So I've got this fellow staying at my place and I have a few things to say.

I don't know if there's a god. And I don't know if there's an afterlife. That's all I can honestly say. The rest, it seems to me, is just a bunch of conjecture.

I wish there was some religion that was based on this. I wish there was a religion that would admit it doesn't know. I wish there was a religion that would come out and say, 'you know, maybe there's a god, maybe there isn't. We don't know. We don't think anybody knows. We think its impossible to know. All we do know is that you're here and I'm here right now, and that we might not be here tomorrow. So come on in and we'll try to make the best of it.'

Why can't there be a religion like that?

I want to follow something as much as anybody. We all hate to be alone. Its rough feeling all alone. Sometimes it sucks you down deep, and you really feel how pointless and hopeless life can be.

Life is going to end some day; it would be nice to be able to say at least we were a part of something while we were here. But all we have are these silly faith's full of gods and angels and bodhisattvas and whatever crazy being that's supposedly floating around there in heaven or nirvana or paradise.

I just can't bring myself to believe in them.

I would much rather have a religion that told me something like this: 'we don't really know for sure what's the best way of anything, the world's pretty complex after all, but we have a few ideas that seem to be pretty solid.'

That's what I want religion to say. But none seem to. I guess its just too much to ask.

I don't know. I'm just frustrated because my house is jam-packed with too many people and I'm getting claustrophobic. I want them to all be gone. I want to be alone.

But not really.

- posted by Sigurd8/26/2004 11:10:00 PM