In view of the tremendous potential of the human race for good or evil, the suggestion made by nihilists that life is futile or meaningless seems incredible.
If we could see our progeny landing on another planet in a million years, or lying dead and disfigured after a nuclear war, all as a direct result of what we have done today, we would realize the ultimate significance and value of our efforts.
If there are no people alive in a million years, it will be because we did something wrong today. If there are people alive in a million years, it will be because we did something right. |
The nuclear dilemma makes it clearer than ever that those of us who are alive have the fate of the human race in our hands. If there are no people alive in a million years, it will be because we did something wrong today. If there are people alive in a million years, it will be because we did something right. Everything that we do today is contributing to the lives or deaths of the children of tomorrow. We determine by our actions today whether they will live or die.
Not only do the children of the future depend on us for the survival, we depend on them for ours. Only through them do we have a chance for immortality. We know that every living man has a pedigree that goes back millions of years and if man does not destroy himself, he will have a pedigree that will go forward millions of years. All the people who will be alive in a million years will be direct descendants of those who are alive today.
Each individual is not the beginning of life, but rather the extension of it. Life does not begin or end; it extends and as long as its offspring exists, it can not be said to die in any biological sense. Life does not appear out of thin air by spontaneous generation. A human child is formed from genes and chromosomes in the sperm and the egg. Where did the sperm and the egg come from if not from the parent? The same protoplasm and the same spark of life that existed in the parents continue their life and existence in the child. The child is just as much a physical extension of the parents biological existence as the parent's hands or hearts.
This generation could not exist without the former and is in actuality an intrinsic part of the former. Each generation is like the branches of a tree extending toward eternity. Each generation is not independent of the former, but is rather an extension of it.
Life never stops or begins; it merely changes and improves. The only time life ever stops is when a species becomes extinct as in the case of the dinosaur. Scientists estimate that about 90% of the genes that exist in one member of a race exist in all members of that race. Thus, as long as the race exists, it is difficult to argue that death has occurred. A person is not just a fragile isolated mortal individual. Each person is, in fact, one cell in the immortal, eternal organism of the human race. If one cell appears to die, that is not real because the organism of the race which carries his genes continues.
From a biological point of view, your living protoplasm, genes and chromosomes do not cease to exist when your body appears to die. Because you child is you in the full physical sense, just as you are all those who have ever come before. You need not fear death for when you child experiences or achieves something a thousand thousand generations from now, it is you acting, you experiencing and you achieving.
And it is not merely you. It is an improved and perfected version of you. It is you with your weaknesses and failings removed. Through evolution, we can filter out all imperfections from headaches to poor eyesight and poor memory which now afflict us. This suffering need not be passed on to future generations. We will grow more and more nearly perfect. We will be stronger, faster and more intelligent. But we will always be the same physical, physiological spark of life and protoplasm that we are today only perfected and improved.
What then is life? What is mankind and what is each individual's relationship to it? Each man is one cell in the immortal eternal organism of man. When they crucified Mr. Christ or burned the scientist Bruno, they no more killed them than you can kill a man by pricking his finger with a pin. All men in each generation are not merely individuals: they are a branch in the tree of mankind. If a branch is cut off, the tree is not dead. Each generation is on link in the chain of life that leads from the animals to the Gods.
All men who have ever lived, are resurrected in you.
And you will be resurrected in all the men who will ever live into eternity.