A lifetime of learning

To the editor,

A lack of faith became a problem after high school because I believed in religion, but some religious “truths” didn't make sense to me, so I struggled with doubts until my mid-forties. At that time I renounced religion and adopted a new set of rules to live by that were not harmful to others and made sense to me. Doing so gave me a measure of peace and contentment. Recently, I realized the guidelines I adopted use the same principles the Neanderthals established in their culture —they are the spiritual principles that insure “the good of all,” and they enable people to live in relative peace with each other, as well as survive as a species. In spite of the social benefits of organized religion, blind faith in religious beliefs is a double-edged sword that needs to be questioned from time to time. In spite of the similarities, we need to be mindful of the difference between spiritual principles and religious beliefs.

I’m still curious about the purpose of existence and the idea of reincarnation, which makes sense to me, but I realize the answers are beyond human comprehension. Even so, history reveals we are on an upward spiral of progress, and science unravels many mysteries about the laws of physics, as well as our own abilities. I also believe our non-physical inner-self will continue to exist in an afterlife, where it will come to understand the full spectrum of life's emotions —and probably much more.

During our life on earth we learn the value of existence through physical pleasures and pain, as well as joys and sorrow. When our earthly experience ends at death, our non-physical inner-self continues to exist in a spiritual realm that most people call “heaven.” In the after-life, the full attention of our inner-self will be directed toward learning to understand the full spectrum of emotion —in the spiritual realm where physical pleasures and pain are no longer a distraction.

From a metaphysically far-out point of view, the universe and realm of life are outward manifestations of a logical force —which most people call “God,” and regardless of its origins or how it functions, the force of logic caused the Big Bang. Through the evolution of man, our modern “improvements” caused global warming, and it now threatens our civilization. Even though we shot ourself in the foot, history reveals we're able to switch our mental gears at critical moments, such as when the Enlightenment awakened our common sense — and inspired the American Revolution. Now we need to get beyond the old ideas that brought us to our present “teenage stage” of human development. We are at the portal of an open mind, which has the potential to go beyond the common sense that got us here. It is time to abandon the old ideas and allow the possibilities of an open mind to guide us to a higher realm of life on Earth.

Art Carney

Wasilla