Life has always been a mystery although we pretend to know what life is and how life works. We have even become experts at taking lives using varieties of methods that appall even the gods whilst in contrast saving lives remains an emerging science.
Both skills we have acquired however had made me observe and ponder what life really means and why we are alive.
Many are quick to point out we are alive for a purpose, that we are “kept” alive to fulfill a particular purpose and thus we fight for life,
Though a new set of people whom we term crazy now do all they can to get themselves killed, before you mention suicide bombers, I would say you group thrill seekers into that same category, or what do you want on mount Everest or bungee jumping? Some even walk tight ropes with no safety net!
Let me not digress as tempting as it is; so are we alive for a purpose as they say? If we are, are flies and mosquitoes and viruses and bacteria alive for a purpose too?
I ask because just as we do everything possible to stay alive so do they!
A mosquito will even fly upside down to avoid being killed and from all known science it has no brain with which to be self aware talk less process enough information to discern or understand what life is or purpose is.
Have you tried swatting a fly before? See how it does all it can to stay alive and even if hit how it fights the mortal battle to keep living?
Same goes for all animals I have heard of with the exception of man who sometimes takes his own life for no reason.
If human life is so special then other animals shouldn’t resist dying nor we killing them, a fly should simply wait for me to swat it and a mosquito should respect me enough to kill it without embarrassing me with its aerial acrobatics!
If human life is that special why then do we die easily like we do? Why have we perfected the art of killing? We can kill over 1 million people at once!?
I observed a dog some years back, it was lazing near a kerb idly watching motor bikes and cars pass near him without flinching, a couple of minutes later a truck came along following the same path as the bikes and cars did but to my amusement, the dog on sighting the truck, quickly got up and took major steps away from where it was and when the truck had passed went back to that same spot to continue its lounging! I was amused but also amazed, why didn’t that dog want to die?!
So what then is the purpose to life (if there is one) that makes all living things want to live?
I have seen animals fight to the death over territory but never seen one fight to the death to save their young. So what will make a sometimes vicious animal want to preserve its life rather than err towards the survival of the species?!
What then is life and what is its purpose? Why are we here? Why have we been told to hold life precious? Even those who preach higher purpose and an afterlife are not ready to start the afterlife until they lose total grip on this life.
What then is life?! What is its purpose having established its not only humans that want to stay alive.
Is life even real? Are we real or are we similar to a program in someone’s computer, a program that doesn’t want to be ended not because it’s self aware but simply following an iterative loop.
I won’t be happy to die and find out that all I have been made to believe about life was wrong! What is the true purpose of life?
Those who know about life, over to you! teach me and teach others….else wake me up from this dream!