my thoughts on religion and the meaning of life

ill try and keep this as respectful as possible, im fully open to the possiblity of a God and im not here to bash on your beliefs, do whatever you want.

we were learning about the beliefs of some religions in a philosophy lesson and i found the whole thing a bit stressful as someone who cant really imagine a higher power. we looked at the belief that if you follow what youre meant to do (based on gender and class etc) you will eventually progress to a better life until you reach heaven. but what i didnt understand was that you HAD to be limited to this, other people were understanding and explaining it but i still had so many questions.

personally i believe you live and you die, and thats it. i find it a bit worrying the idea of living a restricted life based on what im born into, because if you do that then how are you going to get ANY fulfilment out of your life whatsoever?

if you do only live once and you spend that life telling yourself "right im a street cleaner and this is what i will do forever, in the next life ill be something better" youre gonna be a bit pissed when you die and realise "that was it?"

of course afterlife and ressurection can be a possibility and theres so much evidence pointing to it but this is just what i think.

"okay, whats the meaning of life then"

nobody knows that, thats completely subjective to the individual. but i believe you should be grateful for the fact that youre alive, THATS INSANE!! youre just a sperm and an egg that happened to meet eachother at this specific time when it couldve been ANYTHING ELSE.

because of this, you should make the most out of it. do what you want to do because ultimately nothing matters, everything is a concept of human perception. you could literally live in a bush all your life and nobody can stop you.

think about it. money? pieces of paper we gave a value, not real. time? we live on a rock that spins around the sun, time is just a way of measuring that, still not real.

id like to end this by quoting one of my favourite comedians of all time, bill hicks, who sums up what im trying to say perfectly: 

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are.

And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while." (some more happens then it goes back into this bit again:

"But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. 

No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as ONE."

(bill hicks was a genius, everything he said was absolutely brilliant and i think we should continue to appreciate him. look up this bit on youtube "life is just a ride")