Survive, or Live

What is our existance? What are we here for? Or more specifically, what are you living for?

Throughout the thousands upon thousands of years of human existance, there have been trillions of humans who have walked the face of the earth. Every last one of them that has ever been alive has asked the question of, "what is the meaning of life?" Many turned to religion of different sorts, others devoted themselves to the art of science and reason, and others just don't even care.

Charles Darwin, one of the most notable scientists to have ever lived, though, mocked by the scientific community, made great break throughs in the modern science of his day with his theory of evolution. A theory that through billions upon billions of years, the smallest of cells slowly formed together and began to grow more complex. From two cells grew a piece of tissue, and from tissue grew small organisms, and those organisms' cells continued to grow and replicate in different codes and sequences, creating more complex and different life forms. Eventually, those life forms began to be able to think, and we, homo sapiens, were the new ruling species. However, Darwin's theory only leaves one choice for our race and the rest of the animals that walk the earth...survival. Survival, to continue to reproduce, find nurishment, and populate all surounding areas. One of my favorite movies had a key quote in it that made me scared and amazed at the very idea of evolution. The captain of the spaceship in the movie "Wall-E" says, "I don't want to 'survive', I want to 'live'..."

Surviving is so barbarian compared to how amazing the human race truly is. We have the ability to think on the most complex levels far beyond that of any other being on our planet, the ability to produce more thought than the animals that rely simply on instinct, and most notably, the ability to show compassion and love. Emotion and the power to think is a monstrous difference between us and other species.

The most frightening thing about the idea of evolution is that if we truly did come from a primordial ooze that generated all the beings found on our planet, then we truly have no other purpose for living than to simply breed and be equal to all other animals. We really have no purpose. Our abilities to improve living conditions, to love, to care, to think and simply feel, are all pointless. If we were not created by an all powerful deity, as religion says, then we have no purpose after death. The most fearful thought that has ever entered my mind is if I were to die, that all I would have done will have been meaningless and life is pointless, so why keep living? If we have no more purpose on this earth than any other normal animal, then what is the purpose of life? There isn't one. Even if I created a way to cure cancer, muscular distrophy, or a mental illness, what would be the point? We're going to die and become mulch for trees to grow with like every other person who has ever lived.

There is a purpose for our lives. Simply surviving and being here is not enough. There will be a life after death because I refuse to believe that such complicated beings are nothing but fertilizer once we're dead. I will live for that afterlife because it has been promised to me by a loving God who knows everything about me. Darwin and his collegues promised me nothing and never even knew I would exist.

It's your choice. Survive, or Live.