We all live and then we die so how should we live our lives? I think that highly depends upon what we think happens [or doesn't happen] after we die. We could assume that our very existence disappears and thus our actions do not affect us after death, or we can assume there is life beyond death in which case how we behave here can greatly impact what our afterlife looks like.
If we do not believe we have an existence after this one, we may be tempted to think our actions have no consequence and thus we could, would, or should behave like animals with our every greedy desires because nothing matters, but that is ignoring the life we experience's value to ourselves. If we don't wish to die immediately despite nothing mattering, then we apparently plan to live amongst those around us for a while. And if we do that, we'll need to abide by societies rules. The rules the other humans devised to attempt to live in harmony--be they cultural rules or legal rules. So it behooves such nihilistic folks to either end it now or else determine how to maximize happiness or success or whatever drives such a moot desire to continue.
So let us start there. This framework of caput upon death should mean we ought to behave in a particular style of living that maximizes success in our goals. And even if one sets no goals, there is certainly something keeping them going whether they've comprehended them or not. So we all have goals even if it's to keep our loved ones from crying, being the best at something, being wealthy, powerful, or to simply be relaxed and happy. Whatever motivates us to continue, we ought to maximize its success. If I want to see how much money I can get like a video game, then I ought to maximize my income. If I simply want to watch TV and enjoy the culture and experiences of this strange video game of life, then maximizing it might just be a dead-end job and Netflix until I die. Sweet. Maximized the success of the goal. It doesn't have to be challenging to enjoy it while its here.
Many people will select more than one goal and make tradeoffs. A lot of people will unknowingly select conflicting goals where a gain in one causes a loss in another. For example wanting lots of kids and wanting to keep one's sanity or money. It's one thing if you're up for the challenge, but it's another if one picks both goals without comprehending that the life difficulty is now set to God-mode for them. It can be done, but likely only by the best of players consciously striving for the goal with expectation of the challenge. Some might engage in the story of life and enjoy the emotions of the stories and the characters and wish to play in Roleplaying mode while others may wish to play PvE. The long and the short is to do whatever you feel like but note the risks and the actual feeling of pain and consequence of your choices. It therefore requires some basic diplomacy so as not to suffer it in jail or being burnt at the stake, but otherwise, you do you.
While this revelation does not help with any decent knowledge for maximizing one's goals, I believe deeply comprehending this framework will help one succeed and be happy for their duration of this simulation. Of course, one simply needs to be darn sure they're right to not worry about anything beyond this life. Since we can never be 100% positive of anything, it might be worth taking into account the other possibilities before deciding to live full-on Caputer mindset and PvE. So let's continue onto the next category: those who believe we continue to live in some fashion after we die.
Quite similarly to the Caputers, these Survivalists will need to decide what this future existence looks like and how it operates. Without knowing what is beyond the gates of death, we couldn't possibly know how we ought to act in life. If we die and find our souls floating before a Deity, we'll want to know who this Deity is, what he's looking for in us, everything about the culture or the existence in-so-much as what we can and can't do in this new world. If we pop before a Benevolent Deity bent on supporting our new chapter of life no matter how we lived our past, then for one, much like the Caputers, you'd better be darn sure you're right, then two simply maximize your selected goals in this life. Such people should live no different than the Caputers, but they'll have a significant amount more hope filling the experiences of their existence. Hope certainly makes the game more tolerable as I general quit games that aren't so tolerable with little hope.
For those who believe our future existence will be more ethereal like we become one with the fabric of the universe or some other existence untied to our current one, such a life would also benefit most from self-selected goals and a general behavior of diplomacy for success in those goals. So the Caputers, the Ethereal Survivalists, and the Benevolent Deity Survivalists should all play on PvE mode either roleplaying or not while generally trying not to bring pain and suffering upon themselves. Just, again, be sure you're confident in your choice. Reality will be whatever reality is despite our beliefs.
Now we are left with the Culturist and the Deist versions of Survivalism. They believe we will continue our lives but we will either live as in a Culture unknown to us, or else there will be some supreme being who will decide what to do with us in a way tied to our actions on the Earth. For the Culturist, it is wise to know the culture you're entering if possible. If the new culture does not host benevolent beings escorting you through your journey, it is best to be sure one knows how to survive such a culture. It might be wise to spend a lot of time in this life attempting to discover what life will be like in the next world. One could get a leg up so to say on how to live the next life by ultimately sacrificing this presumably temporary vs eternal life. However, since it is extraordinarily impossible to know anything at all for certain, we should analyze the logic of various potentials and what that means for life here.
One thing that might be nice to know is which life is longer? Perhaps we live 80 years here then eternity in the next, but why does it have to be eternity? Maybe you only get 5000 years more. Well, with a finite span of life, we revert to deciding how we live our self-determined goals here and now. Finite spans means we'll never remember anything we do here so no point stressing out over much. Even if we have another 5000 years to go, we'll probably be better off learning basic social skills and working with others so we receive as much diplomacy as possible to give us a heads up in the next culture. Unless we don't care about the next culture and believe that we'll be so far done with this life, we're pretty sure we'd end our next one upon entry. Saying it out loud like that makes it seem a rather foolish perspective, however. We couldn't possibly know ahead of time if we'll wish to sacrifice our next experience in life without first knowing what it holds. So, ultimately, one ought not behave as the Caputers, but rather as Diplomats. They should maximize social skills and harmony in living as a main goal before other more entertaining goals. It's only a slight difference from the Caputers in that we may wish to live up to a sort of moral code since we don't know what the next life has in store and what they know about this life.
On to the true Deists. We'll say any kind of magic can happen. Gods can snap fingers and torment us for eternity or give us harps or Xboxes and make us play for eternity. The Deists had better know for absolute certain that they comprehend the behavior of this Deity fellow. This is where religion steps in. There are many existing religions to choose from on this Earth or we could choose to devise our own understanding. Existing religions make it easy, but I might dare say that easy has nothing to do with correctness. If you take the easy route with no consideration for reality, what do you think the likelihood is you were born directly into the right one or that your first encounter or pick of the litter was the right one? Nearly zil. There are infinite possibilities of personality traits in an unknown Deity. The chance any one person having it right is extraordinarily nil.
Of course, we don't really need to know every single facet of the deity, but a few characteristics is, at minimum, paramount to avoid pure luck. I should say if one desires to luck their way through a deity, it's a rather dumb choice given the infinite possibilities, but hey, it's your existence and you can gamble it how you wish. I wouldn't recommend doing anything too crazy, but who knows, perhaps you'll luck yourself into a Deity who super digs crazy. After that, we need to separate our Deists into categories given major characteristics of who this God is so as to give it the good ol' college try before hoping our actions will magically suffice the judgement of a God in a universe where physics as we know them do not apply.
One major characteristic to help us comprehend this God is fairly simple: is he/she/it nice? I will use "he" from here on out as the most common vernacular and to simplify the writing. Is he the kind of decent being we've come to understand as decent in our own lives? Is our relationship to this God that of insects? Or is it more meaningful as if our existences are that of Children to him? Is it more casual friendly in that he sees us all as his buddies? Or is this a type of Deity who sees us as play things? If God is anywhere between decent or an all-out standup guy then we can probably mostly relax and just be decent ourselves. Similar to the Diplomats, we should focus first and foremost on decent treatment toward others, with others, and perhaps even for others. This goal should be primary for the greatest chances with a truly decent God. He should probably be pretty chill with people not suffering over deriving information about him prior to dying since it would be perfectly tied to his own willingness to reveal himself.
Thus! A Decent Deist ought to live Diplomatically as it is the best type of Deity we should hope to meet in an afterlife. But again, you'd just better darn hope you're right that it's a Decent Deity we'd be dealing with! If this God is anything but of the decent variety, if this God be a Naughty God, then I'm not sure just how much it matters--we're kind of screwed. Without being decent enough to tell us his wishes directly to avoid catastrophe in our afterlife, we're pretty much sunk at his whims. Unless we get super tactical and somehow really sus out what gives this God his kicks, we're at the hard cold mercy of luck on how our actions here will play out in an indecent God's mind. He could require whatever he wants to decide whatever he wants to do with whoever he wants. If he's not a Decent God, he could demand we chant his name or we go to an eternal lava pit without ever warning us what would await if we did not. A twisted God that would be, eh? Such a God could enjoy what I write here or perhaps my words are dooming my eternal fate unbeknowst to me.
I dare say, with most of the indecent Gods we could be doomed to, I would say the hearts of such creatures are essentially that of a child. They need to be occupied. As such, we'd perhaps better dedicate our lives to the arts. Become noble and well-known characters in this charade that would make an indecent God behave unseemly toward us. If we write the Deities favorite movies or books, if we become a favorite actor or even an unbeknowst-to-us performer in the Deities all-knowing eyes, he may very well spare us suffering in whatever awaits us. If we wish to be successful performers for this Deity, we'd likely best not do anything that would set him off on us or make him not like us while we're achieving such goals as to win his heart. To be worth keeping around, we must entertain him. If he's downright evil he may wish to see us as the best warlords, or if he's just kinda twisted perhaps we ought not do anything too spotlighty to make him want to pick us, the shiny ones, and see what he can do with us. We might be the favorite for a while but we might lose his interest eventually within eternity and then who knows what he'll do with us.
So I think we can categorize the One True God options by our own moral standards since we have no way of discerning the decency of the God in question except with a formal declarative hand-delivered message. And even then, who's to say he's not messing with us? A decent God wouldn't mess with us, but anything other than a decent God would indeed mess with us and say they're good when they're not. So we must rely on our own concept of decency in determining the decency of our Deity. There should be no mystery morality we cannot comprehend for if indeed the morality didn't match our own, in what way could we expect this God to be truly moral? It's a big ask to change one's opinion regarding the morality of eternally tormenting someone for no fault of their own given the circumstances of their lives. If we can be convinced through some logic, then our morality matches, but if there's no plausible exception to why torturing someone is necessary when I find torture irreprehensible in the vast majority of scenarios involving torture, then I must conclude the God is not decent and revert to indecent God tactics.
And so, if God is a Warlord, you'd better be damn sure you're right and then go win his heart doing what such a being would desire and never have a feeling of safety that you'll never get boring. And otherwise, boy, if you're wrong... your only next hope is a twisted God who might just tolerate your actions. But if it is anything but a twisted or evil God, you will most certainly regret such a life in the judgement of this Decent God. And so, unless the person is just plain foolish, rash, and blood thirsty themselves, I can't see why they would choose to live in the hopes and full expectation of meeting a blood-thirsty God bent on deeply ruining their afterlife in a hell of fear. So most sane people ought to likely stick with and hope beyond hope we get a Decent God at best based upon our own concept of morals, or a Media Gob God that we gain special favor with by entertaining with amusement or other inspirational works of awe without getting on his bad side as best we can understand a decent God's morals.
So here, if we are absolute bonkers to merely assume the chance we're doomed before we start, we might as well try to not have an eternally suffering afterlife if we are Deists. If we are convinced or merely unsure if there is a Deity, we ought to assume he is at least Decent and that we have a decent chance of not screwing up our afterlife if we merely lead a life based upon our own moral framework. As such, I dare say we best live our lives up to the standard of our own morality if indeed we are a Deist. If our morality allows for forgiveness, then we might assume our God is a forgiver as well. If he is not a forgiver, then you're assuming a deity who will possibly never forgive you for something you did. A scary thought unless we know exactly how not to piss off this God. But unless he is an evil God as defined, described, argued for and concluded above, a decent God's level of forgiveness will match your own comprehension lest he not be decent. If he cannot with logic--via our own ability to reason through our own morality--convince us of an action's morality by our own definition of morality, then he is by our own definition immoral deities and thus not particularly decent or trustworthy.
If our Deity is not moral in our own eyes, then he is an unpredictable God which means we cannot predict him to be decent by our own standards. If our ideas of morality don't align, then we are again expecting uncertain peril: an unpredictable God whose morality does not match our own and thus we're at the mercy of a God whose morality is forever in question. Anything could go. We should wish to know as much as possible about such a God in-so-much as it is possible to comprehend but again, it's not possible to truly know anything about our situation. We could be in pods like in The Matrix ruled by robots, we could be a Simulation, we could be creations of God, Gods, Aliens, or who knows what, and everything we think we know is somehow planted, orchestrated, lies, or even misunderstood. Therefore, rather than guessing a morality opposed to our own, our best outcome is to hope for a decent God and behave as decently as we can comprehend in this life.
So I want to clarify a few things as this is a fragile understanding. This isn't to say that if we do something that we ourselves find immoral dooms us in the eyes of a Deity who, as we've established, can only be hoped to have the same morality as us. The Deity would use this same morality in reprimanding the act while also using our level of morality to decide what to do with us because of it. A God that would do anything beyond what we feel acceptable with your own understanding of morality would be, to us, an indecent God that we cannot predict. So this is to say that we do not always abide by our own level of morality and thus a Decent God by our moral justification of Decent would judge us as a whole within the same moral framework. Best it is to assume he has as close a moral disposition as whatever it is we currently comprehend lest we have to live illogically to our own morals.
So finally, it comes to my attention that we only have a few key "best actions for success" that seem to be shared among many worldviews or groups of belief. The various worldviews were identified with their suggested action for success in the given worldview.
- Caputers -- PvE (Player versus Everything)
- Survivalists
- Culturist
- Physical and/or Mortal Cultures -- Diplomatically
- Magical and/or Godly Cultures -- Diplomatically
- Etherialist -- PvE
- Deist
- Decent Deity -- Diplomatically
- Mischievous Deity -- Discretely Diplomatically
- Evil -- Evil Enough to Awe Evil
So we have 3 categories of worldviews to maximize our success at our goals in being alive.
- PvE -- live by whatever rules maximize the longevity of our self-selected goals.
- Discrete Diplomatically -- Live with a primary focus on learning harmonic living with everyone while secondarily enjoying side quests, but while blending in to the background
- Famously Diplomatically -- Live in harmony but do something rad enough to get attention.
- Awe-ful Evil - Awe-inspiring insidiousness to make the dark lord himself adore us.
As for PvE, the morality aspect is cut down to what will be found out about you in this life, but it's hard to be seen as moral if behaving immorally. It's just too hard to fake for so long. So generally, to be on the safe side, a PvE player is best to play Diplomatically unless they just love the challenge, but it doubles as a safety mechanism just in case they're wrong and there is some form of existence beyond this one where your dastardly deeds were revealed.
And that leaves the Diplomats. It doesn't really matter what framework led to this course of action, the result should be the same. Find the best ways to live in harmony in a way that you are a valued member of society. It's the best we could do and the most a decent deity could ask for. Without considering the likelihood of any one particular framework, this is the safest route based upon the options and expected gains and losses of being right or wrong. If one lives Diplomatically, there is no downside to being wrong about one's choices while potentially having a decent payout in an afterlife. The only time it could not benefit us is in the case of an evil or twisted God whom we've sickened with our decency. But again, if that's the God we've got, there's not much of a beneficial route to be taken.
In conclusion, apart from general decency and diplomacy as the best course of action, we could further choose to look toward anything above and beyond, but it only behooves us in as much as we can handle it while still enjoying this life. To think we ought to suffer in this life at our own hands is to assume an indecent God which, again, is a worthless assumption to live by. And so, this Diplomatic way of living could be reduced to a few slogans such as "Love your neighbor as yourself," or "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." In fact, most religions we have today pretty well teach this, but most adherents of these religions seem to forget it and put their politics or religious teachings before such simple strategy. Only a twisted God that we cannot predict would prefer we do that.
If we look back at our history and religions, we could possibly see clues into what we think this life really is, but it would be purely in academic interest since all options ultimately lead to one best chance at success whether Caputer or Survivalist: care for others and don't be a dick.
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