But, there were a couple of thoughts that had been in my mind for quite a long time... I'm just going to write it down, and everyone is free to discuss it in the forum...
*Ahem* Let me begin.
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This all started one night when I laid in bed and started questioning life, death, and beyond death. I'm sure many of you have put much thought into this, but received no answers. The harder you pondered the question, the more confusing it became. What is life? What is the meaning of life? Why do we die? Is there a God? Is there a heaven? Will I make it to "heaven" even though I do not believe in God?
I wanted to see what the Christian answers to my problems were, so I picked up the bible, and started from the beginning, right at The Genesis, full of hope that maybe "God" would let whomever into heaven no matter what they believed.
How wrong I was indeed. The story of Noah's Ark gave no relief to this feeling. Flooding everyone because he believed no one worships Him anymore. That gave me no help... I continued reading, and the more I read, the more I realized, this "God" is not what he is all cracked up to be. I like Chinese mythology better (by the way, I'm reading the psalms right now).
I may have put the Book down, but my questions are still not close to being answered. Once or twice I thought I had come close, but later realized I was just dozing off to sleep. For a grade 8 speech, I chose the topic "The Meaning of Life." I tried to "research" something about it, what did the other people think? It became too deep to fully explain, so I had to completely B.S. the assignment and get a bad mark on it.
Then I thought about what if humans have researched something that, by the time I come close to dying, can use it and to live longer, or forever? Would I want something like that? All my cells will be dead or dying, I would be paralyzed, I would be sick of life, but still, would I be brave enough to embrace the concept of death?
If not, what are some ways of becoming immortal? Cloning yourself? I became enthralled by the idea by the idea of asexual reproduction, however sick that may sound... What are some other ways of becoming immortal? Something to make cells undergo mitosis with a renewed vigour? Something that can kill cancer cells, or make them beneficial? A couple of days ago at work I was vaccuming the store (vaccuming is the most boring job ever, so while I vaccumed, I pondered the question some more) and realized, cloning is not at all the answer. What you will get is an identical twin, and instead of calling it an identical twin, you call it a clone. If your twin lives, do you somehow live through your twin? I'm thinking not...
But the question jumped back at me again, do I want to become immortal? I realized that I do not. I want to know what becomes of the world, because of my curiosity; but the end will be too sad for me to handle.
So, is my life based on a destiny? Like a completed book, from cover to cover. Maybe it is filled with fantasy, comedy, fiction, reference, and maybe even romance. Last night, my dad told me of a man who used to live in the building across from his. This man died in a huge earthquake. However, the irony about this death was, he was the first to escape from his building, he was the healthiest, strongest man in the community, and no one else but he died from the earthquake in that community.
I'll give you a background story: In 1976, there was an earthquake in Tangshan, China. It is considered one of the most destructive earthquakes in Modern History of the World.
Wikipedia explains it better:
"The Tangshan earthquake (Chinese: 唐山大地震; pinyin: tángshān dà dìzhèn) of July 28, 1976 is one of the largest earthquakes to hit the modern world, in terms of the loss of life. The epicentre of the earthquake was near Tangshan in Hebei, China, an industrial city with approximately one million inhabitants. The earthquake left 242,419 people dead, according to official figures, though some sources offer much higher estimates. A further 164,581 people were recorded as being severely injured. The earthquake came in a series of events which shook China both literally and figuratively in 1976, which was later labeled a year of curse.
The earthquake hit in the early morning, at 03:42:53.8 local time (1976 July 28 19:42:53.8 UTC), and lasted for around 15 seconds. Many sources list it as 8.2 on the Richter scale, but Chinese Government's official sources state 7.8. It was followed by a major 7.1 magnitude aftershock some 15 hours later, increasing the death toll. It was the first earthquake in recent memory to score a direct hit on a major city.[1]"
-Wikimedia
My city is right beside this city if you look at the map, it is Tianjin:
It sent a shockwave through the city and leveled many buildings. The community my dad lived in were all buildings, but none of them collapsed, only some of the walls of the buildings crashed down. After the earthquake occurred, they found one person who lived there to be missing... they went everywhere looking for him, but after several days could not find him. One man picked up a rotting stench somewhere from under the rubble. So they flipped the rubble, and found that he was indeed under the rubble. They dug him out. Remember, this all happened during a HOT summer with temperatures going up to 30-40 degrees, and even more in humidity. It rained often, anndd... I do not think I need to explain more.
Turns out he only had one shoe on, and ran down as quickly as possible. Ironically enough, the building he lived in did not collapse, the walls did not even collapse. What killed him was the wall from the building next to him, it fell down, and fell on him. Remember, in a community of more than 20 households, only one person died, and he was the healthiest.
Sometimes, things happen, that no one would ever expect. These coincidences seem to be too unlikely to be JUST coincidences... This goes back to my original point, maybe our lives are controlled.
So that must mean, there is no meaning to life, there is an omnipotent figure controlling us.
But I am an athiest, and as an athiest I do not believe in this theory very much. I will always want a scientific truth to life... But maybe, this is why being an athiest so hard.
*Sigh* This entire article led me to nowhere, only back to where I started. Maybe life was never meant to be figured out, only to be accepted blindly...
-=n0n4m3=-
