Published by I don’t believe the popular idea that there is a God up in heaven who created everything and answers our prayers, and that we have to believe in him to go to heaven. I don’t really believe in the conventional ideas of heaven and hell either. I don’t think we can truly know what, if anything, God is, or if there even is an afterlife, until after we die. While I don’t think we can know these things for sure, I can speculate, based on common sense and my own experiences.
While I don’t believe in a personified idea of God, I think that there is some kind of “energy,” if you will, that ties everything in existence together, and that we are all a part of. It’s kinda hard to explain, but I think that the universe in general and everything contained in it is part of a single “divine” force. Therefore, people who claim there is one, many, or no God(s) are all correct, and incorrect, at the same time.
I believe that “Good” and “Evil” are primarily human constructions, and there can’t be one without the other. As Satan in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut said in his song Up There, “without evil there can be no good, so it must be good to be evil sometimes.” Without “evil” there is nothing to measure “good” by, so there would be no way to know what was good if there where no evil. I believe that evil is necessary for the universe to remain in balance. This idea differs from a lot of people’s beliefs, as most religious people preach about ridding the world of evil and Satan’s presence (they usually end up creating a lot more evil in their crusades to rid the world of evil, but that’s a different thing entirely). I also think that good and evil aren’t always black and white. For example, fundamentalists Christians think that stem cell research is evil, even though in the long run, it will save millions of lives. Most religious people, I’ve found, tend to have very disturbed ideas of morality.
I don’t think that God answers prayers, since there’s isn’t an actual God, but I think in some cases, your prayers and wishes can be “answered.” Since everything is connected by the universe, the energy from your mind can possibly influence events. I’m not so sure about this idea, but it makes sense. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence when things seem to happen the way you wished, but things do seem to end up the way they should. This idea differs from the mainstream ideas on prayer, because Christians think that they can just ask God for everything they want and they’ll get it with no real effort on their part.
I don’t think that there is a heaven and hell (and if there is, heaven sounds extremely boring, and I think I’d rather go to hell anyway). I’m not really sure what I believe about the afterlife. I kind of believe in reincarnation, but I think there might be some cases in which you can remain as a spirit. Perhaps there’s some kind of spirit world you can remain in while you’re not on Earth. I think there are other planets with life similar to Earth, and you can probably reincarnate on those other planets if you want to, since Earth isn’t going to last forever, but I think souls probably do. Maybe that idea discredits everything else I typed here. It should be noted though, I do realize that every cult, like Scientology, that believes in aliens and such is just that, and insane cult, and I am relentless in my mocking of such cults. We might never encounter alien species in the physical world, and we can’t remember past lives while we’re alive anyway, so it is irrelevant. I think that the afterlife is not important, as we should be focusing on living our lives to the fullest now instead of worrying about what’s going to happen when we die, as it is entirely possible that there is nothing else waiting for us after this life. Perhaps when you die your soul is just recycled into the universe and your personality and everything is lost. But it doesn’t matter right now.
I also believe in karma. Usually it comes back to you in this life, but perhaps for really evil people like Hitler, it will follow you to the next life, if reincarnation is true. I think most people believe in karma now-a-days, but there are some people who think that they can do whatever they want and not worry about the consequences. Perhaps karma, in some cases at least, is caused by a guilty conscience. If you know something you did was wrong, you might feel bad about it, and subconsciously create sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
While I don’t believe in organized religion at all, I think some people do need it. Some people need the security of thinking that there is a father-figure God watching everything they do and keeping their lives on track. I suppose it would be comforting to think that, even when things go very wrong in your life, that it’s all part of a greater plan that some kind of God has for you, and that he’s still looking out for you. This seems kind of childish to me, and prevents people from taking responsibility for their own lives, but to each their own. My biggest problem with religion, I think, is that people tend to use it to take advantage of other people, everything from going on TV and asking for money in the name of God, to brainwashing them to think that a war and senseless killing is okay because it’s somehow for God.
Basically, God is whatever you want it to be, and you have to use your best judgement when deciding between good and evil. The afterlife is unimportant right now, as it distracts from life. Religion is not nearly as important as taking control of your own life and living the best way you know how.
