A-fairyist: don’t live in fear, waiting for the “great beyond” to be great.... make the most of every day you are alive on this earth

Madelyn ShaughnessyFeature Editor

 I am fine with the fact that my body will decompose after I die and am placed into my coffin.  I don’t need the “promise” of pearly white gates and billowing angel wings to make my life worth living.

The philosopher, Bertrand Russell, proposed the idea of a small heavenly teapot orbiting the earth as highly improbable.  “If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity.”  Replace the teapot with a powerful, supernatural being, who controls the universe as if it were his doll house, and you have Religion.  Although most of us have given up on Olympian Gods, Sun Gods, and the celestial teapot, however, a great number of people still believe in the equally improbable heavenly dollhouse owner.  Anything can be molded into a religion as long as there is a group to follow it.As Richard Dawkins states in his book, The God Delusion, “[a friend of his] describes himself as a ‘tooth fairy agnostic.’ He regards God as no more probable than the tooth fairy.  You can’t disprove either hypothesis, and both are equally improbable.  He is an a-theist to exactly the same large extent that he is an a-fairyist.  And agnostic about both, to the same small extent.”The tooth fairy provides a ray of sunshine in the otherwise gloomy experience of losing a tooth just as God provides hope in the fear of death.  We will look towards these magical beings for comfort at a time of loss: loosing a tooth or loosing a life.Those who constantly fear death and thus look towards religion as a security blanket are not living life in the present but obsessed with the future.  Religion isn’t focused around “now,” “today,” it’s all about “later,” “after.”  Even when religious groups preach about being “ a good Samaritan,” it’s tied to the concept that being good will get you to heaven.  This whole complex with heaven disconnects us from our lives.  The fantasy takes over our reality.  We are so focused on after life that we let real life slip through our fingertips.I think true living is surrendering to the mystery.  Why must we know?  I believe this is humanity’s greatest fault: that nothing can go unanswered.  Let us loose the “why” and live life in the “now.”Unfortunately I don’t think humanity will ever be able to accept the hovering question mark.In order to live our lives day by day, we create a faith-based “truth.” As the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss.”mshaughnessy@thesamohi.com