Thousands of years that have passed. Can you really believe that you exist only during this short lifetime?

Question

Think of how real you are. Though you are a small part of total existence, total existence would not be the same without you. There is a reason you are here. You have free will and the ability to reason and this makes you a complete individual. You can not act in the past or the future. The only time that you can make a difference in your essence is now, during this lifetime. What you do during this lifetime is only a small part of your total existence, but it is a major influence on all of your other existences. and it indicates whether you are progressing or regressing. Cruelty or selfish motivations whithout concern for the rest of existence indicate regression. Love, compassion, and patience indicate that an individual has and is progressing in a desirable manner. Can you really believe that you exist only for this short time that we call a lifetime?

Answer 1

Have thought of that. Don't know the answer.

Answer 2

Lets view this from the "creation premise".
Without rehashing well versed script we have Cain and Able, who took "wives" of men. This leaves the eternal question: Where did the women come from if there only existed 4 people?
As we all have learned this is a huge missing link in the process of creation. However, if you want to really indulge the imagination, lets assume for a moment that the "Wives of Men" statement really was "spirits" that took human form to pro-create and populate the earth. If that analogy can hold any amount of water, then it must also include today.
The population of earth is tremendous and interestingly enough we could explain the existential growth from simple pro-creation, or we could explain this population as more and more spirits choosing to return in physical form, or to develop through the process of pro-creation.
Depending upon a persons religious beliefs as it applies to the Trinity, or to the theory of evolution, it would be impossible to know for certain.
These questions are synonymous throughout history. We can theorize, conjure, wonder and believe until we die, but until that very moment when we leave this plane of existence there will always be the unknown of death in it's totality.
Frankly, it is much more productive to live the life you have with grace and dignity, compassion and humilty, and kindness and love than to risk what we think we know, only to find out we were wrong. The potienial to pay for eternity is just to high a price to remain so arrogant in our hearts.

Answer 3

This IS a lifetime where most are concerned. But if you are trying to see the difference that every following generation are deemed to make, then look at our history. Look at the Dark Ages of the world , the World Wars, the conflicts, the Renaissance and Reformation periods an all. Look at them, those are what brought you here, thinking and behaving like what you are.

So imagine that you are the 100th generation after yourself, what could you see if you would just look back. Lol, can't fathom what the present can do? No, you can. What you do here doesn't only affect the total existence of human, it also affects your later generations.

So when people in 1000 years later look back, they don't only see whether humanity is actually progressing or regressing, just like what you see in our (world) history. They would also see the differences that every human at this moment made and that is what made people the way they will be in a thousand years later.

Don't just take it that this lifetime covers the entire humanity, it covers the future of humanity too. You are just a part of it and you can be a big part in terms of humanity because what you do affects the past (indirectly), future and the entire human existence.

60-100 years may not be much compared to those thousands of years but we could live on and be the best. What we do in turn contributes to towards everything and suicides often contradict this statement. I pity them because if they died at 12, they would've wasted 70+ years of differences that they could've made. Humanity may have just improved a little better if he just hadn't killed himself, but for that trillions of people who did not live to the fullest and made humanity go for the better, that actually made us what we are now.

Imagine if they hadn't died that early or wasted their time...sigh..

Answer 4

I really do believe that I exist only in this short lifetime but the consequences of my actions will last much longer. I am like flame. When the flame is gone, there is no more but the substance that was burned will never be quite the same as it was.

Answer 5

This is a part religious and part philosophical question. I personally don't think it matters that much that your contribution to the whole is spans a small or large time period. What matters is what you do.

That brings up the philosophical part of your question. You mentioned free will. Are you sure that you have free will (I hope we do), but a lot of evidence points against it. see :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

Whether we have free will or not, I hope that I either choose to do good things or is destined to do good things.

I know I did not answer your question, but it would take more than just one quick answer.

Answer 6

Nope. I know we exist beyond this lifetime and so does anyone reading this. Think about it. How often have you stopped and said to yourself, "Wow, time flies!" because half the year has gone by and you don't know where it went. You've probably thought that to yourself dozens of times in your lifetime and yet every time you think it, it seems like it is a brand new revelation, like you can't believe how fast time goes by. Why is that? Does it make sense if we only exist in this lifetime and then we die? No. Not at all. The reason we ask it is because we were made to last forever, for eternity, outside of this space, time, universe that we live in. Think about it this way, a fish was made to live in the water, it is its home, they were made for it, not for land, but for water. Do you think a fish would say to itself, "wow, I'm really wet!" No. Because its always been wet and never known anything else. But a human who was a fish for a day, he would say "wow, i'm really wet," because he was not made for the water, he was made for land. It is the same with us, we were not made for this lifetime only, we were made for eternity, so our souls feel out of place here, bounded by time. That is why we always say to ourselves, "wow, time flies by" or "can you believe its already Christmas again?" Our souls were not meant to be bound by time, they are longing to be in our eternal home, with our Creator. Hope that makes sense!

Answer 7

As the prophet Jeremiah revealed, there was a pre-existence. Ironically we progress more quickly in this imperfect world than in the eons of time that went before.

Answer 8

I believe in reincarnation for many reasons, but I'll only share one:
You're born you live, learning many lessons along the way. You reach an age of wisdom and finally figure out how your life should have been lived but it's too late.
Then you die. Why go through the in-between if it is over as soon as you figure it out?

Answer 9

I exist during this short little lifetime to prepare me for my eternal (forever and ever) life with the Lord and to help as many other people learn about Him as I can so they can also be with Him forever and ever.

Isn't this short little life an exciting adventure? I think so.

Answer 10

In the billions of years the universe has been, our life is but a twinkle... a millisecond in comparison. And I doubt we are "just here". What is the purpose of life? How about reincarnation and how it compares to that purpose? And if we overcome and meet what is expected do we choose to come back and teach those on the path of life? Or bask in the glowing energy of our creator?

Answer 11

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the `Universe,' a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing.
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.