Recognizing memory beyond the physical is our best shot at peace
All trauma can be turned into beauty given a long enough story. The stories allowed by physicalism are not long enough to allow peace.
Many people believe that peace is impossible for human beings. They believe humans are innately capable of evil, and thus we will always have predators.
Is there any way to not be consumed by fear despite believing that we always have a reason to expect some predators? Not be consumed by fear despite believing we will never be guaranteed to be free from pain? Yes: believe that you can find beauty regardless of what comes to pass.
What is beauty? Beauty is about patterns. It is about asymmetry at the small scale that becomes symmetry at larger scales, like a snowflake. In life stories, it is about leveraging the power of trauma to do things that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. This article is a product of trauma.
If you stay zoomed-in to a small part of a pattern, you will miss the bigger picture. Only valuing physical experiences causes us to see endings in things that don’t have to be endings.
If we realized that our most meaningful memories existed in the substance of consciousness itself (as suggested by the evidence, also discussed in the article below), we would not fear death as much.
But if we believe our experiences end with physical death, there are some stories that cannot be turned around. Some wounds that cannot be healed. Some pain that cannot be worth it. And it follows that we might choose to avoid that pain at all costs. Even if it means ending the stories of countless others.