Dying Well

[Belacqua]

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For me, I wonder if religious dogma might actually limit a person's ability to live well. 

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Serious question, and to answer it I'd say we'd need to settle two big issues:

1) which dogma? and 

2) what does it mean to live well?

So, like -- that's pretty much all of philosophy right there. 

Presumably there can be better dogma and worse dogma. In theory, there might even be true dogma. That is, a set of principles laid down as true that actually are true. Since this is forum is extremely unsympathetic to such ideas, probably nobody here accepts that there could be a set of such principles that everyone really ought to live by. 

Of course if the dogma is bad, and you tried to live by it, then your life could get messed up. 

We live in an extremely liberal time, in which living one's own way is seen as the best thing. People will assert this as if it is dogmatically true. Of course there have been arguments throughout history that because of the kind of animals we are, there are certain parameters which should govern our behavior. Aristotle, for example, thinks that the nature of human beings points toward a certain end, and people who choose something else are simply incorrect. Dante adopts this in a Christian version, in which Christian dogma is not an arbitrary set of laws from on high but simply the best way for animals like us to be healthy and happy. 

So if there is, as has often been asserted, a set of parameters limiting what it means to live well, then a good dogma would be useful for living that way. 

After the affairs of this life are all said and done, eternity awaits, right? So, the flicker of time one spends on this side of death cannot possibly carry much significance. 

I don't know of any religion which asserts this. While some do think you'll be in eternity after death, that doesn't mean that the current life is of no significance. In fact building the right conditions of eternity for yourself is often said to depend on how you live your life in the world. 

Also, aiming toward eternity doesn't necessarily mean giving up good things in this life. Sometimes people talk as if the idea of heaven prevents them from having the kind of fun they really want. But if that kind of fun would prevent you from going to heaven, then it isn't a good thing to do. Basically, such people are saying they want to do bad things -- but it seems to me that a life of doing bad things is not living well. Unless your idea of living well is just being irresponsible and getting away with it all the time.