ETERNAL OBLIVION vs HEAVEN

  On Sundays I sometimes post on spiritual matters.   But I'll begin with ocean storms.  

First, that Tropical Depression Grace that wafted over Haiti, causing much grief, and became a Category 1 Hurricane that rolled over the Yucatan.  Re-entering the Gulf, Grace then attained Category 3 strength and made landfall over the Mexican resort town of Tecolutla, leaving eight dead, then weakened.  However, Grace is now in the Pacific Ocean, and is expected to strengthen a bit, then dissipate.

• 
  Almost 30 years ago in 1992, there is some speculation that a tropical wave departed Africa on August 18, tracked across the Atlantic Ocean, and somewhere near Panama, weakened in the Pacific Ocean on September 6, my birthday.  Ominously, on September 7, while still a tropical depression, it became better organized, and became Tropical Storm Iniki.  
• 
  Over the next two days it attained hurricane strength.
• 10:  100 MPH with gusts to 130 MPH.
• 11:  140 MPH with gusts to 175 MPH in the morning.
• 11:  landfall on Kauai with gusts up to 225 MPH.
• Hurricane Iniki became the most powerful hurricane to strike Hawaii in recorded history, causing damages of $6 billion (in 2021 dollars).

• 
  18 days earlier, Category 5 Hurricane Andrew had devastated Florida with more than $50 billion (2021 dollars) of damages.

I provided all that information because I worry about Grace becoming another Iniki.  While the hurricane reporting organizations have all written her off, I'll keep a special watch.

Tropical Storm Henri made landfall over Rhode Island near Westerly at 60 MPH and is bringing record rainfalls and power outages.  Many deaths from floods.

With religion comes a few benefits.  One is that people of faith might go to Heaven, while those who don't believe must face eternal oblivion or nothingness at death.  Some of the unfaithful anguish a bit, and maybe a lot, about this eventual condition.  Those who believe thus have a psychological advantage and might look forward to re-meeting friends and family, plus maybe pets, in a life of perpetual happiness.  Any logic would sway one towards religion.  However, there are individuals like me--perhaps 20% of Americans--who just can't accept the reality of anything after death.

Pew and Gallup announced regular polls on their surveys, but today, let me look at Roper.  While not a particularly recent article, religion does not change much over a few years.  This presentation addresses only those in the USA.

• Since 1994 there has not been much of a change in belief of life after death:

Here is what Americans believe will occur after death:

I thought it was interesting that:

• Only 43% thought people would have human form.
• 39% said there will be plenty of good food to eat (meaning that there won't be good food by majority belief).
• The bottom three are downers:  no sexual relations with spouses, total darkness and boring. 

An argument can be made that eternal boringness could well be worse than eternal oblivion, for the latter brings eternal peace.  That's good enough for me.  

Even if I don't have the faith, I'm still counting on rationality if God is real:

A good majority of Earthlings feel that people like me will end up in Heaven if I am good, and relative to the average person, I think I am.  

Way back in the 1600's, Blaise Pascal offered a pragmatic reason for believing God:  Even under the assumption that God's existence is unlikely, the potential benefits of believing are so vast as to make betting on theism rational.  While other philosophers have tried to discredit and/or support this point of view, just the fact that popular opinion supports the entry of good but unfaithful individual into Heaven, is well enough for me.

I should mention that our TEDx event to occur on 11December2021, probably in the Art Auditorium of the University of Hawaii, is evolving into a virtual gathering using the latest filming technology.  More to come later.  Here, a TED presentation from 2014 on  Mysteries of the Unseen World, by Louie Schwartzberg.  Click on Top 10 TED talks that'll change your life.  Or, another 10.

-