Your thoughts on prayer

Oh dear. Lifes brilliant isn't it? Of course it is...I know that as well as any other human being or animal on the planet. So why do you choose to make life a little less brilliant by worrying about what you're going to miss and who's going to miss you? That's so selfish. Does anyone really want to outlive their children, or their loved ones? No is the answer to that.

I'm not religious, but I still think, or rather hope, that death isn't the end. But if it is, so be it. I'm already 50, that's a much better age than millions of people reach.

Be thankful for what you've got, thats my motto. Spare a thought for those that can't see all the beautiful things in life.....there are plenty who can't. There are plenty more to be born that won't.

If you are religious, surely you believe there is a heaven, a God, another chance at it all. So why are you frightened?

I agree that life is amazing, wonderful, astounding etc.

We often lose sight of that fact during the mundane process of getting through the day, getting through the week, getting through the life...

But the word 'gift' implies a Giver - so I don't see it as a gift.

Andy, I don't spend time worrying about pegging out. But as you get older it does cross your mind now and again!  I am more than thankful for my life and have always felt empathy for those less fortunate. I love history and feel a real connection with the generations that have gone before. I like reading about their lives. I don't mean famous people particularly, but ordinary people like me. Destiny Obscure is a wonderful book. About the lives of children in the eighteen and early nineteen hundreds. I think how lucky we were to be born into a more affluent world.  I do believe in a heaven and God but that doesn't stop me from having normal thoughts....now and again!

John, I see life as the greatest gift of all. 

I’m sure we can all agree that everything has to be created, before the big bang I’m told space and time didn’t exist. Space I can understand being created but not time, Time is man mad, just like religion, there is a need for time, we need to know where in our existence we can meet up or arrange events so we made time measurable, we put hours, days and months together and it works. The only true measurement in the cosmos is distance, time is no consequence; time as we have adopted it only applies to where you are, the sun is 8 minuets behind us and some visible parts of the universe are tens of thousands of light years behind.

 Religion or the need of a God falls into the same category, we need it, it makes sense to have a reason why the flowers are so wonderful and poetry so moving. We need “religion” as we need “time” but the bottom line is we need neither, it’s of our making.

 I’m told the big bang created everything, including the flowers and mans ability to write poetry. We are an outcome of that original creative phenomenon, not a God….. but we NEED a God, so lets all rock on !!!  and pry it doesn’t rain tomorrow

What if you find youself in a position where the futue of someone else's life now depends on a decision from you? An example might be---

A dear loved one is taken to hospital afer suddenly becomming unwell. After several tests the doctors come back to you with the situation thus---

1) If we don't operate, the patient will be dead within 4 or 5 days.

2) If we do operate, the operation will very likely kill them as they are so frail.

3) If by some miracle they do survive the operation, they will be little more than a vegetable for the rest of their lives.

The doctor asks what would you now wish them to do?  Now that person's life is in your hands. What would you choose to have them do? It's your call.

That's a hard one Paul, and it's easy to be on this side of the debate and come up with an answer. However, if actually faced with the situation I am not sure what I would do.  Firstly, I'd hope that the person in question had given me some sort of clue as to what they would want in that situation, be it a living will or even just their verbal expression.

Foregoing that, I'd try to make the decision that I think the person involved would want me to make based on their temperament and preferences in the past.