Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?
Back in the day, these questions were easy as every mormon knew the answers and could recite them off easily. But, I'm not affiliated with the mighty mormon church anymore and those questions are not as simple anymore.
Where did I come from?: I came from my Parents who conceived me in a fit of passion.
Why I'm here?: I don't know other than to propagate the species?
Where am I going?: Someday, I guess that I will return to the elements of the Earth.
These sound like "important" questions. I put that in quotes, because they aren't really, when you get down to it. They are meant to pull on the emotions, to sound profound and to try to get the listener to think that there's something that they are missing.
Where did I come from? - you already answered it. We know where we came from. Our parents. Why does this need to be any more complicated than that. If people are believers in some pre-life, then good for them. But there's no proof of that, and "my parents had sex and I was born aprox 9 months later" works for me.
Why am I here? Well, really, it boils down to the same answer as question one. I was born, now I'm here. Along the way I made choices and life happened and I'm where I am today. There's nothing profound about it. It's not even to "propagate the species". I don't have to do that if I don't want to. To say more than that is an attempt to, at best, assign meaning where none is required. At worst, it's an attempt to guilt into believing in something that has no proof.
Where am I going? In about an hour, to the grocery store, then home to eat dinner and watch a movie with my wife. I'm not too worried about what happens after I die. I'll be DEAD, it won't matter all that much to me. If there's life after death (when you think about that sentence, it really is odd) I'll deal with that then. But right now, there's no proof of that, so I live the best life I can, not out of fear of some punishment or reward after I die, but because, so far as we know, this is the only life we have, so why not try and live the best life I can and enjoy my time here.
2 My parents were horny and then I survived all childhood maladies and accidents. Currently surviving the adult ones. So here I am.
3. Hopefully to Italy one more time.
The questions are asked with the assumption that there is a God and that we have an afterlife. I'm not down with questions with implied assumptions that lead you to the questioner's answers and not your own.
1. My parent's DNA. Where that originally came from I don't know and neither does anyone else. 2. Don't know. I'm enjoying learning for the sake of learning but on a cosmic level I have no idea why I should exist and neither does anyone else. 3. Don't know and neither does anyone else.
I see death as the ultimate adventure in learning. But I can wait awhile to participate.
jacob Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1. My parents > 2. See #1 > 3. Wherever the hell I want to go. Get out of my > way kid.
I do want to see my dogs and my parents again, grandparents, etc. Some friends. So I hope for an afterlife. Sure, I came from my parents having sex, but where was I before then?
Was there a time that I didn't exist and will there be a time when I don't? That just seems bizarre!!!
What I do know is that I DIDN'T CHOOSE to be here. Someone else chose it.
There's a cafe in Mimbres, New Mexico, with the Three Questions stenciled around the edge of the floor. The place is run by Mennonites — at least currently.
Maybe the next time I'm in there I'll answer, "From Silver City; for the pie; to have a nap."
I think it was Bill Burr who tells the story of talking to a Swedish guy who was certain there was no after life, and who by way of counsolation asked what Bill remembered from before he was born. When Bill said "Nothing", the guy told him it was the same after death.
Personally, I think that when you die, you go to a big Hiring Hall in the Sky where you figure out what job to take next. Saucie and I, whoever dies first waits for the other and then we hire out as Really Serious People Doing Really Serious Things ... Or star troopers. Whichever has the best benefits.
elderolddog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think it was Bill Burr who tells the story of > talking to a Swedish guy who was certain there was > no after life, and who by way of counsolation > asked what Bill remembered from before he was > born. When Bill said "Nothing", the guy told him > it was the same after death. > > Personally, I think that when you die, you go to a > big Hiring Hall in the Sky where you figure out > what job to take next. Saucie and I, whoever dies > first waits for the other and then we hire out as > Really Serious People Doing Really Serious Things > ... > Or star troopers. Whichever has the best > benefits.
In lieu of that we are furiously practisting being serious people. So far so good I think.
We can make guesses. And some of those guesses may turn out to be correct. But anyone who pretends that they actually KNOW the correct answers is full of stale twinkies.
Mormons pretend that they KNOW the answers. But as soon as you start asking for details, their story quickly falls apart.
"So what did our spirits do in the pre-existence when we were living in the presence of God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost?"
"Oh, stuff, you know. But there was a war. A really big war in heaven!"
"Really! A big war? I thought that living right there in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus pretty much precluded things like war. But you're telling me that even when we were living right there with Heavenly Father and Jesus, everyone was bickering and fighting and snarling at each other. Can you explain that?"
"Oh, well, free agency."
"So what happened to those who exercised their freedom to disagree with Heavenly Father and Jesus?"
"Oh...those guys. They were thrown down to hell and damned for all eternity."
Being immersed in a culture of social beings for whom self identification is paramount I was encouraged to leave my mental condition of connected to everything I experienced and turn inward in creating a self. I came from my own self. I made it myself.
Why am I here?
Certain conditions inherent in the maintenance of the culture of social beings are still continuing this existence of mine as I continue to apply "myself" (see above) to my own maintenance. My memories are unreliable in the determination of what started "me" and why I'm still here other than I recognize I continue to act in the rituals of survival of my being.
Where am I going?
Indeterminate. Not enough information to answer unless it is implied that "where" is post-existence. Still indeterminate
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2019 05:21PM by Elder Berry.
1. Whatever the Brethren say is the answer is my answer too. 2. Whatever the Brethren say is the answer is my answer too. 3. Whatever the Brethren say is the answer is my answer too.
How wondrous it is to have had the Correlation program raise me, wash my brain clean from any other way of processing information through baptism by immersion, and telling me I have this glorious Holy Ghost gift that I can keep as a safety bubble over all thinking as long as I continue to be fully correlated and assimilated into obedience to these super holy powerful 15 men on the top of the Ensign centerfold.
I hope this explains how non-clueless and non-delusion this glorious true (i.e. honest/transparent) Church makes us.