This thread is strange to me. For the past five months I have been going through an undiagnosed medical problem, which is just now getting a diagnosis. Many hospital visits, thousands of dollars owed in medical costs. I have had serious shortness of breath, abdominal pains, basically my life has been very very lame for a while now, and now I find out that there is a reoccurring tumor on my right testical. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that. During this time, and still to this day I have questioned an afterlife, why we exist, what is this world that we continue to live in. A lot of people don't even look for answers, they ignore them, until they know their time is near an end. Some people, like you, and myself, search, think, research, and it is very difficult to reach a solid conclusion, but I might be able to offer some insight.
The very fact our universe, our planet, our existence, the way the creatures on our planet have such a great cycle of complexity, our emotions, our thought, it makes me believe that something created this, and it was not from random acts. No living creature on this planet behaves like us. They do not possess a consciousness, or a state of mind. They are not aware of their existence. They do not feel what we can. It makes me believe that we are not a product of random evolution, but rather of creation. Let me rephrase that, I do believe in evolution, but I do not believe that our existence happened without some type of guide, or direction. I didn't accept this with ease, you can trust me on that, but nothing has the mind of a human being, and I don't think anything ever will.
I have recently began to read the bible, I know that some of you will never pick it up, and that's fine, but I believe some answers might be left inside. Nothing should be taken in it's literal sense in the bible, many things are hidden, and yet to be discovered, some of it's symbolic, or metaphorical. For instance, I believe that when Adam ate from the tree of knowledge, that was our progression from ape to man. We became self-aware.
I will say one more thing, which has kind of stuck around with me. When I was in High School, I was sitting at my desk day dreaming, and I spoke out, "Why the hell are we here, what is our importance.", and some girl I didn't know too well (I actually forget her name) said this, "We are not meant to know" At first I thought it was a stupid statement, but as the years have passed, it becomes more and more of a chilling acceptance.
I hope I may have helped, but I doubt I have as your questions, and my questions are probably both something that cannot be answered on our realm of thought. It would probably take a mind greater than a human being's mind to answer such questions correctly.
