Thanks. I wrote it right out of high school.  It is the struggle.  I think you point to the important element at least for me then and now. We want the answer about death when really the god answer and the no-god answer can be very comforting.  Actually the no-god answer seems better in the sense you get to sleep in forever ( soul's relief).  The theist idea of being in heaven and having an enlightenment where you can take joy in the eternal punishment of others really has pissed me off over the years. Now that I have children the idea that I could rejoice with god at his burning a child of mine eternally compels me to conclude if there is such a god I would choose to be with my child.  Given the inevitable increase of suffering in the world and with old age the eternal rest (non-being) seems a more moral conclusion to life's story ( your life as a finished book) than an eternal bowing to a despot and agreeing to large scale torturing of disobedient people.  When you really look at life (not for most of us fortunate westerners) life is mostly pain and suffering. death and pain is constantly occurring throughout the world , natural disasters, intentional rape, torture and cruelty to large numbers of people. If we were really to be aware of what is going on constantly throughout the world our natural empathy as humans would drive us to mental illness. We therefore live our lives through attention to minor pleasures (a movie, a good scotch, beer, enjoying our friends and family) while there are untold screams of agony echoing around the world as an unending choir of pleading unanswered by us. This is my old hippie politics. And I find no politician or political system that really gives a damn.

 

 

yep