What shall “the humans” do?
To begin, I want to ask you. How much do you think the presence of your parents influence you? Think about their care, compassion, and unconditional love. The memory that you’ve made with them. The questions they ask you and the good times they bring to you. I don’t know your answer but my answer is insurmountable. Too great to even count. There are times where I make decisions in the past gravitating towards how my parents would react.. “Oh my mom would be sad if i do this.”, “Oh I should do this because it will make mom and dad happy.”
One of the reasons I want to really appreciate it is my realisation that I won’t be as philosophical as I am today without my dad. My dad exposed me to philosophical ideas at a very early age. I realised because when I’m relatively barely conscious at that time, it’s easier to account that the exposed information of philosophy was greatly accredited to my dad. I love philosophy. I like to question why things are the way they are. I love my dad for bringing me into the world of philosophy and I could say for certain that I wouldn’t be as intensely philosophical had my dad been a different person and never asked me “Since when you realise that you are conscious? What even is consciousness? Do you know that there is a brain inside you? What are your thoughts about aliens? What do you think is the most important thing in life?” My dad quite intentionally or unintentionally distils my own “soul crushing questions”. It could be because he thinks that it’s interesting to ask these questions to a just newly conscious child and find a clear and unbiased answer but regardless of the intentions it undeniably influences me the person I am today.
Yesterday I had a phone call with my brother from a relatively far family tree. He asked how I was doing and I answered “it’s great most of the time, I had an intense philosophical meltdown just an hour ago, sometimes the meltdown is nice but sometimes it’s not” and he asked what it’s about and I answered “aah it’s a bit regular, existentialism, life hits you hard after you graduate etc etc, not knowing what you want etc etc.” He listened and asked more and I opened up. One of the strongest sources of my existentialism is obviously when I started to question religion and the possibility that mine could be wrong. I think it’s natural to ask why your religion could be wrong. Had everyone not questioned the nature of why they believe the religion that they are born with there wouldn’t be any conversion to find “greater truth” in which the truth of religion is your own personal belief and can be challenged by other beliefs. There are four hundred thousand religions. Even the top three are still in constant fights in belief.
He asked me why I departed and I told him, “Do you really believe that the jews that died in the holocaust really deserve another holocaust handed to them? As in a metaphor for hell. For eternity and infinite times worse. I don’t think that’s fair, there must be something wrong or unfair in how the rules are carried out by our religion. How come a life of 60 years justify infinite years of pain and torture?” In which he tried to frame it on an angle that the condition is God is all knowing. Then he tries to explain as if 60 years for the average human being is enough time to find out about the truth in which he believes the truth is Islam. He framed it as if “Well the humans have free will, they certainly could decide to find the right religion and Hell for infinite amount of time is kind of saying that that person has lived long enough and didn’t find the truth and in context of God is all knowing God knows that they had a chance in which they didn’t take the chance and therefore it doesn’t matter even if that man lives for infinite amount of lifespan that man will never be grateful of the gratefulness of life and will never obey God, might as well give em hell. I was honestly surprised. “Can’t you imagine the strength or struggle for a christian to depart to Islam? The abandonment he must go through and neglect of love from their parents? That must’ve been really painful for the man.” In which he tries to explain it’s all worth it for heaven and hell and I say “Well that’s fear mongering! You’re playing with human emotions by those promises that are to be taken by faith! Only a psycho would play with human emotions like that. How can you be so sure that your religion is right if not by faith?” He replied with predictions and rightness that are stated in the Quran. I pointed out where the Quran is wrong, it’s wrong where it is thought the moon has its own light. We’ve gone through this in history all over time. Religion dies because science disprove of what they say. Older religions used to say that heaven and the earth used to be one then we realise the earth is just a planet. Older religions used to say that the earth is flat and not globe and then it’s proven wrong and that religion is discarded. There are parts in the Quran where it is just blatantly wrong at explaining the nature of earth and space. But that’s another topic for another day. I’ll speak more about the philosophy of God more. One thing to note though he said “If the Quran is wrong, then it must be all over the internet.” In which I replied “It is all over the internet, you just never choose to search it! You’re filtering the information of what you want to see! Just google or youtube search where famous religious speaker are proven wrong by cross sampling the quran words with science! I recommend searching “The Masked Arab, analysis of Zakir Naik” for future reference on how words in the Quran are proven wrong.
Then he tries to reason with me how the concept of “Hell” is fair. When he said “It doesn’t matter for God to give that man infinite amount of lives if he is not going to Islam in one life, might as well give em hell.” It’s uncanny from my point of view knowing his background that his lenses are fed by the external circumstances around him, his muslim father, his muslim mother, his muslim friends. Say that he was born in a jewish family in 1945 and has heard of Islam from his neighbour. He knows about it but doesn’t explore deeply, much like most people with their born religion and the religion that they hear about. Hearing the existence of the religion itself is already an information hazard. Because since you know the existence of the religion, you are justified fairly to go to hell because apparently you are only innocence if you never heard of the religion. Had he been born in a Jewish household with the tender love and care of his parents, believing that he will grow up a successful jewish person and the strength of love to his parents helped him overcome the obstacles in life. It takes one to know one! My mom used to tell me that “When you’re having trouble and difficulties in life, please remember my face and believe that I will always believe in you.” That simple line helped me overcome the obstacles in my life. I am undeniably affected by my mothers love. The thought of my mother influenced me as a person and the decisions that I make in my life. This is why I asked the questions I asked on the first segment of the article.
We don’t even need to go to lengths to help our parents. How about your friends or loved ones outside your family? The people you happen to meet in life and be in love. How they are inside your head sometimes. Do you really want to shrug it off as if they are nothing to you?
My thesis has become more simple and simple on denying “the fairness of hell”. The circumstances that are around that person that are outside of that person’s control, inevitably influences that person to be the person who they are now. You don’t choose the parents you were born into. You don’t choose the words that come out from your friends mouth that influences your emotions. There are a lot of things that are outside of your control that shapes you as a person. It’s as if saying “Oh my parents are nothing to me, surely I can do the things I do and believe the things I do even if my parents died at an early age.” Fuck you, you’re a psychopath. That is my belief. Even if you don’t want to believe that, then let’s see the death of your parents and loved ones and see how come it wont influence you as a person. Think about the fucking grief and tears. Do you really believe you can shrug it off as if it’s nothing? You’ll be sad when the absurdity of death comes to your loved ones and that feelings of sadness will affect you. In which the absurdity of death is outside of your control.
It’s fine to acknowledge that there are things outside of your control that can influence you. It happens all the time.
What shall “the humans” do?
We talked for quite a long time to the point that he bravely says “Well if my religion is proven to be wrong, then what’s really stopping me from doing immoral things?” In which I say “My brother, it’s an insult to humanity to say the only thing that constrains you from being a nice human being is the fear mongering of the existence of hell.”
One of the most strong moment in my life is my suicidal phase in which I in several occasions need to call the suicide prevention hotline in 3 AM in the morning. There are times when I talked for hours with them, there’s an occasion why I asked the person “Why do you do this, you don’t even know me, I don’t even know you, why are you trying to help me by preventing me to commit suicide? You are not even getting paid for this and I’m taking your time, I can’t help but to feel bad.” In which he replies “Hahah… Humanity is a beautiful thing, I just feel it’s a calling, I had my phase and someone helped me, they are a stranger to me as well, I never know why they wanted to help me. But I couldn’t help living and knowing there are other people are suffering equally as me, considering suicide and suicide rates are on the rise, the best I can do is to help back.” I cried. He has restored my faith in the beauty of human nature. The are countless volunteers of suicide prevention hotline they don’t do it for money. And I would bravely say that it’s an insult for them to say that they do it in hope of a greater return. Fuck you and your needs. Why can’t you ever do something good for the sake of doing good? Well I’m certainly an atheist and there are countless other atheists that can do good despite believing that there is no greater return of their deeds called heaven.
What shall “the humans” do?
There is this thing called human nature. It is both beautiful and terrifying. It could make the human see the beauty of life and could also drive the humans to kill themselves and many have spent killing themselves.
I tried to make sense of why people believe in religion. There are situations when it’s influenced when I’m in a relationship with a woman who believes in another religion. I know I couldn’t convince her as much as she couldn’t convince me. The case will always be “A muslim sees christianity from the lenses provided by Islam” and vice versa. I wish that lenses are formed by the experiences of the individual, the words that come up to their ear alongside the times that the individual has lived. It’s hard to give them a new lens unless they want to voluntarily take off their own lens and yet the lenses are not a physical thing. The lenses are already embedded to them as a person and how much their decisions like praying are shaped by rigorous belief that has shaped across that person’s lifespan. In general the older they get and the more often they practise the religion, the more embedded the belief towards that person’s personality and character. That’s why it’s relatively hard to talk about religion to older people. While we can also say that’s just how the brain works.
In a condition where you believe that the people that you met and loved you shaped you as a person. The great experiences that you have when you are with them. The things you learned from them. Well personally from my father and mother. It can really be said that the external environment that is outside of your control that you don’t decide influences you as a person. With that basis is simply saying either you believe the people that loved you are nothing to you and don’t affect you as a person regardless to which parents you are born with or either admitting the people that have loved you influence you as a person. By that basis I could bravely say it is not fair that a one time life to hell is an equal thing or in other words ‘not fair’/.
You can still believe anything you want. I’m quite frankly more surprised if I’m able to convince you using my language. You most certainly have unbearing weights of expectations and love that are at risk if you depart to atheism (if the condition is that your parents are religious).
So what shall “the humans” do?
By working on an assumption that is either correct or incorrect by answering if the people that loved you influence your character, we can infer that there are parts of human nature that are absorbing experiences and producing character. This is innate and unchangeable.
Over the perpetual cycle of unconditional love of a parent that spans between generation and generation that we are here where we are today. There are things where I could point out based on how my parents raised me that are somewhat universal. Almost all parents wished that their children would have a better life than them. So much so that they are willing to risk every ounce of their time and effort working towards that dream in which that dream is what some call to be “the meaning in life”. This is to be true by my observation of how much of a hardworking my mother and father is. It’s almost as if the term “Personal satisfaction” is embedded towards the child more than oneself. It’s almost equal as saying “If you are happy then I am happy.” The perpetual cycle of positive feedback. Through this perpetual cycle and relationship we strive in relation, in one another, where in a bigger grand of scheme, the fucking humanity.
Simple rule, complex behaviour. When my parents said that they wished that I would have a better life than them. It is to be measured by the current condition of humanity in which the value of “better” can be measured by monetary value. Making more money. In which money is much enticed to the concept of value. Your boss gave you money because they think that you are giving “value” to the company. Your company gets cash flow or money because the customer thinks that your company is providing “value” to them. Through this perpetual cycle of value generation and value given we could come up with the term “The fucking economy”. Where humanity is distilled to a very simple term of “Value chasers” in which a more crude way we distilled humanity rendering them incapable of living without money. In which one way or another they are bound to do “Value work” to get money or at least simply at the bare minimum to continue living.
I am undeniably shaped by the people that have met me, talked to me, and asked “How I was doing”. There are times when they are happy then I’m happy. With the same logic it gives in a perpetual cycle of motion that an individual is influenced by another individual and a good example of as much as how my mom weighted her meaning of life towards me. It can be said that a human should not be perceived as a singular autonomous being rather to be seen as a whole. As much as the strings of networks of people that have interacted with them and have loved them affect the individual as the way they are. The individual is not to be seen as singular but as a whole and that is called fucking humanity.
Undeniably beautiful things came out of humanity. As complex as we seem, we have strived and built ourselves or at least in context people in the past has in ways made us live more comfortably than ever before. Fuck you have access to clean drinking water and can travel to different parts of the globe had you do more “Value work” and now how to save money. The wonders of aeroplanes! The wonders of the physics of flights! We SENT FUCKING PEOPLE TO THE MOON AND IF YOU DON’T THINK THAT’S AWESOME I DONT’T KNOW WHAT IS. You have access to Japanese food while not living in Japan! Trade exports! Fuck it’s almost as if the perpetual cycle of value chasing inevitably makes humanity moves towards advancement in terms of technology, mathematics, and probably literally fucking everything.
Sometimes I stare at the skyscrapers in the park that is seated in the middle of the central business district. I asked myself while exercising my behavioural pattern of a human nature called addiction to cigarettes. “Is humanity really bound to create these things?” Through my programming background and my generative art I found that it’s relatively harder to measure something if you’re only seeing from the output because you’re only gonna see “complex behaviours” but I realised through seeing from the lenses of human nature and how much me as a individual and how my character is affected by the love of my parents and love from friends I realised that the thing with compassion, the need to talk with other people to vent out your frustration about anything that is absurd and the occasional need to be understood by other human being. It’s really true that I can’t live alone as a person, I am entrenched in the web called humanity and I can’t be seen as a person rather than the whole. By the perpetual cycle over generation called compasion, “value chasing” and human’s innate desire for meaning. I could rest my eyes tonight that humanity is somewhat in nature for greatness. I fucking love humanity man. I fucking love human nature.
Simple rules, complex behaviours.