As one gets on in life, one starts to ponder those unanswerable questions about life,
the universe and everything - is there a god, or gods? Is there life after death and so on?
This is the result of said whacky ruminations.
And no, I haven't been at the skunkweed, honest!
Or the crack.
Okay, okay, it was the Gaelic coffee, all right?!

i...... First of all, forget all about any religious texts you may have read, and the things The Men in White Robes tell you to believe. Most of it fails the Common Sense Test.

ii..... For example, consider the Judaeo-Christian bible. It was written thousands of years ago. Since then, it's been interpreted, translated, added to, re-interpreted, edited and mistranslated, according to divine inspiration or the vagaries and vested interests of the phallocratic writers, until it's little more than duck soup.

iii.... The gnostic gospels have been omitted, along with any reference to other contenders for the position of 'Messiah' such as Appolonius of Tyana, Simon Magus and Simon-bar-Kokhba. How can one put any faith in such a cut 'n' paste document?

iv..... Secondly, you can also ignore much of what scientists tell you, too. The Men in White Coats are just a modern day continuation of The Men in White Robes.

v...... So far, the wise men of both sides have told us that: the Earth is at the centre of the universe, the sun goes round the Earth, the Earth goes round the sun, the Earth is flat, the Earth is an oblate spheroid, matter can neither be created nor destroyed, an atom is the smallest part of an element or compound, and so it goes on. Dark energy, anybody?

vi..... To give credit where it's due, The Men in White Coats - and these days, women too - are trying to push out the boundaries of knowledge. If information is encountered which contradicts accepted knowledge, it is investigated and tested, and if it stands up to detailed scrutiny, the records are amended to take account of the new information. And not all adherents of religious creeds want to exterminate everyone who believes something different.

vii.... The point is that they got things wrong in earlier centuries. Why should we think they've got it right now? Because they say so? I don't think so. 'Science' refers simply the present state of human knowledge. Currently, the problems of dark matter and dark energy, among other things, are threatening to blow a sizeable hole in earlier scientific thinking.

viii... For the sake of the argument, I'm surmising that life, consciousness, spirit, call it what you will, does continue in some form after death. (If not then there's nothing more to discuss.) There is no solid, cast-iron, money-back-if-you're-not-totally-satisfied-guarantee evidence for this, only hearsay. I make no claims and no promises about this. You're free to make up your own mind. Agree or disagree as you wish.

ix..... It seems reasonable to me to suppose that the universe existed for many billions of years before life in any form began on Earth - or before the creation of the planet, come to that. It doesn't need someone to watch it; it just is.

x ...... If all life were to disappear, it also seems probable that all the stars, black holes, dark matter, cosmic background radiation and so on, will carry on doing their thing. They don't need human observation for their existence.

xi ..... So, regardless of how life began, why did it begin at all? It would seem to be irrelevant that, on one little blue planet in the backwoods of the Milky Way galaxy, a few molecules should get together to produce 'living things' and evolve into beings that seek to comprehend the nature of the universe. It doesn't make sense. Where's the point?

xii.... Because, throughout nature, things seem to happen for a reason, and life, once created, seems intent on surviving, even when that life is nasty, brutish and short. Plants even, which one surmises, have no comprehension of life or death, struggle to survive in the severest circumstances. Why? It wouldn't make any difference in the grand scheme of things if they all gave in and died today. They're going to die anyway. Why later rather than sooner? Unless there actually is a point somewhere.

xiii... So, if life continues in some way after death, then what? Are we supposed to think we only have this one life we're currently living? That we didn't exist before conception/birth? That once we die, we keep living eternally in some version of heaven/paradise - or that we remain dead until some 'final judgement' and then get sorted out into damned souls and blessed ones?

xiv.... And does it make sense to you that your ultimate destination - heaven or hell - is decided on the basis of just one lifetime? That lifetime may last a matter of hours during which time you have had no opportunity to commit even one single sin. You would then be guaranteed a place in heaven even if, had you lived long enough, you would have been worse than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot rolled into one.

xv ..... Then again, you could have been born in 1900 and lived into the 21^st century. You might have fought in two world wars and killed a number of people - maybe even thousands of people - and therefore be thoroughly damned. Does this sound fair to you? It doesn't seem fair to me.

xvi .... Does it seem likely that, over aeons of time, we live, as we know it, for the prescribed three score years and ten and spend the rest of eternity doing bugger-all but singing or suffering? Common sense suggests not. The other option, reincarnation, seems a better bet.

xvii... If we have more than one lifetime, how many do we have? The number could be infinite - which makes eternity look like forever, doesn't it? This is a scary thought when one considers all the horrible things that can happen in one lifetime... Hold that thought; we'll come back to it later.

xviii.. This brings me to 'The God Thing.' Again, accepting for the sake of the argument that there is some divine power, then to justify the term 'God,' it must be at least omnipotent and omniscient, and also possibly omnipresent.

xix.... If it exists, what form might it take? Well, not a grumpy old man with a long white beard - all too human. The same goes for gender. If it doesn't procreate, it wouldn't need to be either male or female. In fact, there is no need for it to take any particular form; if it did, then as an omnipotent being, it could take any form it wants. Flying Spaghetti Monster anyone?

xx.... It must also be pretty much non-interventionist. Any being that knows everything, and has the power to cause whatever it wants to happen happen, makes meddling in the affairs of humanity totally irrelevant.

xxi .... If you know you're the only god, why command humans not to worship other gods? It doesn't make sense. Why would any God care if humans worship it¹ any more than we care about whether the ants in an anthill at the bottom of the garden worship us? We know we're many, many times more powerful than they are; we don't need to prove it.

xxii... Still not convinced? Take a look at the night sky, preferably somewhere with no light pollution and on a moonless night. Look at the Milky Way - our galaxy. There are millions and millions of stars. Some are small, light yellow G2 class stars like our sun; some have planets orbiting them.

xxiii.. Of these planets, most found so far are gas giants like Jupiter and several times its mass. As technology improves, more and smaller planets are being found. And that's just in one galaxy.

xxiv ... Most ofthe planets discovered are also too close to their suns to sustain life as we know it.

xxv ... Yet, against all expectation, a certain species of shrimp manages to live around black smokers - volcanic vents on the ocean floor. The environment is boiling hot, toxically acidic and has no natural light, but they not only survive but flourish.

xxvi... Again, if you look closely at the night sky, you'll also see a number of faint smudges in the darker sky. Some of these are 'stellar nurseries' where new stars are forming; some are galaxies like our own, each containing millions and millions of stars. Using a telescope or binoculars will reveal many more of these

xxvii .. Next, take a look at some of the Hubble Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field photographs. The Hubble telescope was pointed at what looks like an empty area of sky and took a number of long duration photographs. This empty sky was found to be packed with yet more galaxies, each containing millions and millions of stars.

xxviii. Millions of galaxies with billions of stars - and planets scattered in the mix. Think about it...

xxix To imagine that any omniscient, omnipotent being would be intimately interested in the activities of any group of humans, let alone any one person, shows breathtaking arrogance and extreme hubris on the part of those who claim to be speaking for God and/or to be bringing about God's will. They know no more nor less than you do about What God Wants.

xxx.... And if you should happen to have some direct communication from God, please - keep it to yourself. It might also be a good idea to cut down on your consumption of psychotropic recreational drugs or whatever... Just remind yourself that God is big enough and ugly enough to take care of itself, and is perfectly able, being omnipotent, to make itself understood without any equivocation and without any external assistance, thank you very much.

¹ But see Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.

xxxi... Then there's this concept of hell, as in hellfire and eternal damnation. Where does that some from? If god is omniscient and omnipotent, then it created everything. That would include hell and the devil then. So the actions of the devil and his minions also come under the control of God, should God decide to exercise it.

xxxii.. This means that, if hell were to exist and you ended up there, that would be god's doing. Really?

xxxiii . Consider this. If our children do something annoying, do we dig a big hole in the garden, fill it with flammable materials, pour paraffin on it, set it alight and toss the children in? Of course we don't. And 'The Loving Father' has worse parenting skills than we have?

xxxiv .. This suggests that hell and the devil are entirely man-made constructs to frighten 'the peasants' into doing what they're told and can thus be summarily dismissed.

xxxv ... For those who still think we have only one lifetime after which it's the flames or the feasting, here are a few things to ponder:

xxxvi.. If there were a heaven, what makes you think you're good enough to get in? Are you really righteous, or merely self-righteous?

xxxvii . If you did make it into your idea of heaven, and then found that some of, or even just one of, your nearest and dearest was not there, could you enjoy the pleasures of heaven knowing that they were enduring the everlasting flames? I know I couldn't.

xxxviii. If you are only good because you think it'll get you into heaven, and if you refrain from doing evil deeds because you're afraid of going to hell, then you aren't really good at all. Your actions are fuelled entirely by self-interest.

xxxix.. The choices must be the result of free will to have any value, which argues an absence of both eternal bliss or eternal damnation. Hold that thought; we'll come back to that later too.

xl ..... Now the Big Crunch Question: if an omnipotent God exists, why does it allow all the terrible things in this world to happen - and to go on happening? You know, wars, famine, disease, torture, general cruelty and so on. Why doesn't it step in and stop it?

xli .... Here, we revisit the non-interventionist concept. In any war, there are those who think it is a righteous war. On both sides. There will also be those who oppose the very idea of going to war. On both sides. So which side would you have God take? Your side? Or the other side?

xlii ... So how about torture then? Most people would agree that that is Bad with a capital 'B.' Under torture, you could probably get anyone to confess to being on the grassy knoll in Dallas on 22^nd November 1963, and murdering President Kennedy.

xliii .. Then again, you might persuade a terrorist to give details of a coming attack which would prevent another atrocity like the bombing of the World Trade Centre. Which would be a good thing. Wouldn't it?

xliv ... What of the torturers? A nasty bunch, I'm sure you would agree. But could you honestly say that you would never torture someone if your family were in the cell next door awaiting death, or worse, if you didn't?

xlv.... How about those unfortunates who are born with one or more disabilities? Surely God could step in and make every baby physically perfect? So why doesn't it?

xlvi ... First we should consider possible reasons for the births of people with greater or lesser disabilities. They allow those around them to show their compassion in helping to care for those unfortunates. They also enable others to reveal their selfish nature in choosing to do nothing.

xlvii .. It may also be that, if there is reincarnation, they may have been selfish in turning away from someone who needed their help, or done something which caused another to become disabled - drink-driving, for instance. Being born with a similar disability would enable the selfish person or the drunk driver to learn at first hand what being dependant on others is really like.

xlviii . It may also be that some of these are 'great souls' who return voluntarily in an imperfect body in order to bring out the best in others. We have no means of knowing.

xlix ... Another question often under consideration is free will or predestination? Why not both? Try a thought experiment. If you undertake a journey, you have the free will to choose which route to take, but whichever route you pick, the buildings you will see on your way are predestined. Take route A and you'll pass a windmill; route B will take you past a church with a spire; route C goes by a high tower.

l ...... The big difference is that, in life, we don't get to see the map, so we don't know where the swamps are until we're bogged down in them, or we're teetering on the edge of a cliff that we didn't know was there.

li ..... Revisiting the ideas of many lifetimes (xvii) and free will in respect of one's place in heaven or hell (xxxix) then perhaps each lifetime is in fact merely an educational journey.

lii .... Perhaps we have certain things to learn or achieve during that time and our performance will be assessed at the end of it. Then, in the manner of 'karma,' we'll be given a new set of objectives to attain, a little like making another journey, and always without that damn' map!

liii ... As regards being punished by everlasting flames for our 'sins,' clearly wrong-doing, while it may be forgiven (in the case of true repentance, not I'm sorry because I got caught) cannot be excused. Forgiveness is not a 'get out of hell free card.' We cannot, and should not be able to, avoid the consequences of our actions.

liv .... The situation could be continued through into the next lifetime and the same circumstances confronted. If we do the right thing this time, we move on; repeat the wrong-doing, and we live the same situation over and over again until we choose to do the right thing.

lv ..... Where we have done someone wrong, perhaps our objective in the next lifetime(s) is to make amends to those we have wronged - however long it takes for those whom we have harmed to be satisfied.

lvi .... So, if there is some sort of heaven, it would seem likely that we will have to live many, many lifetimes before we get there. Consider a worst case scenario. Hitler. He would have to make amends to the six million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals et al. who died as a result of the Holocaust. And to anyone who thinks that never happened - SMACK!!! - It happened!

lvii ...Hitler would also have to make amends to all the servicemen and women who died as a result of World War II, and also to every family member or friend of those killed, injured, disabled or otherwise adversely affected by his actions - or inactions.

lviii .. So could Hitler get into heaven? Yes, but not for a very, very, very long time - millions of lifetimes still to come...

lix .... In conclusion, whatever we believe - and atheism is a belief system too - we're more than likely to be wrong. The above just seems reasonably fair and logical to me. YMMV and probably does. ::Big Fat Hairy Grin::

lx ..... Finally - have a good life!.. 8-)