Mike’s Faith and Religion Blog

This is something that is really difficult prove myself since I haven’t returned from the dead nor has anyone come back to life from death. Of course, in Christian teachings we have Jesus Christ who is claimed to have died, have gone over to the place of the dead, and resurrected back to life. However, Jesus made his teachings of heaven and hell BEFORE he had died and did not make mention of anything about it after his supposed resurrection. I understand if you will argue that Jesus knows because he is God, or at least the son of God as some Christian sects teac but then that’s a different topic on its own.

Remember that what you will be reading is based on my own beliefs. Let’s proceed. First let’s tackle the physical matter.After man dies, his body starts to decay. Typically (if buried), his body continues to decay until it becomes part of the soil. The soil gets nutrients from the decayed body and the nutrients will most likely be taken in by plants and / or soil ingesting organisms such as earthworms. Either way, they get eaten… and so on and so forth. There comes the possibility that the cycle will involve another human being who is alive and makes use of ‘recycled’ nutrients for himself or herself. A pregnant woman can also be involved after which the nutrients can be transferred to another baby. Of course, this is an oversimplified story but I’m sure you got the point. One way or another, there is the probability that you have taken in the nutrients from a dead man…. Gross???? Fact.

Ok, now onto the spiritual matter – the more interesting part.

There are two major beliefs when it comes to life after death – one is eternal life (or damnation) in either heaven or hell and the other is reincarnation.

Note that I am merely stating my own belief and not trying to prove the truth or the lack of it in the either of these beliefs. To me, I believe that we are to pass this life only but once and there is no second chance. After we die, our non-physical being (spirit or soul or both – whatever it is) simply goes back to where we came from – to God. Whether you did good or bad doesn’t really matter – at least that’s what I believe. However, this is not a ticket for us to do evil. For our deeds are rewarded accordingly. When and where will these rewards be given? Here and now, in this very lifetime.

Let me clarify this further.

We all come from God and therefore we must all return to God. In the end, there is neither heaven nor hell but there will be God. Our deeds on the other hand are rewarded in this very lifetime. We are judged here and now and we receive the punishments and rewards here and now as well. Do a crime and you are separated from the general population. Do good and you gain acceptance. Simple and true. ?Will I reap eternal fruits from the good or bad that I do?”, you may ask. I say no. Even as the ripples in a pond would settle a while after you thrown a stone, so shall all things in life. Neither good nor evil is eternal. Only God is eternal and God is neither good nor evil but he is all in all.

So to sum it all up, two things happen after we die – our physical body gets recycled with the rest of the earth and our spiritual body returns to God much as how it came from God.

This is what I believe in.

This is a question that keeps on separating – most of the time – religion from science. It is quite funny that man has been arguing with each other on whether a Supreme Being exists and whether this God is involved in man’s affairs or not.

I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching recently and this question is among those that needs to be answered quickly - “Is God and the devil real?”Note that I included the devil in the question for two main reasons:

1. So that you won’t think that I’m moving into satanism.
2. Because if God doesn’t exist then the devil won’t exist at all. This assumption is based on my own personal knowledge that no religion in the world exists without having a good being and a bad being. In other words, the existence of the devil being the bad one will be based entirely on the existence of God being the good one. The devil simply won’t exist without God.

Ok, that being said, let us continue.This question was raised in my mind in the early parts of 2005 when a very dramatic event in my life occurred. As a believer, I always believed what the bible said one of which is ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ Of course, I understand that asking here must be done with faith and that is what I do when I pray. So then, I asked God for a simple request – a happy family. To those who think that I should be more specific in making my requests, this is what I can say – I don’t think God is stupid so as not to know the desires of my heart when I ask him for something. Anyway, I asked God for this and after so much waiting, I haven’t received the happy family that I was expecting. I see the same problems that haunted our (me and my wife) folks. I’ve tried everything that pastors suggested just to get things right but somehow God is not listening – or perhaps he is not there at all.

That’s how my search for the existence of God began. I asked, read, and even in my troubled spiritual status, I even prayed. But then no God seems to answer. Then the ultimate day has come. The day I’ve set for myself, the day of decision.

I made a conclusion for myself and here it is. My faith in the existence of a Supreme Being remains BUT is now somewhat different than what it used to be. I don’t believe in the God of the Christians or do I believe in the God of Islam. Also worth mentioning is that I don’t believe in the God of the Satanist or the like. In fact, I don’t think I believe in the God(s) of any of the religion that exists at the moment but then I may be wrong.

Here is what I really believe in.

I believe in a God, a Supreme Being, a Force which is beyond what any man can comprehend at the moment. I believe in a God who does not interfere with the affairs of man but rather has set things right from the beginning of the universe. A God who respects the rights of humanity, a God who respects man’s decision. I believe in a God who mourns for all creation but also rejoices with it.

I don’t believe that God created man in any direct manner but I believe in a God who has made ready all the ingredients necessary for the development of life. I believe in a God who – much like the Big Bang in modern science – is the beginning of all and has no beginning in himself for he himself is the beginning of all.

Now, whether this God is a true God in the religious point of view or simply the source of all matter as science would take it, doesn’t really matter to me. The fact is, nothing can exist without a source. A car exists because metal exists. Metal exists because the elements exist. The elements exist because atoms exist and so on and so forth. In science, this can be traced all the way back to the big bang – a moment in the universe when time itself never existed at all. This source is what I call God for it (or he or she) alone is the sole thing (or being) that did not have a source on its own. (Ok, if science eventually found out that the big bang came from something else then the same question is raised – where did that ’something else’ comes from? Ultimately, there has to be a source for everything and this source must not come from anything).

Lastly, I don’t believe in a God who requires the service of man because the God I believe in already has everything that he needs. Otherwise, he won’t be God at all. Rather, I believe in a God who serves man for it is he who serves that has the real honor.

This is the God I believe in.

Some of you may now say that the God I believe in is a passive God as opposed to the obviously ‘active’ God in all religious texts that we can find. Well, actually I think this God is still active in all things at the moment. The God I believe in exists in everything around us – in both living and non-living things. The God I believe in is the very air that we breath, the very food that we eat, and even our very selves for he is IN and AROUND us all. I am a piece of this God and so are you.

Furthermore, I believe that my God has set all laws in the entire universe – from the basic stuff of Physics to the very complex matters of life. From the simplest to the grandest. I also believe in miracles but I look at it from a different perspective. I believe that miracles are not mere interference of God with the affairs of man BUT I believe that miracles are also governed by laws that have been set from the beginning. Laws that as of now still can’t be fully comprehended by man.

That said, you now know that I believe in God, the source everything that is seen and unseen. You will then ask me, “Are you a Christian? Or a Muslim? Or a Buddhist?” My answer is “No.” At this point and time and perhaps until the day I that I die, I have only one thing to say about my religion which I quote from the Bible itself in the book of James Chapter 1 Verse 27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

So, do I believe in God? Yes, I do. BUT keep this mind, your God is most likely not the same God as mine.

Now, what about the devil? If I believe in God, then surely I must believe in the devil. I will keep this simple yet firm. We will never know what white is if black did not exist. We will never enjoy the benefits of light if we haven’t experienced darkeness. So what is the devil? The devil is the mere counter-balance of God and is a part of God.

Finally, I think God exists in science and science exists in God and both of them are correct for science is the most direct and perfect evidence of the existence of God.