environment
It is undeniable that the worsening environment has become the biggest concern of the present-day world. Land resources are dwindling because of water loss and soil erosion. Waste gases poison the air we breathe. The rivers and lakes are polluted by waste dumped in them from factories. It is probably no exaggeration to say that deterioration of the quality of the environment threatens the existence of mankind itself.
Some people are of the opinion that the environmental problem is the price we have to pay for economic development. But I do not think that this argument is valid. After all, what is the point of economic growth if people's lives are adversely alfected by worsening environmental pollution?
maybe they really believed it, or maybe they just wanted to make use of people's veneration, the ancient emperors always declared that they were the real dragons, the sons of god, while the royal ministers claimed to be the reincarnations of various constellations. but can the stars reincarnate?
many people burn incense and kowtow, do good deeds and strive for virtues, not just for the present, but mainly to let god see their sincerity so as to be reborn into a better afterlife, or to achieve the highest enlightenment after several lives of practice. they do believe in afterlife. but i can't help asking: suppose there were no afterlife, would you still do good deeds and strive for virtues? and if god does not see what you are doing, would you still be so upright and selfless? if you work, not for serving the public and liberating the others, but just for a better afterlife of your own, isn't it a little too selfish? comparing with this kind of believers, those who don't believe in afterlife, but still keep doing good deeds, are the most sincere and honest philanthropists, because they do them not for themselves but for other.
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