FEELING THAT LIFE IS MEANINGFUL

The belief that God has a mysterious purpose for evil in this world implies that God could command or inflict what we see as evil for he sees the full picture which is that it will have justifiable results under his patronage – no wonder religion tends to make inhuman rules. This automatically leads to fear for the truth is that I care only for one person and that is myself and I do not want to be a sacrificial lamb that a God has chosen for the benefit of others. Fear is destruction and this fear will give birth to the other monster called guilt. I can give meaning to my life without God by loving myself and seeing how valuable I am and therefore I should.

Since the one thing I am most sure of is that I exist and I am less sure that others exist for they might be dreams it follows that reason decrees that the only thing that should give me meaning in my life is loving myself. Or loving myself should give me meaning for I can only love myself in the strict sense of the word. If I truly and correctly love myself I will not need a God to make me happy. A God can only make me happy because of myself therefore I should be able to take the short-cut to happiness without believing in one. If I can’t then I am ill and I am being cruel to myself. To say that I love others is to say that I am good for others and they for me. It is really just loving myself. The only person I can love is myself. My life is the most important thing I have got and I am sure that self-love is the way to put that life first therefore to seek meaning in God is abnormal for it is trying to put something first that cannot come first for I am not sure enough about it.

If we give ourselves everything we want we will grow tired of it so it is important to deny ourselves in order to reach some kind of happiness and not having all gives us the pleasure of appreciation for what we do have and of being generous if we have the right outlook and accept that life is not perfect. It helps to prevent boredom and it is not sacrifice for it is done to increase future pleasures. The paradox is that in not letting the ego have all it wants we give the ego what it really wants which is why the denial can by no means be considered to be altruism or a sacrifice. The search then for a perfect bliss in Heaven or Nirvana is unnatural and abnormal and unrealistic.

Religion and belief in God thrive on the fear of death among other things. Many want to believe that death is not the end and that they can be saved from it and live forever. To be happy to die because you think God will save you and has a reason to take your life is abnormal and evil. The reason is that since you are more sure you will live on if your body does than that a God will save you, nobody and not even you has any business condoning a God taking your life. It is as easy for people to condone what God does to other people as it is vile. Death is inevitable and we have to accept that and stop fearing it and live the present moment for everything it is worth.

If you practice the principles of positive thinking and they are as undiluted as only our system has them then you will not fear death. This will not happen overnight. You will have the rational and therefore normal mind-set that it is good to be alive even for a while even if death is the end and that since death is at worst just like falling asleep forever you won’t be hurt and there is nothing to fear.