| I don’t know. However, I exist, and presumably you do too. There was a time when we didn’t exist, then suddenly - life. Should that happen again, I should hope that the experience is peaceful (as much so as possible). And it is for this reason that we should treat every living (and potentially non living) being with kindness and consideration. A bug, a dog, a plant, a fellow human. We don’t know what’s next, if anything. But it’s true that we came into being in a world not of our choosing. If that happens again, I hope it isn’t a misery. Life didn’t have to be this good. The world we inhibit didn’t have to be so ordered. It could have resembled an extensive misery. We must treat all beings who move in this realm as we would like ourselves to be treated moving through another. I’m somewhat hopeful that even if something like a “hell” exists, so does this reality. And while it’s not perfect, there is always hope that while existence in one realm may end, we may move to a more tranquil one. My preference would be that we die and nothing. Like a deep, dreamless sleep. But the fact we have emerged with the gift of experience from seemingly nothing, doesn’t bode well for a continuation of nothingness. |