The Thrill of the Real
(Top Posts - Philosophy (General) - 072900)

Slap yourself upside the side of your face. Go ahead. Do it.

Do you feel reality, there? Do you sense that that slap upside
the head is as real as it gets?

Do it again. Got a feeling of reality there?

I do.

That, my friends, is as real as it gets for us, in this real life we
all know and share.

Can a moral, caring, rational, and loving imaginary being hold
that reality against us?

No.

Any imaginary being who furnishes us with this reality in which
we all exist, that imaginary being cannot (morally, universally,
cosmically, on any level/plain/realm of anything remotely resem-
bling that which we, sentient creatures on planet earth, can deal
with it or relate to) hold our reality against us.

Our reality is thus ...

We're born.

We inherit a set of genes, not of our choosing.

We're taught, by those not selected by us, not of our choosing.

We make decisions, based solely on our genes and our teaching.

We live, we breathe, we exist, a total sum of our genes (chosen
not by us) and our teaching (chosen not by us).

Can we be held accountable on an absolute and everlasting sense  
(by a moral, caring, rational, and loving imaginary being) for the
result of our genes and teaching?

Of course not. Such a concept is patently immoral and indecent.
Anti-human, such a thing. Anti-real, anti-any concept of reality
humankind can legitimately conceive.

Such is religion. Such is creationism. Such is the leftovers from
our primitive origins. Such is our past.

The future? Real hope. Real love. Real joy in the knowledge
that we, humanity, have total and absolute control of our own
destinies. It's up to us, only us, to determine our destinies. If
we desire immortality, we must create it. If we desire a god,
we must become it.

That, my friends, is the Thrill of the Real.