A Note to Matt

The following is the response to a young man who is struggling with the ideas of organized religion and the existence of God.

Matt :-)

Hey there, back at you. As you can see, you are not the only one who has things get in the way of responding to email.

I am pleased to learn you are continuing on your quest to gain more knowledge about life and where you fit into it. It is not an easy quest, nor a quick one. In fact, it will be a life long quest. As soon as you think you have it figured out some other piece of information will come your way and blow holes in some of your hypotheses.

George Carlin is a great source of questions and alternative viewpoints. I read his piece about religion and enjoyed it. The one part he will probably emphasize in another bit is the part man plays in the whole thing. He has not discussed the part about choice and consequences. I did like the part where he mentioned that no woman would screw things up this badly. I agree with that. Testosterone is useful for many things, but humans (men) tend to go into overload and that’s when we get in trouble. If you want further proof look to the deeds of extremists and fundamentalists. Mostly led by men who are dead set on protecting their turf, whatever that may be.

I don’t remember if I sent you this web address or not, but it pretty well describes how I perceive this whole life, god, prayer, choice, consequences thing.

It may be more than you are ready to deal with at the moment. Suffice it to say it boils down to choice and consequence. No matter what choice you make, and making no choice is a choice, you will have consequences. Are you prepared for the results? That is a question you must be prepared to answer.

If it is any consolation, try on this idea of God. First, look up the word agape (ah-gah-pay). It is of Greek derivation. It means universal love. If there is such a thing as agape, and I believe there is, then how does it manifest itself? Well, for me, I can feel it. It is a part of me. It is most apparent whenever I am doing good works. Doing good works is another way of saying, serve others. (Please note my signature line below.) Whenever you serve others and care about them you tend to get a really good feeling, a positive feeling that all is right with the world. You are on top of your little part of it at that moment. I have come to realize that if I want to feel that way more often, then all I have to do is make sure that I am in the serve others mode as much of the time as I can make it happen. After all, it is my choice. It takes time to get there, and I have not achieved perfection yet. I continually strive for it. I do not expect to reach perfection in this life. Perhaps in the next one thousand lives.

Anyway these are just some thoughts from a guy who has been on the road of life a little longer than you. That doesn’t make me all-knowing, just willing to share some of his thoughts and ideas. You have the choice to consider them and discard any and all that don’t fit for you. If you come across some ideas like that, just tuck them away in your brain somewhere. Later on they may come in handy. Take them out, dust them off and try them on for size. Who knows, you might get to say, “So that’s what crazy, old bastard meant.”

I will leave you with all of that, and if you have more questions about this let me know. I’ll try not to take as long to respond to them as I did to this email.

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Serve Others! Care about those you serve! Share the love in your heart!


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