Cultural History and Death: Part 1

Hey guys I want to try a new approach to this next blog and set it up somewhat like a question and answer session. I will for all intents and purposes be interviewing myself, like literally “I” will be asking the questions and “myself” will be giving the answers. I hope this is fun and informative to you.

I: Hey Myself. What going on man? You ready for the question and answer session? You look disheveled man.

Myself: I just woke up.

I: Aww. Okay. Well, I have a few questions for you.

Myself: Yo. These late night in depth discussions have to stop you know.

I: Ooooh look who talking? As much as you like to keep me up. Once we get into it, you will be yapping away in no time.

Myself: …

I: First question. How does your view of death compare with the beliefs found in the six great religions?

Myself: Wow…you’re just coming with it out of the gate.

I: Man answer the question!

 Myself: You know what? Aside from the course, I’ve actually been thinking about death for the past months.

I: Yeah? Oh please share your thoughts.

Myself: I don’t think you are ready for this.

I: I think I am. I asked the question, didn’t I?

Myself: But just remember, they are just thoughts. I don’t want to be perceived as crazy.

I: Okay. Keep telling yourself that. Go on now!

Myself: Okay. Lets first get this out of the way. I am a Seventh-day Adventist and like most (if not all) Seventh-day Adventists I believe that when a person dies their breath leaves their body and it goes back to God. Now this breath is in no way the soul as some Christian denominations believe, but rather we view it as the breath of life that God has imparted to every human being. Our (SDA’s) view of the human soul is based on Genesis 3 where God forms man from the ground, breathes into his nostrils and man becomes a living soul.

I: Make sense. I hold that belief as well.

Myself: My man! (bumps fist with I)   but apart from my belief on death I hold other views or rather speculations about life and death. I consider them my great “what if moments.” So I have been really thinking about my own life and asking the question, “Why am I alive at this present moment?” I mean at this very moment I’m conscious. This blows my mind when I think about the number of people that lived before me and the number of people who may possibly live after me. I recently saw a doctor Seuss quote that goes like this. “Today you are you, that is truer than true, there is no one alive that is youer than you.” This resonates deeply with me as I realize that after I die, there can never be another me in this world again. In this I realize just how precious life and the present is.

I: Man you are causing me to reevaluate my whole purpose of being. So what is the big “what if moment” in relation to death?

Myself: Ah…now this is where my curiosity gets the better of me. Given our current world, life seems terribly unfair. A person who is seen as good hearted can be born in poverty, suffer from hunger and die a cruel death, yet on the other side of the world there lives a person who it extremely rich but also extremely ungrateful though they have everything they ever wanted in life. It is in this dilemma my theory steps in.

I: You’re being very dramatic with these pauses, but I like it.

Myself: We as humans experience similar things; we eat; we laugh; we experience love, anger, sorrow; we have pleasure and pain and the list goes on. However, one thing that we will never ever experience in this world is the life perspective of another being. I mean truly experience it as in being that person. I can’t be you and you can’t be me.

I: Well umm…

Myself: I’m talking in general here in reference to that last statement. Now I know that Hindus believe that the soul is immortal and that we are reincarnated, and the Buddhist believe in something similar but they don’t consider it reincarnation. They rather say that a person dies and becomes a totally different being, but their karma follows them through these various lives; they don’t believe in the immortality of the soul in actuality. My “what if” thought about death is similar to these ideas in the fact that I theorize that we live various lives.

I: So how is your what if theory concerning death different?

Myself: All of the major religions except maybe Buddhism looks at death in relation to time in a linear way. I believe that Buddhism looks at death through time as a circle. My theory looks at death through the idea that time is a web or rather a puzzle. For example, I theorize that if a person were to die in our modern day they would be reborn to live a life in ancient Egypt. They move through time like a web living all of the lives that will ever exist. My theory speculates that all souls share lives; at some point you will be me and at another point I will be you. In essence you live the life of everyone that will ever exist. I came up with this idea because I’m often tested about how unfair life came be to some people, for example a person can do evil all of their life but be saved in the last moments like the thief on the cross.

I: Hmm your theory is interesting and also very disturbing. I mean you do take into consideration the fact that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In a sense, we all deserve death just like the thief. As humans, we have a measuring stick for what is God, but in God’s eyes, we all fail to meet the standard.

Myself: So how do you explain the unfair aspect of life?

I: Suffering comes from sin. Sin has caused this imbalance. I know that Christianity often struggles to give this answer but I believe in the passage where God says, “Vengeance of mine; I will repay saith the Lord (Romans 12:19). By I’m interested in hearing more about your idea.

Myself: Again, just a disclaimer…

I: Man you good. Go ahead.

Myself: The reason I speculated that everyone lives the lives of everyone was because it would only seem fair that we all get the opportunity to do so and also I thought to myself that it is the test that God is giving each and every soul to see if they would choose righteousness in every possible situation that exists for human beings. So I theorize that after we all have lived every life dying and being born as another person, we would return to our true selves then the end and judgment would come. But keep in mind, we are unaware that we have lived these past lives...it's just a theory.

I: How deep does that theory you have about death go?

Myself: pretty deep. But that’s for another day. What’s the next question?

I: Umm…How can the historical legacies of the United States (and other countries) produce discord and conflict? What is a contemporary example?

Myself: How in the world does this relate to the last question?

I: The subject has death in it.

Myself: Okay…I give you that. Have you heard about the current issue concerning Native Americans protesting against the Dakota access oil pipeline?

I: Yeah. I heard something and seen some videos.

Myself: That conflict is centuries in the making, every since Europeans set foot into the new world. European Colonizers waged a war on the true Americans because they wanted the wealth of their land. What black people had to suffer through in slavery was nothing less than brutal and demonic, but what was visited upon the Native Americans by their European brothers was nothing short of an extinction event. The ghost of those horrors still linger in the blood of both the European American and the Native American. Once again, greedy, powerful White men are trying to take by force the sacred Burial grounds of Native Americans, specifically the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Because of what European Americans did to the Native Americans and to Black people, they now possess the power, position and governmental support to take these lands from this poor group of people. This history seems to repeat itself, and we see in the actions of the Dakota oil pipeline companies that there is no remorse for their shameful actions. I think this MSNBC anchorman says it best in this video.