Does 'End is Nigh' and No Reincarnation Mentality Ruin the World?

BSM1 said:

Experience. To know what mortality, finiteness and imperfection is. To experience a broken world and to see how much we can repair it.

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Again, to what purpose? If there is nothing more than this existence then all experience is meaningless, IMO.

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I agree. Life without purpose is meaningless. If all we do is come into the world, live a finite existence in either poverty and despair or riches and indulgence (neither of which we get to choose) and if humans at this stage of their existence still don't get how to co-exist peacefully, then what can we expect for the future....just more of the same until we wipe ourselves out of existence?
The planet itself is heaving under the weight of human "achievement". Progress has come at a huge cost and we have painted ourselves into a proverbial corner. If we do not undo the damage soon, it will be irreparable.

Our technology is costing us brain cells.

The Bible is the yardstick by which those with faith in a Creator measure their existence with the programming that is inherent in them. We collectively feel like we are not living the life we know we should. Why do we expect to be happy when it is so hard to achieve? Why do we chase the dream instead of dealing with the reality? What is the innate need in humans to worship when who or what to worship is often confusing and more a matter of geography and culture than personal choice?

If we have no future beyond this life, then what is the point of it?
If reincarnation means we could come back as a cockroach, then how could it be something to look forward to?

The Bible gives a clear and wonderful hope for the future.....that does not require either heaven or any kind of afterlife in the spiritual realm at all.........unending life, right here on earth is what the Bible's promise is, and what I look forward to.

BSM1 said:

Again, to what purpose? If there is nothing more than this existence then all experience is meaningless, IMO.

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I don't believe in "just this existence", though.

Personally, I can not think of any way in which an apocalyptic worldview could have anything other than a negative influence.

Breathe said:

I don't believe in "just this existence", though.

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So, in your worldview, what else is there?

BSM1 said:

So, in your worldview, what else is there?

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That's difficult to explain, really, without using flowery language and being all vague and pretentious about it, which isn't really what I want to do, but the short is that I believe that life does not end after death, not by any stretch of the imagination.

So... yeah. What else is there? The real Reality.

There is nothing inherently bad about Earth. It isn't a place of suffering but suffering can happen and does happen. I peronsally believe everything has a cycle and that life has a cycle and death has a cycle , too. That everything basically gets recycled and nothing is ever truly created or destroyed. We should make the most of it whether one believes in reincarnation or not. What may be the end of the world may not literally be the end of the world, but the end of the world as we know it, which can be good or bad, depending on what kind of age we enter.

Namaste,
I think the belief in the end of times, or immanent doom, suffering in this life enjoying in another (external place), or one life to enjoy basically no rebirth, produces a sens of "Lack", in a persons mind, because either we are lacking something now which we will get after in a external place or what we lack now needs to be fulfilled before it all ends so consume, consume and consume but this "lacking", feeling does not go away, we dont get another chance, we don't need this place after we are gone (Unlike rebirth where we do need this place for our own future, and we may get another chance).

That my 2 cents.

Dhanyavad.

wizanda said:

On just coming to give up my Runescape membership, which is basically a virtual life inside a computer game... Found myself not putting the effort into to achieve my goals the same, having a limited interest in finishing things due to "a what is the point" mentality...
Thus this gave me a great question in terms of do people with this 'end of the world is nigh' mentality, and those who don't believe in any form of reincarnation.... Do they truly live to our full potential, if they knew they were coming back again?

So this applies to Atheists as well, who like Christians believe 'you only live once' and look at the state of the world.... If people all believed we would come back again, you wouldn't use up every resource now, as you'd consider we'd need to save some for our future incarnations.

Do people with this mentality of 'the end is nigh', truly live to their full potential within this life as well?.... When you consider this world to be evil and a waste of time, and a new pure one will be better?

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There seem to be a bit of mixed concepts here. Let me try and see if I can parse them.

1. "What is the point" mentality as a threat to motivation.

2. "The End is Nigh" mentality... I don't know what this is supposed to mean.

3. Belief in reincarnation - trust me, it is just not very healthy. I speak from personal experience.

4. If we knew that we were coming back again... I guess I know that I will not. But if I did expect some form of reincarnation to happen, I would do a lot to stop it from ever happening again. And be a pile of nerves until then. Reincarnation is an utterly depressing idea.

5. "You only live once" as it relates to waste of resources - that looks like a good argument for population levels planning and ecological thinking, not for reincarnation beliefs. Am I missing something?

6. This world is not evil and a waste of time, although I have learned that reincarnationist belief tend to encourage people to perceive it in that way. Maybe you have learned different varieties of such beliefs from those I have been exposed to?

7. Which new pure world are you talking about?

LuisDantas said:

2. "The End is Nigh" mentality... I don't know what this is supposed to mean.

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Eggizo (the time draws near) is warned against by Yeshua; yet is used by Paul, Simon and the Christian church, to create a fear based mentality of tomorrow could be judgement day....Thus does that change peoples potential, for long term change within the world?

LuisDantas said:

7. Which new pure world are you talking about?

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Lots of religions have a prophetic idea, that there will be a cleansing of the earth, where a new world will be created after without the imperfections of this one.

wizanda said:

Eggizo (the time draws near) is warned against by Yeshua; yet is used by Paul, Simon and the Christian church, to create a fear based mentality of tomorrow could be judgement day....Thus does that change peoples potential, for long term change within the world?

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Yes. In very harmful ways, far as I can tell, guess or testify.

Lots of religions have a prophetic idea, that there will be a cleansing of the earth, where a new world will be created after without the imperfections of this one.

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I would advise against nurturing such ideas.