W/e you are saying here, what I meant was that yes, I know there are people who belieeeeeve in that there is an after-life and I am not saying they are wrong or anything, but I am asuming that even those people know that that is just a theory they believe in, since obviously you can't be 100% sure, it's called believing for a reason. No one can be sure of it, it's just common sense.
Not trying to be rude or offensive, I swear. But this is just a rephrase of what you wrote above. You are suggesting the people who have an afterlife-oriented worldview have no rational justification for their belief, it's all "faith", in every absolute sense of the word. People do believe but they are not sure of their belief, it's just an arbitrary theory and that's the end of it. You're not giving their claim of objectivity any benefit of doubt. And this is where I take an opposing stance and say, we have to give them a benefit of doubt in keeping with intellectual honesty. We can't just start off from an assumption borne out of nothing.
Also, you yourself said this is an assumption, but in the last line of para you attribute this to common sense. Isn't "common sense" used in such a context arbitrary?
I'm not a huge fan of dealing with "what if" scenarios but alright. Given the premise you have described, I would take the after life into account while living my current life, though it wouldn't be an overwhelming factor. I don't want to go to hell or get reincarnated as an insect or whatever but I want to enjoy the present moment too and if I'm consistently thinking about life after death I don't think I could do that.
Firstly, you can label it a "what if" scenario, but let's not keep that label from giving it appropriate benefit of doubt. Also, the proposed hypothetical scenario was introduced to drive home the point that one's belief in afterlife
does have a place in worldview building. Your post conceded this point, to an extent at least.
For you, enjoying the moment is more or equally important than/as concern for the future. Not to critique this view, this is just you. Other people, might have "sold their present life at the cost of hereafter" because the thought of eternal bliss or damnation keeps them from attributing any value to this life (this is assuming they have certainty of hereafter, not just a theory or blind belief). This is why it's a serious issue. Also, I think the reason such an issue is rendered not-that-serious is because of the assumption perennial philosophy makes: none of us can know which is the right way, so let's just pretend there is none.
As for the remainder of your post, I think we need to burrow a bit deeper than that. A worldview is not just about doing things, it's about how you look at life; how you define words like success, purpose, pleasure and so on. Actions come as a result of these "states of heart". But your post, apparently at least, uses words like "enjoy the present moment", "accomplishments", "achievements" and "successes" arbitrarily. These words are not objective by themselves. Their meanings are products of the worldviews we adopt.
To illustrate with an example: people involved in community services define success differently:
- A humanist, and perhaps a buddhist, would try his utmost to preserve life and end the sufferings of people (focusing on what result his or her actions bring).
- An alternative version of the humanist would not do it for the results, but for the sake of what he called moral values intrinsic to men (focusing on effort, because an itching conscience is put to rest mostly by intention behind an action, as opposed to an action with no substance).
- A Christian or a Muslim, on the other hand, would do the same actions to please God and to meet Him in the hereafter (not focusing on the results, but the effort put in, because God's pleasure is earned not by the action but the intention behind said action).
And the list of intentions go on: for the show, for entertainment, to get rid of boredom etc. So yeah, it's a long list. All these people define success or living the present moment differently. The concept of hereafter definitely plays out in this worldview choosing and hence their motivation behind what they do. So there is no "objective" definition of success. You think yours is objective because you are thinking in terms of your worldview, which has no concept of anything beyond the present life. This is why I said your goals are arbitrary.
