afterlife

When I first starting thinking about the possibility of no afterlife, I felt scared and disappointed. I had so much planned, so long (forever!) to live and accomplish everything I wanted to--explore every corner of the earth, including under the sea; meet people; know my great-great-great grandchildren, etc.

But now I feel that the focus on the afterlife can make us fail to appreciate this life, and to not bother so much, in a way, with fixing things here and now.

For example, the idea of eternal marriage causes some people to not bother to fix their marital problems now, because it will all work out later. It causes others to not get out of bad relationships, because they are in it for eternity. I've heard of women who are married to non-members compromise their relationships with their "earthly husbands" because they will just be "given" to another, faithful man later.

As another example, thinking "everything will work out in the end" (either "getting your reward in heaven" or "the second coming will fix all problems") can cause people to ignore glaring social and environmental injustice, poverty, etc.

While there are Mormons who care about social justice, etc., I find that the church more often teaches people to place heavier emphasis on the here-after than on the here-and-now. They say this life is just a test, just a minute compared to the eternities, you should give up certain things in this life for the sake of the next, etc. This thinking causes Mormons to look at people like us and think we are too worldly and hedonistic. That we are placing too much emphasis on this life when the Real Life is yet to come, and can only be achieved by making certain sacrifices now.

I say that we can't know if there is an afterlife (I suspect there is not). And because we can't know, we should just live this life--the only one we know we've got--the best we can. Fight poverty and injustice, enjoy the company of friends and family, appreciate the earth and its beauty, find what makes you happy and pursue it, be nice, make a contribution to the world and your community, leave a legacy, and appreciate the time you have with others.

I figure that if there is no afterlife and no divine judgment, that way of living life will be good. Win. The suffer-now-for-later-reward model is a tragic situation, since there would be no reward. Lose.

And if there is an afterlife, God will judge me as having lived a good life. Win-win. That's better than the lose-win situation Mormonism (and some other religions) preach.

I don't have a problem with believing in the afterlife, but I do if it comes at the expense of this one.