I have often thought that it is the thought of death, with no belief in an afterlife, that makes some people angry and turns them bad.
What use is anything, they might reason? There are no long-term consequences to their actions, no heaven or hell, no karma that will follow them into future lives.
And so they lash out at the world, committing violent crimes against individuals and against humanity . . .
In the long run, what difference does it make now that, say, Billy the Kid killed 21 men before he himself was shot down?
Indeed, what difference will anything man does make in the long run, when the species is extinct?
It will be as if we were never here at all . . .
****
I, of course, believe there is a part of each of us, a spark, that is immortal, that we are manifestations of something greater, and that it is no more surprising to live twice as it is to live once, to paraphrase Voltaire.
How about you?
Only one life to live?
Or myriad manifestations?
Or, metaphysically speaking, life is but a dream?
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
What was it that english bard penned: “to be or not to be, this is the question”. Why has he never got the Nobel Prize? Posthumously? %O
LikeLike
Indeed, that is another good question . . .
LikeLike
People who do not believe in life after death are no more angry or probably less than those who think they will live forever if they believe a certain way. It doesn’t turn them bad. Atheists are not hating or terrorizing or committing violent crimes because of a lack of belief in something greater or an afterlife. You don’t have to be facing punishment in hell or reward in heaven to be a good person and treat others well. It i often the opposite. Belief in no existence after death just like no existence before creation by our parents makes our only life more important and precious, not less.
LikeLike
True. I wasn’t generalizing, only talking about some people who turn bad . . .
LikeLike
Religious terrorists all think they will be in heaven after they die, and you probably won’t find an angrier, more harmful group of people. Who are these angry non-believers of whom you write?
I figure this is my only life. It is my nature to want to live it well, to care about people, to try to make the world at least a tiny bit better for my having been here.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Geese! I can’t name anyone specifically: I was being hypothetical.
But, yes, we can make the world a better place for humans . . . as long as humans still exist. But some day, when the earth is a barren as Mars is, what difference will it made what any humans did in the distant past if there is nothing immortal in us that transcends space and time?
LikeLike
the key will be to meet Aliens. But also, whether we can communicate. Of course, we are all wondering about that cockroach, ant, beetle scarfing around waving those antenna protuberance thingees. I have often tried to stroke several antennae but no response I could understand. You’re right, I need help. But I am not alone %O
LikeLike
Do you believe in the possibility that ethereal-type, other-dimensional entities exist?
It is written in occult literature that man is composed of several bodies, including the physical and astral, the latter of which carries on after the death of the physical, for a while at least . . .
LikeLike
Haven’t a clue! But this just in from the most powerful leader of the free world: http://tinyurl.com/gqn47av I must say is it coincidence? G-waves? The mystery continues..%D
LikeLike
Ya think he was telling the truth?
LikeLike
“I have often thought that it is the thought of death, with no belief in an afterlife, that makes some people angry and turns them bad.” Are there actual people who fit this hypothesis?
LikeLike
lol. It was just a thought . . . Surely there must be some!
LikeLike