Growing up, I’ve always heard that we were living in the end times. That one day, something will happen that will punish everyone who deserves to be punished. At least, that’s what I was told. But does that mean everyone will be punished? Or, will some be spared? What happens to those who were chosen to be spared? Would they die like the bad people, or would they continue to live?
Or, would being able to live be the punishment?
I think about this a lot. Because I was born into this world of misery and death, does that mean that I’m a bad person? That I was chosen to be punished? But why? I didn’t choose to be born.
So…why am I here then?
I know, but a part of me thinks “what if they’re right?” for the punishment. The shit I’ve been going through for the past years, things I have no control over, have made me think we’re meant to be all suffering. A close family member of mine has been sick and we’re all feeling the mental effects of it. Constant news of death and disease in the world, myself and others can’t can’t find a good fucking job to save our fucking life. Waking up to another rejection email, another story of someone dying, another bad case of bad news, and not a single good thing happening is really giving me the impression that life isn’t the gift that it’s all cracked up to be.
(No, I’m not thinking of checking out. Shit just sucks.)
They’re not. The universe is stochastic and chaotic. Stuff happens, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, most of the time it’s irrelevant.
The problem is that there are enough truly evil people in the world that they can cause problems for everyone else.
I just want to answer to that part. There have been thousands of religions on this earth in the last 5000 years. Most of them are directly contradicting each other and only regionally and for a certain time active.
If there were a true belief with divine power behind it, wouldn’t it make sense, that that one is everywhere and for all time? The abrahmistic religions have the advantage that they contain a strong part of missionary actions and were bound to powerful warlords at the right time to be at the center of mighty empires.
And christianity has the big problem of arguing for an all benevolent, allknowing, all powerful god while also saying this world is shit. So their argument isn’t exactly strong even within their own logic.
Other religions are more logically consistent inside itself at least. Nordic and Greek religions answer to the bad world is simple: gods are fallible and egoistic bastards just like us, so of course the world they govern is shaped by those traits.
So please don’t believe one cult just because they have the regional dominance around you. It wasn’t there 3000 years ago (for very few exceptions), so why would it be true then?
And to the rest of your comment: yeah, life sucks sadly. I don’t have a true answer, I’m still searching myself. But at least we have better material conditions than even the most powerful people even 300 years ago. Better medicine, better food and entertainment. Enjoy what you can, be nice to your fellow sentient beings and try to leave the world a better place by your actions than it was before you arrived (and the focus really is: Your actions, you can’t change the dictatos of this world by yourself).