“For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.”
Letter to the Galatians 6.3
To accept that we are nothing is one of the hardest things to do. The more we understand about the universe and how it works, the more we realize that we aren't all that special as a life form. The rise of life on this planet has been remarkable. It's survival has been phenomenal. Life began from a single source, a simple cell that somehow multiplied and expanded into all the marvelous variation we witness today. However, for generations, for millennia actually, Mankind has believed that he is not just distinct from all other life, he is specially made. He has a soul that, unlike any other life forms, will survive beyond the death of the physical body.
Something about us wants to live on after the death of the body. We don't want to think about an eternity of nothingness, non-existence, and oblivion. Oblivion, a state of non-existence, a real oxymoron since “state” implies existence! See how hard it is to talk about this? Our very language constrains us because we have rarely confronted the true nature of human life. Like all other life that developed from the same humble beginnings as we did, at the end of our lives, we cease to exist. We do not have souls that go to heaven or hell to be rewarded for our good and punished for our bad. We do not become ghosts to wander the earth waiting for the resurrection of the dead on judgement day. To believe that Mankind is a special life would require a dividing line between our current form and our ancestral species. At what point did our evolving species gain these souls? There would have to be a generation of humans/protohumans where the children were granted souls and the parents were not. That's a very unpleasant thought. The first evolved humans with souls would not be able to live in eternity with their parents or grandparents. It is that logical reality that demonstrates the idiotic mentality of those who believe Man is a special creation. We are obviously evolved. It's a proven fact. But who is willing to draw the line in our evolution where this generation has souls and the previous one does not? The only logical conclusions are all life has a collective soul, each life form has a soul, or no life form has a soul. There is no evidence of the first two, so only the third option remains.
We are nothing more than a variation within the world of living creatures. We are not special except among ourselves. When the sun expands and engulfs this planet down the road a couple billion years from now, everything we were, had, built, or spoken will be disintegrated. Not even the dust particles of our long dead bodies will remain intact. Perhaps the descendants of our species will survive and learn to live among the stars. Perhaps another species will evolve and do so in our stead. A billion years is a long, long time.
Not wanting to die and disappear from existence is one thing. It's an understandable longing. Creating a fantasy where that really doesn't happen despite all evidence and observation is quite another. Facing reality is better. It's honest, and honesty is really the best policy, as the old saying goes. Knowing that this life is your only life compels you to live better. It urges you to live it to the best of your ability. It makes you stop to enjoy it more often. It chastises you for taking life for granted in yourself and others. It tells us that even if we are nothing in the long run, we are something in the here and now.
