My religion is that something weird is going on, and I don't know what it is -- and neither do you.

My religion is that something weird is going on, but I don't know what it is -- and you don't either. Sorry about that second part, but you don't. Much of religion is wishful thinking: we don't want to think about being dead, with the lights turned off and nothing of us remaining, anywhere. Bones? Tombstones? Cold comfort. That's why we invented heaven, a place where we will finally be understood and appreciated. Wishful thinking indeed! Hey, it may exist, but we don't have any evidence of it. But we're still looking, right? In the meantime, we have to try to figure out how to live in this world. I mean, if there really is a heaven, you'll be accepted there only if you've been good in this life, right? If you've been bad, really bad, then you're not likely going to any heaven any of us can imagine. I think that's the sticking point: imagining heaven. How can mere humans conjure a place beyond this life where we can all exist in utter bliss? Or hell, where our earthly sins are punished by eternal damnation? The one is as hard to believe as the other, don't you think? We're probably, limited as we are by our finite brains, mistaken on both points. If anything lies beyond our human existence -- and it's a stretch to think it -- then it's probably not anything like what we can come up with. However, I do believe there are hints that something "weird" -- meaning not understood -- may indeed be going on. Just as physics posits (proposes) dimensions beyond those we understand -- a 4-D or 5-D beyond 3-D -- I suspect there may be mental and even spiritual dimensions beyond our understanding. I like that idea. Don't you? I like the idea of a soul that survives the body. I don't have any evidence of it, but I like the idea. I've always been intrigued by the concept of re-incarnation, where you keep coming back, in different times and in different bodies/personalities, until you get it right and reach perfection: nirvana. I have no proof of this, but I do have some evidence: I have known, as you have, people who are just "better" than you and me, better than they had a right to be, people who shame us with their un-wavering ethical values. These, I think, may be the souls who have been back more often than we have. They are closer to nirvana. [I think I said all this in a later post -- I'm editing now -- but it bears repeating.] It may not be true, but if I were in charge of the universe, this is the way I would organize it. Think of it this way: Each of us comes into the world knowing nothing. We are the products of our parents, who we have no control over. In short, we're the victims of our genes from the starting gate. But -- and this is a big but -- we all have choices to make along the way. Because we're NOT just the product of our genes, a by-product of our parents' lust. We are, each and every one of us, unique. Nobody like us ever existed before. We may be born into a rich family or a poor one, descended from geniuses or fools, and we may end up President or in prison, but we are one of a kind. You. Me. All that freedom and all that fear. In the end, after family and friends, on our own. That's either a cheering or a depressing thought, depending on you. Is something weird going on? Of course. Do you know what it is? Of course not. I don't, either. But I'm thankful for it. Aren't you? Long live the mystery of us!