Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for December 29, 2014

Nothin’ like settling differences o’er a game of ping-pong.

There is no evidence of any kind for a life after death. On the other hand, there is no evidence against it, either. Soon enough we’ll all find out – so why fight about it now?

This is most definitely a personal belief and not an attack on any individual. This entire piece is completely and totally sad. It is every individual right to believe whatever he/she wants; however, the idea that this world is all their is is extremely depressing. I live for the day I go home to the Father.

Remember that one cannot prove a negative. The weight of proof is 100% on the believers, just as is the existence of God. I happen to be a deist, but there is absolutely zero evidence to support that

Zen anecdote: The student comes to the Master and asks, “What happens to us when we die?” The teacher shrugs, “I don’t know.” The student says, “But you have to know, you’re a Master!” “Yes,” says the teacher, “but not a dead one.”

Those with near-death experiences report what they were taught to believe. Unfortunately, we just don’t know, ‘cuz those who were TROOLY dead can’t report back to us, as far as we can honestly confirm. Of course, quacks and charlatans abound, again, unfortunately.

When you let others tell you how to think ???

Too bad Carl didn’t bother to do the research on the subject. How unscientific. By now, though, he knows he was wrong.

Making statements like “I know of nothing to suggest it is more than wishful thinking” is meaningless unless he was omniscient. He apparently had far too much faith in his own omniscience. That’s the arrogance of pseudo-science posing as science.

Commenting that “There is no evidence of any kind for a life after death” proves nothing other than one’s own abysmal ignorance of the subject.

i dont understand why people keep saying thing for no reason at all

On the other hand, if this is all there really is, why not go all beast mode and take everything you can? Rape, pillage, plunder, kill, do anything that makes you happy, no matter how it effects others. Why be nice to others? Take all that you are strong enough to take. Be a rapist, a seducer, a pedophile, a necrophile, anything that brings you pleasure. Because if there is nothing else when you die, if it is all over then, there is no reason to deny yourself anything in this life. That seems to be very anti evolutionary, so I believe religion may be a part of our DNA to let us survive long enough to evolve.

Or to keep us civilized enough to survive. Two things about your proposition:What if you’re wrong? And most of the things you suggest are major crimes, and society is always stronger than the individual.

Crimes only when you are weak. When you are strong you make your own rules. Hitler could have killed all the Jews he liked if he had not invaded Russia and fought England. If he had taken territory slowly, he could have been emperor of Europe. Saddam Hussein did horrible things. He could have kept on doing them but he threatened America’s oil supply. Big mistake. If he had conquered Iran and left Kuwait and Saudi Arabia alone, he’d still be in power. He was strong. Pinochet did as he pleased as long as he was the strong man. If you are strong you can do anything you please until you come up against a stronger human or coalition. Ancient emperors of all flavors had the ultimate power of life and death over their realms. Crimes? It is only a crime if the strong say it is a crime. If half the US population decided to do a thing which was formerly a crime, it would never be enforced. It only takes some 3% of a nation’s population to overthrow their government if they are determined to stand and die if necessary. We have seen this with ISIS and other groups. Saudi fathers sell their 8 year old daughters into “marriage” to 50 year old pedophiles, to be raped and likely to die in early childbirth. That is illegal in 75% of the world. What is done about it? Nothing. The Saudis have oil, which is power.

Not that I agree with all this. I am Native American and follow the religion of my people, mixed in with what I have borrowed from other religions. I think having a moral sense is good and that it is built in to our DNA.

But if the atheists are right and there is no afterlife, only an eternity of nothing, then why not take all you can while you live? Take all that you are strong enough to take and hold? That is, I believe the problem with Atheism. They do not follow their bestial natures and most of them behave pretty well. They do not follow their own arguments. Their crime rates are little different than proclaimed Baptists, Jews, Muslims, etc. But then again, Atheism is only another religion, after all. A religion is a belief system, Atheists believe there is no God or whatever, but they cannot prove it anymore than Catholics can prove the Trinity. So both are religions. Tell them that and it ticks off the Atheists no end, by the way.