As promised, I will expand upon immortality and explain two things: 1. How we already inherently know that finding immortality is the meaning for life, and 2. The many ways that we attempt to accomplish that goal.
First things first (where they should be?), how can I say that we inherently know that finding immortality is the meaning of life? Well, we all have a survival instinct, which is why it's so hard for many suicidal people to actually kill themselves. We work out so that we're healthier, most of us wish to live until we're over 100, and we'd all like to be able to relax a bit more. One explanation for this set of behaviour is that we wish to live longer. We want to be healthy so that we increase the chances of living a long life. We want to live until we're over 100, because... well, I'll leave this connection to be made by the reader. We want to relax more because it will result in us being happier, and this in turn results in better health.
From birth we are pre-programmed to survive, and as such, we all want to naturally live long lives, and become immortal. But how do we do this? How do you, the reader, channel almost all of your actions into the goal of becoming immortal? There are many ways.
Some of us wish to create a work of art that will be marveled at forever. Others wish to be remembered by friends and family long after they're gone. Still others wish to leave an impact on society by being a doctor and saving lives, being a teacher and educating the masses, or just being a good member of society by helping your friends, doing what is asked of you, and caring for those around you. Most of what we do is designed to maximize our chances of immortality.
When do we feel safe? When we do exactly what we're comfortable with, which is primarily what we are used to. Why? Because not only are we good at what we do all the time, we also decrease the likelihood of being embarrassed, and embarrassment leads to sadness.
The majority of our actions fall into four categories: moral/logical actions, happiness actions, safety actions, and impulse actions. We do moral/logical actions because we believe they are the right thing to do, regardless of whether on not they give us happiness, such as making yourself late by helping someone else out, or denying yourself that extra brownie. These actions usually result in a better feeling about who we are, and a sense of pride in doing the right thing.
Happiness actions are those which result in happiness for the person doing them. These range from indulging in an extra brownie, to hanging out with friends when you should be doing an assignment. They may not always be the "right" decision, but they result in temporary happiness, whatever the cost.
Safety actions are actions we take to ensure our own survival. These include not running across a highway to not running with scissors. These aren't exactly moral/logical decisions since we may turn down a dangerous situation (such as helping someone who is suicidal) in order to maximize our own survival (by not taking to that person, we decrease the chance that their negative thoughts will translate to us).
The final category of actions is impulse actions. These are actions that you don't think through, and are most times accidental in nature. For example, you could insult your boss after he makes a comment about your performance. Not only does this action not make you happy, but it is also immoral/illogical and you'll regret it in the future. These actions usually lead to continued anger at your past self.
Without impulse actions, all our actions are designed to either make us happy, others happy or allow us to survive. In making others happy, we become happier ourselves and increase the chances we have of living an enjoyable life with friends. Making our self happy results in a higher quality of living , increased productivity, better health, etc., all of which result in a greater chance of long life. Finally, survival actions, obviously, maximize our ability to survive.
The neat thing about these categories is how much they overlap. In general, the right thing to do results in us being the happiest because we didn't have to compromise who we are in order to do what we wanted. We start to tailor what we want to do to follow that which is the right thing. It goes back to the idea that humans are, in general, good people.
Now, this all being said, I still need to deal with Man Eyes' point about there being life after death (even if that sounds paradoxical). That I will attempt in another blog, soon to be published (I hope).
No comments:
Post a Comment