I can remember two times in my life when I seriously asked my self the question “What are my plans for the future?”
The first time occurred about a year after high school when I decided I wanted to be an electrical engineer. I had been working as an apprentice electrician for many months and had several contacts with an engineer and this impression led me to decide to be an engineer.
I planned several proximate goals that were necessary to reach my goal of becoming an engineer. I had to go into the army so that I could go to school on the GI Bill and then I had to complete my college engineering education.
The second time that I seriously thought about a proximate goal occurred about 15 years into my career when I pondered just what I wanted for a long term goal for my self.
Life is filled with proximate goals and the decision of just what means is best followed to achieve those particular goals. Now I am pondering what my ultimate goal is. I suspect that I have always had some kind of unconscious ultimate goal but it was one that I had not consciously and seriously thought about nor consciously desired.
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?”
I was raised as a Catholic and taught by nuns; this question was often in the fore front of much of what the nuns taught me. I suspect that this was pretty much what most Christians, Jews, and Muslims were taught. It appears that the three major religions, and perhaps most all religions, taught that the ultimate goal for all men, women, and children must be “save your soul above all else”.
Have we mixed a very dangerous cocktail here because we have developed a technology that places great power into the hands of ordinary people; many, if not most, of whom have as their ultimate goal the “saving” of their soul rather than the saving of life on this planet?
Isn’t it easy to see why many people find that their ultimate goal in life, i.e. to save their soul, fits quite satisfactorily with the ultimate desire for eternal life? Isn’t it easy to see how such individuals might find that using WMDs is not the worst thing they might do if it will help them save their soul and have eternal life?
Can our species last much longer when we have such a dangerous cocktail ready mixed for instant drinking?
I can't speak for other faiths, but as far as Judaism goes, Rabbi Hillel summed it up best: "The essence of Judaism is, what you don't like, don't do to others. Everything else is commentary." In other words, it's how you treat others that's most important, especially since Jews don't believe their souls need saving as they don't believe in original sin.
Of course, how someone actually practices their faith is another matter.
In any event, my "ultimate goal" in life is stated over my avatar.
__________________
Shinier than a speeding bullet.
All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I **** like you wanna ****, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I **** like you wanna ****, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.
Wow, did any of you guys read the first post, because it took a sudden turn, and his question at the end of his soliloquy was much different from the subject of the thread. I notice Mindship did, but he appears to be the only one.
Anyways, my ultimate goal in life would be to try everything, at least once. Even the terrible things, just so I can know what they feel like.
__________________ Hey papi, Hey ese, Hey whiteboy,
Tell me what you need!
What's good? Talk to me. Work with me, man!
I got everything!
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 12th, 2009 01:30 PM
