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A FUNDAMENTAL prerequisite for religious conviction
and faith is the existence, acceptance and guarantee of mortality. Without
an assurance of death, almost all that we associate with such beliefs
becomes at least unnecessary; at most pointless. yes, God may still be
needed by some as a first cause for everything to come into being and
possibly for the basis of morality, but not much else. Karma, afterlife,
retribution, concepts of heaven and hell, Judgement Day and perhaps even a
sense of duty would begin to flounder if people didn't die naturally and
instead, say, divided like amoebas into two, and carried on living by
twinning themselves.
Yet the reality today is that, thanks to some
unprecedented advances in science, guided immortality may be the direction
in which we are now heading. cutting-edge research going on currently
indicates that life extensions by several hundreds or even thousands of
years is a distinct possibility at a near future around us. Researchers have
also shown that not only can several features of ageing be reversed, but
that with the help of regenerative techniques, stem cells, bionic
prosthetics and things like that, growing older may literally become a thing
of the past. In fact, Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines,
has gong so far as to say that the current generation, or the one just
birthing, may be the last to experience involuntary dying.
Would living for such long times that death becomes only a
voluntary option or accidental occurrence reduce a person's belief in any
ultimate relationship he or she might have with the universe ? Would faith in
a divinely created order of the world, agreement with which is the means of
salvation for a community and thus for each individual who has a role in
that community, die or lessen? Not unavoidably.
The deliverance that some people strive to achieve while
transiting from one order of existence to another might diminish and
ultimately disappear. And naturally too, Because there would be no further
sense in attempting to realise such a non-existent goal. But if a belief in
the indivisibility of form persists in humanity at large then the extension
of a moral life could easily go hand in hand with any extension of a
physical one. Especially when goodness gets all the time it needs to
become its own reward. So why wouldn't evil flourish with the fear of post
mortem reckoning removed? Simply because of a belief in Creation. No such
act is ever evil. |
