Thanks for the reply Ellis. I think you and I are trying to say the same thing. You see, I figured this out when I was 11; the true meaning of life isn't to search for heaven, but live life happily cause you only live it once. At the same time, if you want anything you do to matter, then your deeds should be so great that they remembered and more importantly people (humans) must be alive to remember them. If mankind were to die out a few years from now, then I would certainly feel a sort of helplessness and futileness about life. Because I want things I do today to matter, saving man's future becomes the important task at hand, almost as if that was the meaning of my life. It seems as though you are going along the same path ("we live on...in the lives of our descendents").

The problem is not with you and me. We are intellectual enough to be discussing god on a science (or not-so-science) forum. They question is about people who may not be intellectually inclined enough to reach that conlcusion themselves, but at the same time are smart enough to see through religion and see the idea of God for what it really is. You've figured out that your memories will live on, and will sooner or later figure out mankind must live on for your memories to live on. But there are many out there who cannot figure that out. I am saying this, cause I know people who were like that, and I used to be like that myself. They are simply lost, cause they know God doesnt exist, but can't really answer the question of life themselves. Who's there to show them the way? No one really, they're left to figure it out on their own. People like you and me who understand the concepts of live and let live and the importance of living on through the lives of our dependants should be there helping others find the way as well. Maybe then people would see why spending money on science to protect our future makes more sense than spending money on a pointless war.

Rose: Buddhism was not what I was getting at for the exact reason Ellis said. Humanism is actually damn close to what I am trying to describe.

Last edited by Kevat Shah; 03/14/08 05:24 AM.

- Kevat Shah