What Is Life If Not A Journey?

Life As A Journey

What is life if not a journey, a lesson to be learned by each and everyone? If we thought about life as everything, as something which begins and ends, what would be the point? Why would we go through life caring, working and trying to learn and make ourselves better people – whether this be earning money, climbing to the top of the business or intellectual ladder or simply trying to be ‘good’ people. This leads me to two thoughts; there is a life either before or after death or that religion and the idea of spirituality.

My mum jokes about what we now call her ‘turnip’ theory. Her theory goes as such:
‘Religion was created in order to give people something better to think about. If a person believed that they lived in a hovel, ate turnips and that was the only thing for them, then why would they bother? If you, however, tell these people that by living this lowly life, there is a better place of eternal happiness waiting for them, suddenly they have something to live and work for.’

It’s an odd way to describe the idea but sociological theory has some of the same ideas as this. There is a Marxist theory which calls religion, ‘the opiate of the people’. What this theory refers to is the idea that religion is used as a drug to dull down the pain of oppression by what the theory names the ‘ruling classes’. In other words, religion is used to keep the working class down and working in their menial jobs, and keep the higher – or ‘ruling classes’ – higher up the hierarchy.

Another sociological perspective is that of the functionalists. They too see religion as keeping a hierarchy; however, they see this as a good thing. Society needs a hierarchy in order to ‘function’ and this relates quite well to the ‘turnip’ theory. If the working classes didn’t have something to believe in, then they would not work and nothing would get done in the world. Does this prove that religion was made by humans?

Looking on the other side of the story, we must look at the idea that there is a life before and/or after death. Here, we must also acknowledge that there is a lot of evidence for this: for example, religion, past life studies, paranormal studies, ghosts, mediumship, near-death-experiences – the list goes on.

The paranormal – or the study of the ‘unexplained’ as I prefer to name it – is always a subject which appears to answer a lot of questions but also bring rise even more. I would like to also bring up the idea, that religion is a sector of the ‘unexplained’ or paranormal; in many cases, prophecies and seeing the future, abnormally long life spans, people being raised and coming back from the dead, miracles, illness being cured etc. With the same thoughts in mind, these bring up questions such as ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ At the time of writing however, religion was used to give answers – in a world with low scientific knowledge, answers needed to be given, and religion was used – and possibly created – to give these long needed resolutions to questions.
Returning back to the original idea of life as a journey and life before and after death, religion provides us with this answer. In Christian terms, Jesus – the Son of God – rose to heaven in order to create a place for everyone after they had finished their pilgrimage (or journey) here on earth. In other religions, the idea of reincarnation provides many answers. This is the idea that life on earth is a journey however, in these cases people have many lessons to learn, and therefore it may take one or more lives and so a soul can return to the earthly plane. This is also where the idea of rebirth and past lives and past life regression fits into the argument. Some people believe not only have they been reborn, but they still retain the memories of the past lives they have lived. Some case studies have even shown the memories hat these people have, to be accurate. Surely, this could prove that there is something else before, after and even in-between life.

Near death experiences, or N.D.E.’s, also appear to show such things. In most case studies, people claim to see a beautiful place, a bright light or a loved one, however, they either do not feel comfortable in their new found abode or are told it is not their time – in other words, their spiritual journey through their life on earth is not yet over, their lessons have not been fully taught yet.

Ghosts, spirits, mediums and the so-called after-life seem to offer proof in a similar manner. In the case of ghosts, souls retain their place on earth, some believe due to unfinished business. Some ghosts even appear to relive and carry out the duties they had in life. In the case of mediumship, these ‘spirits’ can be contacted either in the place where their spirit now resides or visits or by communicating – so they believe – through a guide whilst the spirit is on a higher plane or in an ‘after-life’.

Without any ‘hard proof’ we can never answer the question of the meaning of life or even answer the question of which came first the spirit and after/before life or whether humans simply created the spirit and the idea of religion. However, there are a few thoughts I would life to conclude with:
1) there is much proof that something more does exist – unexplainable proof,
2) the idea that life is ‘it’ and we simply ‘go through the motions’ is quite a saddening though and
3) my favourite quote: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible’ [Stuart Chase, an American engineer and economist – cited at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5039618].

Surely the knowledge, the knowing of what happens after we finish our many journeys here on earth, is less exciting than the idea of living each day like its your last, in awe of what could be awaiting you and the idea of being reunited with those people you have loved and lost.

David W.