Wednesday, November 01, 2006 . 11/01/2006

I've been reading through my history book for school, and there's lots of interesting things in there. However, I find it hard to really concentrate. Like I'll pick out topics that look interesting and read that, and then I get tired. I want to know everything but I can't force myself to. Another thing I don't like is these questions at the end of each lesson.. things I don't really care for. I do better when I just think things through, instead of writing it down. Sometimes I'll be thinking about something, look to the questions in the lesson, and I lose my train of thought. I hate it. I know I don't have to complete those small assignments as it won't count towards my grade anyway, just the exams will, but I still feel like I should answer the questions. If I don't, it feels like I'm not doing something right, even if my understanding on the subject is good.

School things aside, today has been pretty good. I watched tv before I did any work, and there wasn't much on. There was something on the history channel about the Neandrathals, however, so I watched that, and as most things do, it got me thinking. Since these early humans buried their dead, men mostly, with flowers and other such items, did they have a belief in an afterlife? Think about it: you live in such an early time that barely anything is known, and causes of death are no exception. So, imagine returning to your cave when you find a family member laying still, not breathing. You check the body, try to wake the person up, but nothing happens. Where did this person's personality go? Could it have just vanished, or did it travel to some other place, unknown and unseen by the human eye? Did these early peoples believe in deities?

I don't know just how advanced the Neandrathals' minds were, so it is hard to say if they were capable of believing in supernatural things such as gods. Naturally people search for a reason as to why something occurs, and if none is found, a reason is thought up, such as a deity causes it to rain. As far as I know, no tell-tale signs of early people believing in gods exists, so perhaps they just didn't think about it, or were uncapable of doing so. And, perhaps they buried their dead with care just because the dead person was well-loved, and not because of any afterlife beliefs. We may never know.

Sometimes I wonder if there is even a point in thinking about things like this other than I enjoy it. Sometimes I wish my mind would just shut up for once. I feel like a damn nerd. Years of not having any real friends will do that to you. 0 Comments - Post/view comments