Worth and Humanitarianism
Worth And Humanitarianism
By Punkerslut
I will not live forever. All of the people around me will not
live forever, either. There have been various groups to assert
that there is eternal life, "eternal salvation," but such claims
bring with them no evidence and often find themselves in mockery
of reason and intellectual examination. However, the point of
this essay is not to criticize religion, nor is it to criticize
religionists. Whether or not there is an afterlife, there is the
life: our daily troubles and hardships, that stress and
strengthen us; our daily loves and admirations, that frustrate
and fill us with warmth. We are all mortal beings, and we will
all eventually perish, by whatever means it is. There is,
however, the probable hope that perhaps science will save us
from our eternal face. Perhaps a medical invention will allow
certain, wealthy individuals to live for thousands of years, or
perhaps forever. However, as far as science is concerned today,
and as far as animalia is concerned, we all have a limited
amount of years in our life - a limited amount of hours and
minutes, a limited amount of breaths and thoughts - until we
meet eternal sleep. Of death, it is nothingness. We will to
cease to have thoughts, cease to be conscious, and cease to be
sensory. Just as death brings an end to homeostatic systems of
respiration and digestion - wholly bodily functions - death also
bings an end to consciousness.
Surely, however, there is the question of a types of
immortality. To varying degrees, Hitler and Cicero, Descartes
and Hume, and Newton and Einstein are all individuals which have
attained immortality. They will forever grace the pages of
history books, being the monumental figures which have
influenced society. The foundation that Newton laid, later to be
remodeled by Einstein and still remodeled by modern physicists,
has had an impact on our knowledge and our inventions.
Understanding the mechanics of the Universe has always been a
typical - yet invaluable - pursuit of any civilized people.
There have been others; literary giants who have turned our
hearts ablaze with fiery emotion, such as Lev Nik Tolstoi's
story of how the lonely cobbler found god, and such as Mark
Twain's undying tale of a runaway slave with a runaway child.
The political theorists such as Marx, Engels, Smith, Locke,
Machiavelli, Godwin, among others, as well as the politicians
themselves such as Roosevelt, Kennedy, Jefferson, Churchill,
Stalin, Lenin, as others, have all had an degree of influence on
the civilizations of the world. These men, in the entirely
mortal sense, have attained a degree of unleveled immortality,
only equaled by each other. All individuals in this world have
this immortality, but it's all of degrees. We all influence each
other with our opinions and our ideas. In this sense, we all
have a sort of immortality. As for ourselves, it depends on how
we direct this immortality, that it becomes what we like it to
be.
Immortality of culture and society is only a limited
immortality, though. In no sense is it a real immortanity, or is
it a prolonged consciousness beyond death, but to a particular
degree, to have an impact on the way people think and believe is
a superb feeling. There will be an immortal impact. Even if not
a largely important political, literary, or scientific impact,
everyone can have offspring and then their children are existent
because of the previous generation. This type of immortal impact
is parallel to the belief, however, that humanity - or even just
life - will go on forever. Will life end or will it go on
changing and evolving forever? As far as science can tell so
far, life will not and cannot go on living forever. Our Universe
is running on a limited source of energy. Once this energy runs
out, in all its various forms, then life will cease to exist
forever. Stars have been an important key factor in the growth
and development of life; the formation of new stars, however,
has significantly decreased over the least billion years. In
fact, in 100 trillion years, it is speculated that the last star
in the Universe will cease to exist. To quote one scientific
article concerning such inevitability of life...
"But there is another sort of eternal life that we hope for, one
in the temporal realm. In the conclusion to Origin of Species,
Charles Darwin wrote: 'As all the living forms of life are
lineal descendants of those which lived before the Cambrian
epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by
generation has never once been broken .... Hence we may look
with some confidence to a secure future of great length.' The
sun will eventually exhaust its hydrogen fuel, and life as we
know it on our home planet will eventually end, but the human
race is resilient. Our progeny will seek new homes, spreading
into every corner of the universe just as organisms have
colonized every possible niche of the earth. Death and evil will
take their toll, pain and worry may never go away, but somewhere
we expect that some of our children will carry on.
[...]
"The ultimate limits on life will in any case become significant
only on timescales that are truly cosmic. Still, for some it may
seem disturbing that life, certainly in its physical
incarnation, must come to an end. But to us, it is remarkable
that even with our limited knowledge, we can draw conclusions
about such grand issues. Perhaps being cognizant of our
fascinating universe and our destiny within it is a greater gift
than being able to inhabit it forever." ["The Fate of Life in
the Universe," in Scientific American, by Lawrence M. Krauss and
Glenn D. Starkman.]
Of what value, then do we assign to our lives? It is true that
one day our children's children's children will cease to be
alive. It is also true that whatever impact that we rendered
upon society and culture will always inevitably be destroyed
just the children of future generations will be destroyed. The
purpose of writing a book, of composing a speech, of fighting a
war, is so that the next generation's thinkers may meticulously
examine the aspects of such events. So that the men of the next
generation may go over the words of Susan B. Anthony's speeches,
their hearts being warmed by the affection and warmth of such
speeches. So that men of learning may search through the
sentences and paragraphs of Paine's The Rights of Man, unveiling
the equality of humans intended by its author. So that the
freedom earned by Union soldiers fighting the Confederacy will
preserve the rights of African humans. These things, however,
will all come to mean nothing, because life will cease to exist
at a certain time. The last civilization, hopefully one that has
finally found peace, will come to crumble, like every
civilization before it. Of what value, then, are our earthly
actions when the final earthly consequence will always be death?
If this is true - which modern science would confirm - then what
are our actions really worth?
I can say with perfect confidence that our actions for an
immortal civilization are worth just as much as they are for a
mortal one! Every moment paused for a kiss, a touch of
affection, is still a moment paused for the sake of brightening
another's day; every advance in science is still progression
that will make life easier; and every sentence of every book,
every stanza of every poem, is still written with the hopes of
the making hearts soar! When enough years pass, what we did
today may not matter, but it will always matter for today. It
will matter that we were there for our friends, it will matter
that our hands were gentle when offering a touch of compassion
to anyone whose plight was more than they could bear; it will
still matter that we are willing to smile in the darkest days.
When a man is willing to help a small child cross the street -
fear-drenched hand entrusted in the palm of wisdom - it is still
a valuable sign of an all the more valuable virtue: unhindered
kindness.
The rains of tomorrow will wash away the sins and triumphs of
today, but what will matter is that we were there to commit
those sins and triumphs. Forever etched on the mind of our
friends will be our aid that we offered. Not undyingly stored in
the library of human literature, but undyingly stored in the
heart of compassion, only forgotten at death. That we had enough
will, enough desire in the emancipation from unhappiness, will
matter because of itself. That we had in it ourselves as
individuals to challenge the world to think different, to be
different, to trust in itself, to change; that we did these
things will matter as we do them. When we strive to be as
understanding and empathetic as we can be - so that every action
we commit is thoughtful and considerate - it has worth.
Reformers will come and pass, scientists and statesmen following
in their tracks. The winds and rains of history will destroy the
small remnants that we know of these people and soon enough, by
the eventual demise of civilization and life, but what they did
that pushed the hearts of men and woman to do more than they
ever thought they could do. The encouragement, the sympathetic
and thoughtful concerns, the caring affection, the unbridled
warmth, values and virtues among our minds and hearts are as
real today as they will ever be.
The beauty of the horizon will be captured a million times in
poetry, just as the ocean will be painted, and the sky
photographed. Lovers, held lofty and tightly in the heat
exchange of their bodies, will not see the demise of
civilization, but they still sit perched, still reveling in
happiness, still loving each other, still loving life. There
will be days when we cry ourselves awake, in the same manner we
slept, and there is nothing but the abiding darkness to hear our
tears and see our pain. But there will be days as such when a
friend will hold us, make sure everything will be fine, will
love us. Days, unparalleled to the consistency of a normal
routine, where we feel like eagles a thousand miles above the
highest tree. There may be no tomorrow when enough years pass,
when we can sleep knowing we will not wake, when we breath
knowing we will not breath again, and affection will hold as
much value until we are no more. Until we are unconscious,
unable to render our sympathies and affections on our fellow
creatures, our emotions will always matter.
Every moment paused for a kiss, a touch of affection, is still
a moment paused for the sake of brightening another's day; every
advance in science is still progression that will make life
easier; and every sentence of every book, every stanza of every
poem, is still written with the hopes of the making hearts soar.
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