A couple of weeks ago, I got a question from a guy named Frank. He wanted to know if I had any religious beliefs and if I did, how could I go looking for ghosts. I have a feeling he is going through a similar situation that I have in my life. He could also just being judging me but I prefer to look at the glass in a half full way. See, I'm a positive person.
Growing up in a religious home, the belief in an afterlife is a given. I mean the belief that we will be rewarded for all of our sacrifices, faith and good deeds is the prize we get at the bottom of the box of our Cracker Jacks we call life. Yet for some reason, trying to prove this leaves me without a lot of friends in the religious community. Why is that? I will try to answer that, and how I have balanced all of this in my mind.
Now the belief that we survive our death is believed by every culture and has been throughout history, but the belief that something stays behind here on earth isn't entirely embraced by the mainstream religions. They believe that this tidbit could muddy the waters so to speak. If we don't die and immediately get removed from this plane of existence, than people may get the feeling that religion isn't very important. That we will live on as ghosts and drive our ghost cars through real traffic making great time as we race towards eternity with no need to live the good faith based life they intended.
The problem is I am sitting somewhere in between these two beliefs. My baggage was packed as a child, so I can't totally shake the feeling that our souls will be judged for how we live this life. I can't accept that Hitler and Anne Frank are sitting down to a nice brunch with Shirō Ishii and Elvis. For my worldview to not allow me to go all vigilante, I have to believe that Hitler and Shirō are someplace very dark and having an unpleasant time too. I'm not asking you to believe how I believe, I'm just thinking out loud. I think the answer to all of the religious quandaries is already answered in the Bible. You see, Judeo-Christian belief is that we were created by God in his image. God is a trinity, composed of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think being created in His image means we are also made of three parts, and the Bible agrees with me. (See, I think the Bible agrees with me. My ego knows no bounds.) We are made of body, mind and spirit. I think the spirit goes on to judgement. Our body dies. So, this leaves the mind unaccounted for. I think our mind is more than just memories and reason. I think it can exist past our bodies. The how of which, I'm not 100% sure, but I will share some theories in the upcoming months. Just to be perfectly clear, I said THEORIES. I haven't died yet, so even I don't have this figured out 100% yet.
I hope you enjoy my ramblings and will continue to travel with me as I try to make sense of this paranormal field we all find so fascinating. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, please share.
Special thanks to Frank for this weeks question.
Growing up in a religious home, the belief in an afterlife is a given. I mean the belief that we will be rewarded for all of our sacrifices, faith and good deeds is the prize we get at the bottom of the box of our Cracker Jacks we call life. Yet for some reason, trying to prove this leaves me without a lot of friends in the religious community. Why is that? I will try to answer that, and how I have balanced all of this in my mind.
Now the belief that we survive our death is believed by every culture and has been throughout history, but the belief that something stays behind here on earth isn't entirely embraced by the mainstream religions. They believe that this tidbit could muddy the waters so to speak. If we don't die and immediately get removed from this plane of existence, than people may get the feeling that religion isn't very important. That we will live on as ghosts and drive our ghost cars through real traffic making great time as we race towards eternity with no need to live the good faith based life they intended.
The problem is I am sitting somewhere in between these two beliefs. My baggage was packed as a child, so I can't totally shake the feeling that our souls will be judged for how we live this life. I can't accept that Hitler and Anne Frank are sitting down to a nice brunch with Shirō Ishii and Elvis. For my worldview to not allow me to go all vigilante, I have to believe that Hitler and Shirō are someplace very dark and having an unpleasant time too. I'm not asking you to believe how I believe, I'm just thinking out loud. I think the answer to all of the religious quandaries is already answered in the Bible. You see, Judeo-Christian belief is that we were created by God in his image. God is a trinity, composed of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think being created in His image means we are also made of three parts, and the Bible agrees with me. (See, I think the Bible agrees with me. My ego knows no bounds.) We are made of body, mind and spirit. I think the spirit goes on to judgement. Our body dies. So, this leaves the mind unaccounted for. I think our mind is more than just memories and reason. I think it can exist past our bodies. The how of which, I'm not 100% sure, but I will share some theories in the upcoming months. Just to be perfectly clear, I said THEORIES. I haven't died yet, so even I don't have this figured out 100% yet.
I hope you enjoy my ramblings and will continue to travel with me as I try to make sense of this paranormal field we all find so fascinating. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, please share.
Special thanks to Frank for this weeks question.