It it wasn't for the fact that today/tomorrow is Easter, I don't think I would have responded like this to your comment.
Of course, everyone will have to make their own decision about whether this story is worthy of believing.
But, I feel I would be remiss if I did not point out that the whole point of Christianity, and especially Easter, is that Death is not the end. Christians believe that God who created the entire universe, took on human form. This man who was God in human flesh, Jesus, did all sorts of miracles. Finally, he was publicly executed by the Romans, and buried in a tomb. However, 3 days later, he rose from the dead!
That is what Christians all over the world are celebrating today! That death is not the end, that Jesus conquered death, and because he rose, if we trust in him, we will also triumph over death.
Death is no longer the feared end to everything, but rather just the doorway to enter into a an unimaginably more exciting and fulfilling life.
I don't think anyone captures that sentiment as well as CS Lewis in the final paragraphs of his book, The Last Battle:
"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
OP’s post resonates with me because I know I would feel the exact same way without my faith. I know it’s unfashionable these days to believe that faith and reason can coexist, but I’ve fought that battle for years and can only say my faith grows deeper and my love of reason grows stronger every year. I completely believe that we are the only species that feels existential dread, and it’s because we are designed in a special way for purpose and relationship. I’m not religious because it makes me happy, but nothing else has given me the tools to survive all the horrors life throws at you, and I hope other people can find that solid foundation too.
> I completely believe that we are the only species that feels existential dread, and it’s because we are designed in a special way for purpose and relationship
The alternative explanation is that there's a conflict between our high level of cognitive ability, giving us the power to imagine our own deaths and non-existence, coming into conflict with the baser survival instinct. Design is not a pre-requisite for the feeling of existential dread.
> nothing else has given me the tools to survive all the horrors life throws at you
I'm glad that religion has given you those tools you need, but religion also doesn't have a monopoly on them.
There are lots of stories about immortality, life after death, or rebirth, and there isn't any particularly compelling reason to believe this one over any of the others.
I believe Christianity because I think this universe is broken and all the pain and suffering it includes cannot be good. I reject materialism because it requires a belief in matter for matter’s sake with no other first cause.
Other people of course can come to different conclusions.
You can see as both as a way to bring solace to people so death doesn't looks so meaningless and as a way to justify suffering in this life because the next is so much better.
Two sides of the same coin, compassion and tyranny inextricably linked.
Unless you're not religious and then there is only either despair or acceptance -and this life is the only one we should cherish and fight for.
Of course, everyone will have to make their own decision about whether this story is worthy of believing.
But, I feel I would be remiss if I did not point out that the whole point of Christianity, and especially Easter, is that Death is not the end. Christians believe that God who created the entire universe, took on human form. This man who was God in human flesh, Jesus, did all sorts of miracles. Finally, he was publicly executed by the Romans, and buried in a tomb. However, 3 days later, he rose from the dead!
That is what Christians all over the world are celebrating today! That death is not the end, that Jesus conquered death, and because he rose, if we trust in him, we will also triumph over death.
Death is no longer the feared end to everything, but rather just the doorway to enter into a an unimaginably more exciting and fulfilling life.
I don't think anyone captures that sentiment as well as CS Lewis in the final paragraphs of his book, The Last Battle:
"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.