Don't worry about the existence of G.O.D.
Wisdom From 12-year-old Me: Live Life To The Fullest.
I am sharing this because many waste away their time on Earth debating things they will know for sure once they get out. This impatience does not allow them to enjoy the human experience.
When I was a boy, I was very pious. At least that is what I thought. Whenever I failed to attain a goal, I wondered if I had disappointed God by doing something immoral. I was that pious. I did not live in fear but in reverence to unknown and unseen deity/deities. I have used both singular and plural forms to indicate how our use of language categories, solidifies, and hence, biases our thinking. Some suggest God is non-physical and at the same time debate whether it is one or many, as if non-physical things can be counted. When was the last time you debated whether energy (presumably non-physical) is one or many? And just what is meant by physical or non-physical?
The existence of God was a constant debate in my head. It was not letting me formulate a strategy for life because it appeared to be inevitably linked with how we must live life (what principles we should live by). I did not consult anyone, because most people I knew were a bit too unsophisticated in their thinking and mostly disapproving of my ideas. (Indians are generally condescending towards the young.) Back then, I did not know about theology or philosophy. I had never seen any religious texts. At the same time, I did not want to throw away all my life thinking about it, like so many had done before me. I wanted a fun life. I just needed a resolution or a set of guiding principles to escape my cognitive paralysis. I eventually formulated two possibilities. First, God is and we must follow moral principles in order not to disappoint it. Second, God is not, but we must still follow moral principles because society would decay without morals. And who wants to live among immoral people? If we behave morally, we would satisfy both conditions. Whether God is or not would be obvious after death. There is no need to rush ourselves. This resolution liberated me from my cognitive standstill and the never-ending debate on God.
The same principle I applied to discussions about the afterlife. If there is nothing beyond death, it is useless to think about it. If there is something, we shall see once we get there. And we will know for sure because we will see it ourselves. No doubts will be spared. Just who wants a dumbed-down theoretical or conceptual spoiler? It follows that we must live this earthy life to the fullest, for the experience of death and beyond is waiting for us while that of life is fleeting. We must have a lot of fun. Whatever earthy we want to do or experience we can only during our lifetime, whether it is playing a sport, reading a book, or hanging out with friends. The only experience we can’t have again is of today. If we waste our time getting into futile debates, we may as well miss being alive after we are dead.
Thenceforth, I fully engaged in the present. I had a lot of fun in life until I turned 16 and it became clear that life was going to be hard. I was pretty much ostracized from society for having different views, which I still am a decade later. I did not get into debates about God all the way until I met evangelical Christians in the American South. I was a 19-year-old freshman at Mississippi State. Needless to say, I got into some fun conversations. But that’s a story for another day.
