ALL THERE IS IS ALL THERE IS

An Essay by George Bisacca

May we make use of this and other like preparatives;

That neither death, whensoever it shall come, may seem

terrible; nor life tedious, how long soever it shall last.

Richard Redmer (1632)

          I am sure the reader’s initial reaction to this paper will be that it is too far removed from the “reality” of our daily lives. But, are the lives we now lead our true reality? We come and go through this earthly experience not knowing where we came from or where we’re going. The endless efforts of science to explain the origin of the material universe in which we find ourselves have proven fruitless. The insistence on finding its source in matter alone has self-imposed a limitation on those efforts which has proven insurmountable. Limiting reason to the empirically falsifiable has only led to scientific progress in understanding how matter works, but none of that effort has brought us any closer to finding its source. If anything, to a great extent science has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses whose heads, no longer in the clouds, are now buried in the sand. There, they are constantly deluged with new discoveries about the nature of matter, but without knowing its source “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.” (Stephen Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics). Nevertheless,we are unable to accept such meaninglessness and we steadfastly search for the source of this earthly existence that we may understand its purpose. To quote the late humorist, Art Buchwald, as he faced his immanent death: “Before I find out where I’m going, I’d want to know what the hell was I doing here in the first place!” Where we came from may be to where we are returning. (fn.1)

Perhaps it’s time to admit we can never find the answers we seek within the limits of matter and focus on exploring the possibility of non-material realms that could conceivably explain the source of our existence.          

As we enter the realm of the non-material, we must give our imagination free reign. The very capacity to imagine that there may be something out there besides matter that is responsible for our existence creates possibilities to be explored. Even if the best we can do is to imagine a story that appears to be coherent, it may provide the comfort of hope rather than the anxiety of fear as we wind our way towards the end of our material lives.

In order for any story to be coherent its elements must be logically connected and consistent. Science has considered a story to be coherent only if it is supported by material data.  However, coherence does not depend upon material data alone. Thus, an imagined story can be coherent as long as its elements are logically connected and consistent from beginning to end. An imagined story that fails to meet this test would be considered a fantasy while one that achieved such coherence might give us pause to consider its possible “reality.” In fact, that possibility will increase exponentially to the degree it offers a coherently plausible explanation for the mysteries confronting our earthly lives. 
The story I have imagined is prefaced by the Thesis that follows on which its coherence is based. While something like my story may have been told before in one form or another, (fn. 2) it is, however, one that I have personally imagined. Its capacity to provide plausible explanations for the mysteries that confront our daily live has persuaded me that imagining such stories can be a worthwhile exercise. I urge the reader to consider imagining one such story for yourself.  

ALL THERE IS IS ALL THERE IS
THESIS
The Universe
The universe contains all that exists.

While there is unanimity that matter exists in the universe, there are those who would deny the existence of a non-material realm we refer to as “spirit” because they refuse to accept the existence of anything they cannot experience with their senses. There are, however, both logical and experiential reasons for accepting the existence of spirit in the universe despite its being beyond the reach of the senses.
Throughout man’s recorded history, scientists have proceeded on the premise that the material universe is all there is. Thus limited to the existing material data, they have sought to find the source of matter’s existence in matter itself. Because their data indicates that everything in the material universe is an effect of a prior material cause, they believe there must be a material first cause that explains the beginning of the material universe. But, a material first cause that would not be an effect of a prior material cause would contradict the very nature of the material universe which science postulates. Therein lies the conundrum from which science cannot escape.   
One of the more popular theories, no longer in vogue, had been that the material universe came into being some 15 billion years ago as a result of a cataclysmic explosion caused by a collision between certain gaseous materials (the “Big Bang Theory”) and that began a process of material evolution, i.e., a process of evolving from lower forms to higher ones. However, since the causes of this alleged beginning were themselves forms of matter, it is clear that the material universe did not begin with the Big Bang since further inquiry into the origin of those gaseous materials would be required. Most recently, science has hailed the discovery of the “Higgs Boson” otherwise misleadingly entitled “the God Particle.” But, no matter what name they give it, the source of this material particle remains unanswered. (fn. 3) Thus, whatever value these theories and discoveries may have, they cannot, by themselves, claim to be a coherent explanation for the very beginning of the material universe.
To date, science admits that there are absolutely “no data for the Very Beginning [of the material universe]. None. Zero.” (The God Particle, Leon Lederman Nobel Laureate in Physics ). 
Given the logical impossibility of a material first cause, a conclusion that the origin of the material universe must necessarily be found in a First Cause that was independent of any prior material cause is inevitable.  Thus, the material universe cannot be all there is because its source must be a non-material or “spiritual” First Cause.  Neither science nor philosophy has ever been able to refute the coherence of this conclusion.
Besides this fundamental reason for including spirit in all that exists, there are experiences in life that science cannot explain in material cause and effect terms. The most significant of these is the capacity to reject a choice dictated by those terms, a phenomenon that indicates the existence of a non-material power beyond the reach of the senses. For these reasons, spirit must be included in all that exists, i.e., the universe.       

The Beginning

There was no beginning. 

It would be a contradiction in terms to ascribe a beginning to a universe that contains all that exists. Since the universe contains all there is, there could be nothing outside itself whence it could come.  Thus, the universe could not have come into existence at some point in “time.”  The universe is eternal, and any concept of “time” or “external space” is irrelevant to its existence. Nor could the universe be expanding since there is no space to accommodate an expansion. Matter may be expanding within the universe but the universe simply “is” as it always “is”.

The Form of the Universe

It is not possible to discern the form of the universe.

The form of the universe could only be known if it had edges or boundaries which would require the existence of space outside the universe of which there is none. The universe is simply the Whole.

The Essential Nature of the Whole
The essential nature of anything is that which must be present for it to exist.
The Whole can never be more or less than the Whole. This is not a limitation of the Whole but a fact of its immutable nature. There is simply no space outside the Whole to accommodate either its expansion or its separation. Thus, the essential nature of the Whole is its “Wholeness”, i.e., the  totally independent and irresistible force that binds all things together in an ineludible harmony. Matter could not constitute the essential nature of the Whole because matter is dependent on a spiritual first cause in order for it to exist. It follows that this binding force can only be spiritual in nature and it consitutes the essential nature of the Whole.

The Essential Characteristics of the Whole.
The essential characteristics of anything are those that flow from its essential nature.
Truth.
Truth is that which conforms to reality. The Whole is the ultimate reality since it will never change. The Wholeness of the universe, then, is the ultimate truth to which everything in the universe is subject.

Freedom
Freedom describes the state of being in which one’s capacity to act exists without interference or restraint of any kind. Since the Whole is all there is, there is no circumstance that can interfere with or restrain its actions. The Whole is totally free to act according to its nature.

Creativity
Reasoning before acting is based on a desire to avoid potential interference with the intended consequences of the act. The existence of such potential interference is a form of coercion that requires one to know before acting. There being nothing that can limit or interfere with its actions, the Whole is totally free of any need to know before acting. Thus, all acts of the Whole flow solely from its limitless creative capacity.

Giving
Giving without expectation of return is the only action that can leave one totally free. A gift with limitations would create an expectation of return since it imposes an obligation on the receiver to obey and on the giver to enforce obedience, leaving both of them less than free. Thus, giving without expectation of return is the only action that is compatible with the essential freedom of the Whole. It necessarily follows that each gift by the Whole is essentially complete, final and ongoing for all eternity since anything less would imply a limitation.
Since there is nothing outside the Whole there can be no external object
of its giving and, because there can be no separation of the Whole, the Whole must choose to create internal entities as the objects of its giving. Again, this is not a limitation on the Whole but simply a fact of its immutable nature. Thus,    any internal entity created by the Whole would necessarily be inextricably joined in its Wholeness and share the same essential nature as the Whole; it would be a spiritual whole in itself; it would have total freedom to act according to its nature as an inseparable part of the Whole; the only essential action that would be compatible with its nature is giving without expectation of return; and it could only create internal entities as the objects of its giving. Furthermore, in accordance with the Whole’s total freedom, this gift of existence to the created entity would be complete, final, and ongoing for all eternity.
The total freedom of a created entity to make any choice except a separation from the Whole would not preclude the freedom of that entity to attempt such a separation since the Whole’s gift of that freedom was necessarily free of any limitation.  However, while the created entity would have the capacity to attempt such a dissonant choice (i.e., one that is incompatible with the essential harmony of the Whole), that choice could never be successfully “realized” because the Wholeness of the universe is immutable. Again, this is not a limitation on the freedom of the created entity, but a fact of its immutable nature. There simply is no space outside the Whole to accommodate a separation from the Whole. Thus, only choices in harmony with the Whole’s essential nature can ever be realized.
The intention to succeed in making a dissonant choice would create an apparent, internal and temporary disorder within the entity attempting such a choice. It would be apparent because there can be no real disorder within the Whole; it would be solely internal since no created entity could act externally to itself; and temporary because the“time” during which the disorder seemed to exist must inevitably disappear into the harmonious reality of the eternal present.

GOD

          Self-completeness, i.e., total independence in origin and in existence is essential to the concept of perfection.  An entity that was created or composed of separable parts could not be perfect in and of itself. Since the Whole simply “is as it always is” it was not created, and since the created entities within the Whole are inextricably joined together in its Wholeness, they are not separable parts of the Whole. Thus, only the Whole is perfect and all of its essential characteristics are those which man has ascribed to his concept of a Perfect Being, i.e. God.   

My Imagined Story

ALL THERE IS IS ALL THERE IS

Introduction

          The material world into which our bodies enter and remain until their inevitable death is an imperfect world in which we and all who preceded us have struggled throughout our lives to be free of its imperfections without success. Despite science’s claims of progress, the fundamental questions persist: “Will it ever be thus? Are all who follow us destined to face the same struggle? If so, who or what is responsible for the disorder we are forced to endure? And Why”? These are the questions that demand answers for any thinking person who wants his brief life on earth to have meaning.

          Over the ages, only two imagined stories have been given serious consideration as coherent answers to these questions, neither of which, however, has been able to assuage our discontent because of their logical inconsistency. My imagined story is an attempt to offer a third answer for your consideration based on the Thesis that preceded these pages. These stories are termed “imagined,” not because they cannot possibly be true, but only because it is assumed they are not supported by material data. They spring from our yearning for answers that would make sense of our earthly existence. But that yearning is a serious matter that cannot be satisfied with mere fantasies. What we seek then, are imagined stories that are coherent enough to inspire a level of confidence that will inform our daily lives so “that neither death, whensoever it shall come, may seem terrible; nor life tedious, how long so ever it shall last.”

I arrived at my story along a path that first took me through the story offered by Science. That story goes something like this: The material universe is all there is. It came into being as a result of an accidental collision of certain gaseous materials (the Big Bang) or more recently out of the Higgs Boson (the God Particle) (Fn 3) either of which then led to a process of material evolution in which a succession of material forms were produced that then reproduced before dying. (Fn 5) In this process lower forms evolved into higher ones in a

series of “natural selections” based on the survival of the fittest. You have been summoned to be solely out of matter as part of that process. You will spend your life struggling to survive the imperfections and limitations of the material world until your inevitable death after which your successors in that process will continue to do the same until Science figures it all out. A variety of fleeting material pleasures will be provided for your enjoyment during your brief life, but the imperfections will continue. You will also have certain experiences that cannot be fully explained solely in material terms. These will remain unexplained at the time of your death. After death you will cease to exist and, inevitably, so also will any memory of your existence. Simply put, you will have served only as a replaceable cog in the evolutionary machine that keeps the material construction ongoing for the time being. However, you should know that the construction itself is probably doomed to a similar fate as yours.

          So how does this solely material perspective inform our daily lives? The means required to survive in a universe that is perceived as solely material would necessarily generate a code of conduct based on material considerations, i.e., materialism. Materialism breeds egoism, i.e., the tendency to first consider one’s self and one’s own interests in order to survive. Egoism breeds competition between and among the species to gain advantage one over the other. Competition leads to violence in all its forms from deceit to murder. The material design itself requires all forms of life to feed one upon the other in order to survive. (“The world is a sea in which all the fishes eat each other.” St. Augustine.) Amid all these conflicts, the material universe is permeated with disorder. Man struggles mightily in desperate attempts to survive, all the while hoping that Science will restore order. Science offers a steady stream of discoveries about the nature of the material universe, but the disorder continues. The fundamental questions remain and “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.” 

                   “Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of

meaning, is the world which science presents for our belief.

Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals must henceforward

find a home. That man is the product of causes which had 

no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his

growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but

the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire,

no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve

an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the

ages, all the devotion, all the inspirations, all the noonday

brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the

vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man’s achievements must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of

a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute,

are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them

can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths,

only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s

habitation henceforth be built.

Brief and powerless is Man’s life, on him and all his race the

slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.”  (Bertrand Russell, Philosopher, Mathematician, Logician) (4)

          Disillusioned by the obvious sense of futility that derives from such an existence, I was spurred on along my path to the second story offered by Religion that seems to go something like this: God, an all good, all loving, perfect Being was the creator of the material universe. He then created Man in His own image and likeness and imbued him with an immortal soul after which He created a Wife for Man and placed both in the Garden of Eden where they would never want for anything. However, they were admonished never to eat of the tree of knowledge else they suffer the consequences. Now, since they were created in the image and likeness of God, they shared His nature and thus were free to make their own choices, one of which, unfortunately, was to pay no heed to God’s admonition. As a consequence, they were banished from Paradise into the imperfect state in which we, their descendants, now find ourselves. There we must struggle to do God’s will before we enter the next life and receive His judgment for our efforts.  While this story, at least in its beginning, seems eminently more to be desired than the solely material evolution story offered by Science, it also seems to lack sufficient coherence. Why would a good God, Who freely gives without expectation of return, so condition his gift of freedom and, for disobedience thereof, provide such a horrific punishment as forcing us to endure a dichotomous existence in which our spiritual immortality is saddled with our bodily mortality while we struggle in vain to survive the cruelties and  calamities that seem inherent and perpetual to this planet?  It all seemed at odds with the essential nature of the Perfect Being we had understood God to be. It is this inconsistency which has led to the widespread denial that God exists.          
I did not believe the story offered by Science could ever become coherent enough to  inspire real belief. Who would happily accept an abrupt end into oblivion of a life still in search of fulfillment? On the other hand, the promise of immortality offered by the God story at least had a “to be continued” sequel to our bodily death. Whatever that turned out to be, it would be better than the nothingness offered by Science. Despite the refusal to believe in any “hereafter” by those who insist the Science story is all there is, I doubt that any of them would turn down an after life if it were offered to them instead of oblivion. We all want to believe in it.  We just have to start imagining stories that have enough coherence to explain the mysteries that continue to perplex us during our material lives. My imagined story is an attempt to find one such coherent explanation for the dilemma we face in trying to reconcile the traditional stories of Science and Religion.

ALL THERE  IS, IS ALL THERE  IS   

God, in His infinite goodness, creates a being in His own likeness, i.e., a spiritual being that shares His essential nature with all its characteristics. Any lesser being would necessarily be subject to some form of limitation which would be incompatible with God’s essential freedom. (God may have created more than one such being, but that would not change the coherence of this imagined story.) The created being is a spiritual whole in himself, inextricably joined within God’s wholeness. (Whether the created being is masculine or feminine is irrelevant to this story. Hence we use the masculine solely for convenience.)   He is totally free to act according to his nature and can only create internal entities as the objects of his giving. While this being is God-like in nature, he is not God even though he is inextricably joined in God’s Wholeness. He is a created being while only God exists without being created. There is no mystery in such a gift. It is simply the only act that could be compatible with God’s essential nature. It is a perfect act of creative giving, free of any expectation of return or other limitation, complete, final and ongoing for all eternity. The recipient of such a perfect gift could expect nothing more from God since any such expectation would imply some form of incompleteness in God’s gift that would amount to a limitation on both the total freedom of God as well as that of the created being.  Likewise, God expected nothing further from the created being. He was free to make his own choices and experience their consequences for which God would have no responsibility.
While God does not need gratitude or praise and the recipent of such a
perfect gift is not obliged to offer same, he may experience the joy of giving 

without expectation of return by so doing if he chooses.

          This created being has the capacity to create an infinite variety of forms within his wholeness, but the essential “stuff” sustaining each form would necessarily be the spirit of its creator regardless of any other characteristics the form might include. The form’s non- essential characteristics may cease to exist but the underlying spiritual essence of the created being continues on eternally. Thus, any such forms can have no independent reality apart from the spirit. Only the spirit is real and eternal.
While the created being is a whole in himself, he is aware of God’s gift of existence to him and of his inclusion in God’s Wholeness. He feels the energy of God’s giving without expectation of return and instinctively begins to create in like manner, enjoying the blissful harmony that follows. One of the creations he uses to fashion his gifts is “matter”, a swirling sea of “atoms” that he can combine into an infinite variety of forms. 
Initially, these forms are conceived as gifts contributing to the essential harmony of the Whole. At some point in this exercise of his freedom to create, however, the created being makes a choice that can only be described as an intention to separate from his own spiritual wholeness as well as God’s.  On the one hand, his choice may have been a conscious attempt to separate from God’s Wholeness for whatever reason.  On the other hand,  he may have become so enamored of his material creations that he began to think of matter as an essential entity that could sustain itself independent of spirit. In either case, the choice would be an attempt to change his essential nature from spiritual to material, a choice that could never be “realized.” The disorder of that attempt causes an enormous dissonance throughout his wholeness but he refuses to give up his attachment to matter and the dissonance continues. Desperate to escape this conflict, he conjures a self-perpetuating material world sustained by a system of material reproduction in which he can lose his essential spiritual nature . He assumes a form of dancing atoms smaller than the head of a pin from which all the material organization we observe today will be generated. It is an awesome display of the creative powers of the ever-present spirit.
In this disordered scheme, his material world begins to evolve with what feels like excruciating slowness. It begins in the darkness of the sea wherein, consumed by fear and guilt, the created being secretes himself  by assuming a fishlike disguise. Whole ages seem to pass in the depths until he completely forgets his spiritual nature. Now that he is committed to his material creation, members are slowly, ever so slowly, developed to climb out of the slime; male and female genders are created; then evolving into the larger species, serpents, dinosaurs, mastodons, all groping, stomping, preying, killing, munching and reproducing while struggling to survive in a world ruled by the strongest. Aeons after aeons seem to pass  in which nothing really new happens. Then the higher types, the ape, the two legged brute, begin to emerge and continue the cycle of violence until homo sapiens finally appears.

Man is the first creature in this material world to be conscious of himself and his surroundings. From that moment on the long incubation of the created being’s lost awareness of his true spiritual nature begins. It was inevitable that the disorder created by his dissonant intention to separate from God’s wholeness would erode the strength of his intention and awaken his desire to again embrace the inexorable reality of his true spiritual nature.   

Now his spirit begins to question whether the disorder in which He finds himself is his true existence. But, his long attachment to his matterial world would not be easily dissipated. The earth’s awesome beauty,  the pleasures of the senses, the struggle between the apparent security of what had been believed for so long, i.e., that matter was the only reality, and the emerging remembrance of what had been forgotten, i.e. the real security of spiritual wholeness, would be powerful contending forces. And, as if that were not difficult enough, the material reproductive process he set in motion has seemingly fragmented his spirit, each fragment egoistically asserting its independence from the other. No wonder that the material world is in disarray as all these conflicts struggle for resolution.

          So, how can my imagined story, “All There Is, Is All There Is” inform our daily lives?
We begin by shedding our solely material perspectives.
First, we do not accept as a given that our infinitesimal material presence on such a tiny planet as this in such a vast solar system is all there is to our existence. Nor do we accept that an all good and loving God who only gives perfectly and without expectation of return, would create a planet that began in such darkness and turmoil, nor that He would ordain that we must evolve out of matter with such torturous slowness and then labor in vain to escape our material end.
Then, we look beyond our material limitations for other coherent explanations that may give us confidence that our material “death” may not be terrible after-all nor that our material lives need be as tedious as they have been. 
We begin the process of “realizing” our essential nature by remembering that we are spiritual beings with an immortal soul that shares God’s own nature; that we are totally free to act according to our nature; that the only perfect act of which we are capable is giving without expectation of return; that all lesser acts inevitably become transactional, a disorder contrary to our essential nature; that God’s gift of our spiritual existence expects nothing in return; that there is no devil responsible for evil; that there is no sin, no damnation, in short, no judgment or punishment to be feared from God. The devil didn’t make you do it and God doesn’t punish you for doing it.
We begin to understand that if we choose to create disorder, we will suffer the consequences that flow from the disorder. It becomes clear to us that the plan for a self-perpetuating material world without spirit was an illusion forever doomed to disorder. The erotic impulse implanted in man in order to breed new cogs in the evolutionary machine has been perverted by all forms of  selfish materialism. The resources of an environment designed to sustain the material world are in decline, exploited, polluted and depleted by the forces of disorder bent only on personal gain so that all the systems on which material existence depends are slowly disintegrating. The survival of the strong as the “natural order” of a solely material world has led to violence in all its forms; capitalism and political chicanery together murdering democracy (mergers and acquisitions, monopolies, price gouging, obscene CEO severance packages, the fraud and deceit of business); the legal system distorted by influence peddlers and partisanship (“the law kills, the spirit gives life,” St. Paul); the unequal distribution of wealth (billionaires and homeless; those bloated by excess committing waste while others turned skeletal by famine feebly look on); burglary, firearms and residential alarm systems for everyone; rape, torture, murder; terrorism; wars between nations, and wars in the name of vengeful gods; holocausts, genocides and future forms of disorder not yet imagined. What can the future hold for us if we remain subject to this rampant disorder? Nothing but more disorder compounding itself at every turn.  
Once we are aware that we alone are responsible for these consquences, we refuse to accept the disorder in which we find ourselves as a perpetual part of our existence. We understand that the cause of that disorder is not matter itself, but the persistent intention to treat matter as all there is, devoid of its essential “stuff”, our free immortal spirit. We understand that, while we may have innocently inherited that intention, we are not bound by it. We begin to realize that our essential spirit was never intended to be subject to the limitations of this material world.
Our spirit begins to reassert control over our material existence, once more recognizing matter as only a form that was taken too seriously instead of being used in harmony with our essential wholeness. The illusion of material necessity begins to dissipate  We calmly and happily await the inevitable release of our spirit from our material bodies by abandoning selfish pursuits and turn to giving of ourselves without expectation of return, extending love in all our actions.  Imagine a world in which the contagious energy of that giving gradually spreads, drawing all closer and closer together. It becomes the antidote for all forms of disorder that are easily recognized once our spirit has been freed from the bonds of its prior attachment to material possession. Life is no longer tedious; the satisfaction of giving replaces the anxiety of competition. Fear fades into the distance as we move ever closer to the harmony of our true home, our spiritual wholeness.
But there are so many fragments of the created being each endowed with their own free will and so many still in denial of their spiritual essence. How can we ever  hope to put “Humpty-Dumpty” back together again?

No fragment can ever separate from his spiritual essence.

Those who choose to accept their spiritual nature as their true reality will be liberated from their material obsessions; they will begin to understand their spiritual immortality; the fear of death will leave them and they will begin here and now to prepare for their eternal life. They will face the imperfections of the material world and the resistance of those who continue in denial of their spiritual nature with the myriad of virtues that flow from their true giving nature: understanding, patience, tolerance, compassion, the forgiveness of offenses (instead of seeking “justice,” a recompense that inevitably fails to satisfy), self-sacrifice and on an on.
In every corner of the world there are and have been those fragmented spirits who have already realized their true nature and are enjoying lives that are and have been fulfilled by acting in harmony with their essential wholeness. At the heart of every “feel good” story they generate there is a selfless giving without expectation of return. The energy of that giving is a constant inspiration to those seeking to escape the emptiness of a life obsessed by solely material pursuits.
Those fragments who continue their attempt at a material existence devoid of spirit cannot escape from their spiritual essence and they will find themselves in disorder as long as their attempt to deny it continues.
From the temporal perspective of those in denial of their spiritual natrure, the history of man’s struggle to overcome the apparent duality of his nature seems interminable. But “time” is only a part of the material design. It is an illusion that exists only as long as the disorder of attempted material separation from their spiritual wholeness continues. Thus, it’s only a “matter” of “time” until the illusion disappears into the reality of the eternal present. The end of the illusion is preordained by the material design itself. The free immortal spirit within matter cannot abide its limitations and it struggles against them, creating a friction that inevitably wears the material body away and the spirit escapes back to its wholeness. That friction can only be dissipated by accepting one’s spiritual essence and all that it implies. Only then can a material form be truly enjoyed.
If one’s perspective is ambivalent between his spiritual and material natures, he will grope his way in confusion between material excess and the regret his spirit offers to light his way home.
If his perspective is solely material, he fears the unknown but inevitable moment of death’s arrival and flees to escape its coming along paths of greed, lust and profligacy only to find that while they may take him everywhere, they get him no place. 
Again, it’s only a “matter” of “time” until all the fragments abandon those paths  of disorder and return to the joyful harmony of their ever constant wholeness.                    

“One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more.
Death, thou shalt die.”  (John Donne)

FOOTNOTES

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

Four Quartets, Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot

1. I arrived at my imagined story without knowing that it was similar in

some respects to that of the early Christian sects known as the Gnostics. While it was  encouraging for me to subsequently learn that some parts of my imagined story were shared by others long before I came to it, in the interest of coherence I will limit myself to my own imagined story which is different from that of the Gnostics in fundamental ways.

3. “How strong the lens, how keen the eyes
To see what we hypothesize,
To watch so small a thing in motion           
As what we’ve christened the ‘Higgs Boson,’
A tiny massive thing that passes
For what can best explain the masses
Of other things we cannot see
But somehow, nonetheless, must be.
A thing so small is surely cute,
Though weirdly shaped, perhaps hirsute,
And just as real as any wraith
Imagined with the eyes of faith.”

The Evidence Of Things Not Seen by Jay Curlin

        4. “Science has also generated new myth systems. . . . Here, for instance,
is a new creation myth: the universe began with a Big Bang. Then the   
Earth was formed of cosmic dust. What came before the Big Bang? A
singularity. What is a singularity? We don’t know.”

             “Here is a new orign-of-people myth: people emerged via something 
called evolution forces from pre-human life forms that also so
emerged. Who created the rules for evolution? Life did. Where did life
come from? We’re not sure but we’re working on it. Why are we on
earth? No particular reason.” 

Margaret Atwood: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination.)

5. Science admits that there is absolutely no data to support either of these theories for the very beginning of the universe. See page

EPILOGUE

          The coherence of the imagined story that I have proposed for your consideration can best be evaluated by its ability to offer coherent explanations for the mysteries and imperfections that perplex us during our lives on earth. While the following are some of the most prevalent, others can be addressed when raised in discussion. 

Are We Doomed to Nothingness When We Die?

Q. What evidence do we have that there is anything after we die? Why
aren’t we given some proof other than blind faith that there is an
afterlife? Wouldn’t we all lead better lives if we had some assurance
of an afterlife?

1. Nothingness does not exist. Nothingness is the opposite of existence.

Since the universe is all there is and it contains all that exists, nothingness cannot exist. Your “life” is your spiritual essence which is complete and ongoing for all eternity because its ultimate source is a perfect gift from God and that is all the assurance you need that there is an afterlife. Our material body is only a non-essential form which the created entity had led us to believe was our true identity. Inevitably, we will shed that mask and all its limitations to finally realize our true “life”-our spiritual essence which is ultimately derived from God.   

Will our bodies be resurrected in the afterlife?

          Q. If we will be pure spirits in the afterlife, does that mean our bodies
and those of our loved ones will be lost forever? Q. If so, how will we  
recognize them? Q. How will we be able to see God?

1.  In the spiritual world you do not need material eyes to see God. Your spirit “feels” His Presence whenever you act according to your true nature, i.e., whenever you do good works by giving without

           expectation of return. You are then with God and that is the source of
your “feeling good” not only in the afterlife but here as well. Since God 
is all there is He has no form so it is not possible to see Him, nor is it
necessary since you are with Him and in Him when you feel His
Presence. So also, in like manner will you feel the presence of your loved ones with whom you were closest on earth.
As to the material bodies that you and your loved ones inhabited on earth, they may or may not be lost forever. The choice will be yours and theirs because you will have the same creative power that God gave to the created being. However, you will now realize that those bodies were not your true identity and your spirit need no longer be bound by the bodily limitations you experienced on earth. You may simply create any body you choose as a form to be used according to your true spiritual nature..  

Was Christ Divine?

     Q. Was Christ really the son of God? Q. Since Christ had a body like ours  
was he really immaculately conceived? Q. Why would God send him to
atone for our sins by suffering a terribly painful crucifixion?

1. Only God is Divine. God’s Divinity can only be shared by being at one with His divine spiritual nature. Questions concerning Christ’s conception or physicality are unnecessary and irrelevant to prove his divinity. They would only be relevant if you believed that the essential nature of God’s divinity was material which would be a contradiction of His spiritual nature. Christ was truly a spiritual son of God because all the things he said and did throughout his life were divine, i.e., they were at one with God’s spirutual nature, Christ gave to all without expectation of return and he accepted his unjust sentence of crucifixion, not only without objection, but with forgiveness for those responsible. In so doing, Christ became divine by being faithful to God’s divine spiritual nature and his example is worthy of being followed.

God would not have sent Christ to be crucified in order to atone for man’s sins because it would be incompatible with God’s perfect gift to the created being for Him to do anything to atone for any consequences of the created being’s choices thereafter no matter what they might be.   

Is God Involved in Our Lives on Earth?

Q. If God exists, why does He allow evil to be done? Why does He allow
these natural disasters that kill so many innocent people? Why does
He seem to answer some prayers and not others?

1. God has no involvement in any of the things you mentioned. The

material world was created by the spiritual being God created. God’s gift of existence to that created being was a pefect gift, final and complete for all eternity. There were no limitations on this gift and the created being was free to make his own choices without interference from God. Any such interference would be a limitataion on the gift which would make both God and the created being less than free. The disorders you describe are the consequences  of the created being’s attempt to create a material universe devoid of spirit, an attempt that can never be realized as long as our spiritual essence is absent.

Do we really have free will?

Q. I didn’t choose to come into this world so how can I have free will?  
Why am I forced to endure the world’s imperfections and the
consequences of bad choices by so many others? Will I ever be able
to fully realize my own choices.?  

1. Yes, you really do have free will. It is derived from the same free will possessed by the created being. The essential “stuff” of his material creation was his totally free spirit. While the created being’s purpose may have been to create a material world devoid of spirit, that world could never be realized since matter could not survive without his spiritual essence. Thus, each material body created in the process of reproduction necessarily included fragments of his spiritual whole. s While we may not have chosen to be born into the material world, we enter it with the same quality of free will as that of the created being.  We can choose to attempt making the material world all there is by following the original intention of the created being or we can choose to act in harmony with the spiritual wholeness of which we are a part.   

The imperfections and consequences of others’ choices you describe 
are material impediments to your material choices. But your  capacity  to choose is not limited by material considerations. Once you realize that your free will is a spiritual capacity that allows you to transcend material necessity you understand that these material circumstances can never interfere with the exercise of your free will. Rather, they become occasions for you to act according to your true spiritual nature. Natural disasters become occasions for the exercise of your heroism and charity. The bad choices of others and their consequences are inevitably overcome by the power of your giving nature and your forgiving spirit. In short, your free will is not material. It is a spiritual power that no material circumstance can overcome. So you are always free to fully realize your choices in the only realm that counts, your spirituality. 

 
Will we ever be able to perfect life on a material earth?

Q. So much of life on earth is beautiful: the physical beauty of our
planet; the creative genius of so many over time has
produced so many beautiful things that touch our hearts—why can’t 
we continue to work to make life on earth a perfect creation?   

1. True, much of the physical planet is beautiful. It is a testament to the awsome creative power of the spirit posessed by the creative being.  Man has been using that same creative power which he inherited

throughout our history, sometimes in instinctive recognition of our true spiritual nature and too often only for material considerations in denial of their spiritual essence. If you believe in the power of your spirtual nature, there is value in using it to make life on earth better.  However, as long as there are still fragments who believe their material existence is all there is, the imperfections of life on earth will continue. Meanwhile, the beautiful material things created by man that “touch our hearts” do so because they reach out to our spiritual nature which is our heart of hearts. Using the material as a form to extol the spiritual may be the closest we can come to perfection in this life.  Only when all the fragments still on earth would together choose this same path could life on earth be perfected.

Don’t we need the bad in order to become good?

        Q. Doesn’t the struggle between good and evil make life on earth more
interesting? Don’t we become good by struggling against evil?

1. Evil is a disorder that only exists because of the created being’s  attempt to separate from his spiritual wholeness into a solely material universe. Our essential spiritual nature is good, it doesn’t become good. The struggle you describe is a struggle to rid evil from life on earth because our spiritual nature cannot rest until it is free from the disorder that evil creates Once our spirits are free, there will be nothing in the solely material realm that could compare with the interest, excitement and exhilaration generated by the infinite variety of their creations. Then we will realize how dull, empty and purposeless was the company of evil.