Life, Death, and Truth
Questions about death and truth are often framed as questions of theology or questions of fact. In reality, such matters are often more culturally influenced.
This can be seen in the vast array of approaches people from the same theological background take to these topics. For example, one atheist may see the cessation of an individual as something that only happens when a person literally dies, while another may see the cessation of an individual as a fractional thing that happens whenever the individual changes (i.e., these two atheists have different answers to Theseus’s Ship).
A single individual can look at both these perspectives and recognize them as equally valid in that they are two ways of perceiving the same set of facts. This doesn’t spare these individuals from an obligation to “choose” which of these two lenses they’ll use when contending with the concept of death.
Choices like these are often made for us by our cultivars. The lenses through which cultivars present major issues like life, death, and truth can heavily impact adherents’ lives, touching everything from their grieving practices to the careers they select.