I love TGM. To anybody who doesn’t play video game or even most who do this forum will mean absolutely nothing to them, however as I’ve gotten to know these people over the years what I most often enjoy are the religious and philosophical debates from perspectives all around the world. It’s a bit of a drift from the ins and outs of the SOF2 Demo, but it passes the time when you can’t play, or are not in the mood. What follows is a comment I made in a thread that started about Pork.

I am not denying that there might be a greater successor to everyone and everything, I am just conflicted with your definition of the nature of our creator. On the one hand it is easy to think of god as some higher entity, personified by a reflection of ourselves. In your religions we are molded in his image which bestows upon humanity some mystical holy sanctity. In reality the worship of god is just a worship of ourselves, which can be healthy in some respects but only if it’s acknowledged and not clothed in the mysticism of modern organized religion.
Evolution is our true creator and it can be just as mystical and holy if you think about it. Instead of being created at the whim of a ‘higher being’, Life has persevered despite the harshest conditions. This green, vital (well not so much anymore) Earth that we inhabit was once a rock, completely barren and inhospitable. The orbit was right, the conditions on Earth were right and some amino acids made a value choice to work together to form a more complex structure. Protein worked with protein and DNA was the result. That process, that very first step seems fantastic, almost mystical. But on the scale of things is it more incredible than that first fish leaving the sea or the first animal that jumped off a tree? Each one of these events can seem wholely unrealistic but here’s the kicker: I have faith.
Evolution is a continual process of adding complexity to life. Evolution is my religion and it’s backed up by science. What happens after we die? We can’t know. All we can do is conjecture and theorize, but there is no way to actually test any hypothesis short of dying. So why bother worrying about it? There’s nothing you can do, any idea you come up with is either a mental creation of your own or someone else, so let it go. You don’t have the right answer so instead of worrying about it, fill your time on Earth here as if it was all you have, doing the things you want to do but at the same time being mindful of others and their needs. This is a much better way to live life as opposed to worrying about dying and any afterlife. Even if there was Allah and the afterlife as described in those books do you really think he would judge you poorly if you devoted your life to adding to the world as opposed to taking from it? Isn’t that what organized religion is all about?
There’s a church sign on my bus route that gets changed quite often, and whoever is tending that flock has a keen wit about them. The messages are always non-judgemental, funny or sad, wholesome and always appropriate. That sign the other day said “You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving.” If you want to love your family, your significant other, your home or your planet, you cannot do so without giving something. If you’re doing something that just feels right to you then you’re adding to the world. Everyone should be able to figure this out, as I’m sure most have agonized over the question since they were old enough to be reflective. What do you want to do? Answer this and do it; you will be making the world more complex and thus becoming a part of the history of something greater: evolution.