This question was buried in a thread about "What is the LDS 'Gospel'?" and I'm curious to know what people now think would be the most life-changing Good News:

If you're out of Mormonism, even an atheist (I was never Mormon), what One Thing would you now consider to be the greatest existential Good News that you could hear or you could realize?

Given that life in "consensus reality" is filled with degrees of suffering and often frustrated pursuits of happiness, and it always ends with debilitation and death, I'd say for me that such Good News would be: 'This life-as-you-know-it is only your dream, with you stringing yourself along, and you can waken from it...even NOW!' Something like that.

Richard Foxe Wrote:
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> Good News would be: 'This life-as-you-know-it is
> only your dream, with you stringing yourself
> along, and you can waken from it...even NOW!'
> Something like that.

I like your definition, but I want to wake up to find that all the *Good* in my life is still there... the rest was just a random nightmare.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2014 09:59PM by builderbob.

But what parts of our lives are unqualifiedly good? Something could always be better...

> But what parts of our lives are unqualifiedly
> good? Something could always be better...

This smacks of Mormonism to me. "Good" and "better" are subjective terms. As such, they are open to interpretation. So, some people could consider their lives to be unqualifiedly good with nothing that could be better.

When Boswell, in 1773, quoted some officer who had "actually lived some time in the wilds of America" about how content the life of a noble savage was ("Here am I, free and unrestrained, with this Indian woman by my side, and this gun, with which I can procure food when I want it: what more can be desired for human happiness"), Johnson responded:

"Do not allow yourself, sir, to be imposed upon by such gross absurdity. It is sad stuff; it is brutish. If a bull could speak, he might as well exclaim,--Here am I with this cow and this grass; what being can enjoy greater felicity?"

The good news?

That life isn't actually some big convoluted rat race we run in order to be in a higher caste in an even more convoluted caste system which is in place after we die.

That would be it, nonsequiter!

And not having to worry about the Celestial Kingdom, we can be happy in the moment.

...do exiting Mormons have "light at the end of the tunnel," grass-is-greener delusions about what secular life is like? Is it a version (I know, a rather big version) of the 'if this particular would only change/disappear, THEN I'd be (able to be) happy...' fond imagination?

Just how many nevermos, or even religion-free individuals, really ARE continually joyful in their moment-to-moments? In what country? On this planet? With the big blinder removed, funny how we become aware of all sorts of uncovered continuing obstacles to happiness, probably there all along & not just rising to replace the church and its culture.

Richard Foxe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd say for me that such
> Good News would be: 'This life-as-you-know-it is
> only your dream, with you stringing yourself
> along, and you can waken from it...even NOW!'
> Something like that.

Your Good News is inevitable. No one escapes Nature's demand that we give back our bodies. We die, and perhaps "awaken". I no longer worry about that "perhaps". It will or will not be as it is or it isn't. C'est la vie.

My greatest existential Good News that would utterly change my life would be knowing precisely the year, day and hour of my death. That changes everything. Like many, I live as if life goes on forever, putting off things that really shouldn't be put off, like getting to The Louvre or swimming off a hut on the Maldives. But I may live to be 95, and that's a lot of years of necessary funds sans work income. So, I put off things I'd like to do before the dream ends.

Preserve and enjoy nature.

Manage resources sustainably.

Be nice/ do no harm to others.

My new Good News is objective nihilism and subjective selfishness.

I should probably explain.

At first, objective nihilism is the worst kind of nightmare for someone that's been planning for decades on being an eternal God in the highest degree of Heaven. But it's what finally made me free -- free of sin, free of guilt, free of anxiety about making "mistakes".

Subjective selfishness means I am free to pursue happiness as I see fit. That's doesn't mean I'm a jerk; I still have empathy, and I still choose to derive a considerable amount of my happiness from the happiness of others (so, I'm still nice to other people). But it does mean I get to come first, which I've come to treasure as my most precious possession... living my life for others was never really living.

seems like people's Good News concerns ways to make this present life experience better...instead of imagining something better than this present life experience. Maybe that's still a kind of in-the-box thinking...after all, some might argue, the box is 'scientifically proven' to be reality.

That the cream really does rise to the top.

That there really is Eternal Progression and it has nothing to do with any religion but is in fact more inherent to the human condition. And, the further you progress, the more you are surrounded by explorers fueled by empathy. You get to be with your own enlightened kind who continually perfect themselves and you leave the greedy,mean spirited, and selfish behind--not in hell, just somewhere where you don't have to deal with them on a daily basis.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2014 10:24AM by blueorchid.

If a real cure for cancer and Alzheimer's were announced. The news would far surpass anything coming down from a pulpit.

Ron Burr

+1 You prioritize the welfare of others, Ron. You already are what the religious claim they want to be.


--Don

Cures to those things would be excellent. But treatments racks in the money. When the patient dies, there are 5 to 10 more patients as the populace ages. Cancer is big business.


Then you have this statement:

“If you’re trying to develop a new drug, that costs you a billion dollars to get through the FDA,” Thiel remarked. “If you want to start a software company, you can get started with maybe $100,000.”

(Source: Peter Thiel interview w/ Glenn Beck, Oct 21st 2014)
Peter is co-founder of pay-pal and angel investor for Facebook


The take away is that innovation for drugs is expensive. From inception to the market the COST is so much more than starting a tech company. That goes for new drugs that either provide treatment until patient's death or a drug that actually cures an ailment.

Appreciate the beauty of this moment and share it.