believe

death

/deTH/

noun

the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism.

synonyms:

demise, dying, end, passing, loss of life …

Everyone has a different opinion, but regardless on our take on such a seemingly daunting matter, each of us will one day have to face the figure under the dark hood. For some, hell, for many this concept frightens them. The fact that we will all one day leave everything we have ever known behind to face a strange and nameless future. Maybe this is the reason for religion. For faith.

~

faith

/fāTH/

noun

1.

complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

synonyms:

trust, belief, confidence, conviction …

2.

strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

synonyms:

religion, church, sect, denomination, belief, ideology …

Maybe because of the overwhelming feeling of fear some become ensnared in when thinking of their mortality, they choose to believe. The understand that death is inescapable and instead of leaving everything else to unknown power, they believe with the intent to preserve their souls. They believe to ensure that their death is followed by the peace they experienced in the mortal world. A utopia. A heaven.

~

heav·en

/ˈhevən/

noun

a place regarded in various religions as the abode of God (or the gods) and the angels, and of the good after death, often traditionally depicted as being above the sky.

synonyms:

paradise, nirvana, Zion …

informal

a place, state, or experience of supreme bliss.

synonyms:

bliss, ecstasy, rapture, contentment, happiness, delight…

Though only depicted in text, people strive for a heaven. For a place where they can exist joyously as a gift for their good behavior during their life. Heaven, for some, is the only reason that people need to believe. The guarantee that your afterlife will be as fulfilling or even more than your time on earth is enticing. The guarantee that you will be saved from an eternity of suffering convinces people to believe. There is power in the promise of being saved from such terrors. From such infernos. From such hell.

~

hell

/hel/

noun

a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.

synonyms:

the netherworld, the Inferno, the infernal regions, the abyss…

Just as heaven is yearned for without any real knowledge of its features, the same goes for hell, but it is not adored, it is feared. Hell is where the rotten go to whither with no real end. A suffering with no solution. It is said that if you believe, you will not have to deal with such a horrid thing. But others, ones who don’t believe as easy make the argument that it doesn’t matter, for life on earth is hell all on its own. Wars in every continent, riots in the streets, fires burning into the night. There has not been an end, has there? And can we really recall the beginning of it all? Earth is it’s own sort of hell. So why work so hard just to guarantee something that may or may not be true. For all we know, afterlife is a white nothingness. For all we know it is bleak and bland. It is void.

~

void

/void/

noun

a completely empty space.

synonyms:

vacuum, emptiness, nothingness, nullity, blankness, vacuity…

A fear greater than any hell or heaven is a fear of nothingness. Empty. The fear that no matter how you lived your life, nothing will have ever mattered. The fear that the game was rigged before you even started playing. The underlying fear that such a horrid existence even occurs, a fear in which we attempt to swallow down and ignore. Even in hell you can feel something. Even if it is immense pain, it is there. It is at your side. It reminds you every day that you, or some part of you, exists. But in a vast desert of empty, how do you know for sure? When nothing ever changes except your sanity, how can you be sure that you exist? How can you be sure that you ever did? Because of this underlying fear, some people choose and alternate route. No real beliefs, no surreal fear of death or afterlife. But a route of right now. A route of living and being alive. A simple route of life itself.

~

life

/līf/

noun

1.

the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

synonyms:

existence, being, living, animation…

2.

the existence of an individual human being or animal.

synonyms:

person, human being, individual, soul…

Everyone has a different opinion. But no matter what we think, no matter whether any of us wished to be alive or not, we are here. All of us coexist on this tiny planet together. That is the now. And while many of us have come and gone on to a separate existence, we are still here, and we have no other choice but to wake up every morning and do something with ourselves. This is life. This is our life. And while we could spend the majority of our time looking backwards or looking forwards, we could also spend our time looking right here at the beauty in front of us, for it is fleeting faster than any of our souls ever could or ever will. And if we miss it, we will regret until our days of demise. Our days of death.

So, let’s not miss it.