(2011) A follow-up companion series to the original documentary by filmmaker Roger Nygard of approximately 14 hours on seven DVDs, from existence and purpose to prayer and afterlife and everything in between, involving over 100 interviews with people across the globe from various walks of life - scientists, religious persons, philosophers, psychologists, atheists, artists, authors and poets, filmmakers, comedians and actors, musicians, taxi driver, retired Air Force pilot, nurse, warrior sage, white witch, Orthodox Jewish lesbian, clairvoyant, members of the secular order of druids, fitness instructor, chef, Satanist, drag-car racer, channeler of the alien called Bashar - left a multitude of impressions and expressions that struck a chord with me (many others, especially among Christian evangelists and preachers, did not). I especially relate to Leonard Schlain's comments and those of the scientific community, including Leonard Susskind, David L. Wark, Stanford Woolsey, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, and Sylvester James Gates Jr. I've inserted an occasional comment of my own.

I Existence and Purpose: A "Why do we exist?" "Why" assumes a Supernatural Mind with meaning. Can't be answered, according to Buddha. "We are the Eye of the universe." Minds assign meaning to things. Consciousness, awareness of all existence. The universe called us into existence. Emergent intelligence from evolution: laws lead to creatures with consciousness. Consciousness contributes to global or stellar Consciousness. Abraham exists because of God, but without man God could not be known and acknowledged. Existential responsibility to live as if setting an example for everyone.

B "Why does the universe exist?" Something versus nothing, the latter being impossible to imagine. M-theory or superstring theory: fundamentally vibrations of cosmic strings produce all matter and energy. Electrons (all identical) are bumps in the fabric of spacetime; photons are frozen in time by their velocity through space. Scientific myths are not just about words but are mathematical models subject to testing.

C "What is our purpose?" "Why" equals purpose. Self-awareness introduced question of purpose. "God is an invention to infinite regress."

D "How do we find happiness?" Fulfillment produces joy or happiness. Golden rule. In the refrigerator: chocolate, ice cream, and pie. A momentary by-product, a brain cocktail, rather than an inebriated objective. Know thyself. Pleasure versus pain. Self-awareness through enlightenment. Honestly being one's best self.

E "What is love?" Dissolution of boundaries between people. Having trust and altruistic feelings. Only connect with a soul mate. Someone with whom memories are shared.

F "How do we stop conflict?" Eliminate boundaries between people. Invest energies into tolerance, appreciate differences, honor diversity, respect other points of view. Eliminate poverty and injustice. Incorporate outsiders into alliances. Accept a healthy variety of cultures in the same way that we recognize a mix of occupations are necessary for society to function effectively. (Imagine the problems if everyone were of the same trade or profession. A world composed wholly of lawyers!) Address the causes of lust and greed, jealousy and envy, prejudices and biases.

G "How can we improve humanity?" Reduce gaps between prosperity and poverty; affluence and education reduce birthrates. Eliminate religion. Take into consideration consequences by looking down the timeline to the future.

H "Is the world a better place with humans in it?" Human beings have brought art, music, architecture, technological innovations into existence. Except for pets, most other species of the planet have suffered from our presence. Without people the planet would be a "vast terrarium." Humans have introduced consciousness, awareness, intellectual exploration, meaning, and morality.

I "What is the best philosophy for living?" Golden rule or its negation: "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you." Make a difference for the better. "Be open to what really is." Live a life full of value. "When your life is like a soap opera it's time to change the channel."

J "What is the best thing in life?" Sex and chocolate. Contemplating reality: "We are the universe contemplating itself." Seeing connections, recognizing patterns with mathematics, making choices. Lots of food. Relationships with other people.

II Religion and Spirituality A "What is religion?" Religion is part of people's identity and culture. From the Latin, meaning "to bind," thus a reconnection. "How we tie ourselves to reality." "Your complete philosophy of life." "Set of beliefs to get through existence, to give it meaning, structure." That which people find so true for themselves that they are made angry if others can't or won't accept it. "Merely words" with powerful emotional content. From righteousness people become self-righteous, making them hate anyone outside of their religion. "Fantasies and stories we tell each other." Metaphors providing comfort and moral direction. Rituals of worship. Religion is not about beliefs but about belonging. God enters the places where people share and help one another. "Crowd control." Organized religion is politics and corporate business.

B "What is the origin of religion?" A belief in irrational, supernatural invincibility that gave evolutionary advantage. Earliest evidence goes back 50,000 years from caves and burials. "Religion gives us answers where there are no answers," says psychologist Daniel Gilbert. "Fear of death." Want of a sense of certainty: "It's going to be okay." Freudian view sees a motherless Adam and Eve raised by the disembodied voice of an insane father. As for the formation of Christianity, Paul made over the Jewish religion of Jesus into an anti-Semitic and anti-female religion. Like guns, religion doesn't do harm, people do harm.

C "What is the origin of the Holy Book?" Several chapters written a long time ago by various human authors, who took stories and modified them from earlier oral traditions, and compiled (many other chapters, such as those composed by Gnostics, discarded) centuries later into a book, which rigidly codified the words into divine decrees never to be altered. Everything we know about Christ's life depends on the memories of others since Jesus left no written record. By contrast with Christian Scripture, which ignores mathematics, the Druids encoded mathematics into their construction of Stonehenge.

D "Should the Holy Book be taken literally?" The canon of the New Testament was collected together centuries after the crucifixion. The original Hebrew and Greek text is often ambiguous, open to interpretations: in Genesis (God or gods?), references to Jesus's mother Mary (virgin or young woman). Further, poetic metaphors (e.g., "days" substituted for eons) obfuscate any literal sense. Numerous instances of editorial intervention. Just as Christianity borrowed from Jewish tradition, the stories of the Old Testament were often borrowed, then modified and embellished (Genesis being a particular example from the Babylonians with the serpent welcoming Adam and Eve), from earlier cultures. "Now we try to make the Bible seem reasonable."

E "Why are there multiple religions?" One might as well ask why there are multiple languages, nations, and cultures among human beings. Each religion's adherents are as convinced of their absolute claim to the Truth as others. Are any of them right? One's religion depends on where and when one is born. People have different needs from religion. "You either believe or you don't." Each religion has its own socio-political agenda. Druids are tolerant of other beliefs. All paths eventually lead to the same God. The multiplicity of religions and gods is the best evidence against God's existence.

F "Should religious ideas be challenged?" With a respectful attitude, any and all ideas deserve to be challenged; never accept dogma at face value. Religious dogma doesn't stand up to logical scrutiny. There should be no sacred cows, including the assertions of atheism and science. Anger to thoughtful inquiry is a response by those who are insecure and uncertain in their beliefs. Without questioning, zealotry, demagoguery, and blind obedience to powerful interests will take hold.

G "Can people make their own version?" Most people cherry pick to fill their bowl of faith from within the leaves of scripture. The truth of something will "ring true in my heart." But compare the Bible with the multiplication table: Can you ditch parts and still have arithmetic? The literalist of scripture says when confronted with a contradiction that "it doesn't mean what it says" to preserve his literalism. People who passionately fall in love with God, if they mature in the relationship, will eventually arrive at a more realistic understanding. "The best place to be is somewhere in the middle" of extremes of belief and disbelief, advises Jon Atack. Agnosticism is the only sensible approach to the claims of believers and nonbelievers.

H "How do we reconcile outdated religious beliefs?" What sort of God sanctions genocide and rape, slavery and the stoning of children? "The Bible is a product of its times." A 13-year-old self-professed female atheist says that the Bible like the Constitution needs amendments.

I "Can supernatural beliefs coexist with religion?" Our pattern-seeking minds are "hardwired to think magically." While most Christian parents (along with those of other faiths) wouldn't encourage their children to believe in ghosts, sorcery, psychics, UFOs and alien abductions, they nevertheless actively participate in deceiving the impressionable with Santa Claus, the Tooth Faerie, and the Easter Bunny. "People are incredibly gullible." How can a belief system that depends on some types of supernatural, magical thinking (virgin birth, walking on water, producing from a limited source great quantities of loaves and fishes, resurrection from dead, changing wafers and wine into flesh and blood) deny others? Advanced technology can appear to primitive peoples as magical. Religions lack the "error-correcting methodology" of science.

J "What is spirituality?" Reverence and awe toward the universe; looking at nature with a sense of wonder. Being promiscuous, not married to any particular faith. "Living one's life according to the spirit of God." The inspiration of art, music, literature. Feeling of connectedness to a higher power. Living a moral life without association to a church or an organized religion. "Open to transcendence." A glimpse of another reality.

III God & Devil A "Who is God?" (the longest individual segment) "A kind of knowledge," says Arch Deacon John Beer of the Church of England, "but not a knowledge that can be checked scientifically or objectively." Similar to unicorns, faeries, and other magical creatures, admits Richard Dawkins: "I can't prove that there isn't." That which is "beyond our comprehension." In our contemplation of God, we are like an orange attempting to understanding modern physics. A metaphor, "a projection of people's minds," to explain mysteries. Something comforting, emotionally appealing in the face of mortality, like Santa Claus and the Tooth Faerie. "Parental figure in the sky." A comforting social construct. "The purest form of Love." Spiritual energy. "Something out there bigger than us." Everything. Einstein's God: impersonal, non-interfering, Nature, pantheism. "All religion is merely words," asserts film director Irvin Kershner. "Self-realized soul." An answer to why there is something rather than nothing. An infinite concept limited by a constricted human imagination. There are as many gods as there are believers. An infinite regression. "Sustaining power of entire creation." A useful but nonexistent entity. The result of taking an "o" out of "good": "Good is a far more acceptable thing than God," says poet Amiri Bakara. God has or is a consciousness. God is a mathematician. "What the universe is doing is bringing God into Being," suggests Jon Atack, a cult expert, "rather than God bringing the universe into being." As Galileo said, truths cannot clash, therefore if both science and religion are truthful, they may be like the theory of gravity and the theory of quantum mechanics: neither completely wrong nor completely correct. There isn't room in the cosmos for both God and the universe. If God is outside the universe, He's irrelevant. "Jains don't believe in God, the same way we don't believe in the Devil." God is not necessarily benevolent; He might be an advanced intelligence playing a videogame with the world in which we are nothing more than images on software for His private entertainment. Something that lodges inside the thoughts of fanatics, driving them to fly airplanes into buildings or blow up abortion clinics.

B "Who is the Messiah?" Along with Buddha ("first perfect master"), Mohammed (divine prophet), and others, Jesus is a "charismatic authority." An inspirational, historical figure - lacking corroborative historical evidence of his existence - since mythologized into a deity. "Be Jesus-like, be Buddha-like." Mythical composite like King Arthur. According to Freudian psychology, a "developmental trick … fantasies we tell ourselves." The story of Jesus, who told parables, may itself be a parable. A distinctly new evolutionary stage of human consciousness. Oppressed peoples have long relied upon the hope for a savior.

C "What does God need?" His creations to awaken to their full potential. Live up to His expectations; be obedient. Engage in a personal, spiritual relationship with Him. The Christian God appears to have an ego problem, insecure and petty, in need of praise and glorification. Nothing: God lacks nothing. Merging of individual human consciousnesses with Cosmic Consciousness. To receive higher-power pleasure from some celestial entertainment system.

D "Where does certainty come from?" From within … "feels good" … in one's heart. Others confirm one's beliefs. Fanatics have banished all doubts, while faith harbors a sense of uncertainty: "You need doubt to search for faith." "I don't have a certainty," says Julia Sweeney, an actress: "I have a probability." Beyond one's personal certainty of being, all else is tied to a provisional belief of existence. "Any thinking person would always have doubts." "Science robs us of the notion of certainty," says physicist Sylvester James Gates Jr.

E "What is the greatest danger facing mankind?" Destructive impulse within ourselves. Overpopulation of people coupled with their wanting a higher standard of living that depletes natural resources. Ignorance, greed, envy, short-term interests. Trashing the environment and global warming. Extreme religious beliefs in conflict. Nuclear weapons in the hands of those willing to become martyrs. The quality and quantity of human civilization is threatened, but humanity like rats will survive in some way or another its own worst devices.

F "Who is the Devil?" The fallen angel Lucifer and chief competitor of God; the dark side of light; a lacking of divine light. A demon of evil: d'evil. According to Christian Scripture, Satan has devolved from God's right-hand angel and devil's advocate (as in Job) to the Devil in Hell, having dominion over Earth. Until Christianity there were no evil gods. "No spirit of evil - ridiculous, childish." An invention, "useful projection" of religion. Plays "no part in paganism." "The best within us," says Magus Peter H. Gilmore: a rebel to authority and heroic figure in the literature of John Milton and Mark Twain. Yang (God) versus ying (ghost or evil spirit). A simplification of complex situations into black and white choices. An inhabitant of our own minds: "the devil made me do it." A representation of depravities from genocide to child abuse.

IV Truth and Faith A "What is truth?" "[I] came into the world ... to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to [my] voice," Jesus said to Pilate, who replied, "What is truth?" (John 18:38) Jesus made no reply as far as Scripture tells us. "Truth is love." "Tao is truth, and truth is eternal." Speak truth to power. "That which is coherent with observation." Statements that fit all available evidence without contradiction. "Much easier to answer what's false." There are subjective, relative truths and then there are objective truths. "Truth is what survives." We should be truthful but cannot comprehend the Truth. "Something you cannot argue." Absolute certainty is not available to human beings. Perhaps only in mathematics and logic can an absolute truth (e.g., 2+2=4) be grasped. Over absolute truths of religion people kill one another. The ultimate truth, eternal and unchanging, is not the goal of science, which seeks that which is "less false." From Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty we may take the lesson to "tolerate ambiguity" and accept that the truth of reality is "approachable but not reachable."

B "How do we determine truth?" Via the scientific method, rooting out error by testing and correcting, objective truth comes into view. Reliance on knowledge of others. Like fish in the water, we exist in a cultural milieu of beliefs. Distinguishing from wishing: "Feelings aren't a very good measure of the way things are." Religions have a poor track record of predicting reality.

C "Where do the inner voices come from?" From neuropsychology (i.e. brain processes), including temporal lobe seizures, epileptic fits, psychotic fantasizing, schizophrenia, dreams, delusional demons and aliens, hallucinations, "babble of experience behind the eyes." Is it God or Satan speaking? Is it positive or destructive? Everyone has a family of personalities behind the forehead with no one in control. A single individual's supernatural belief may be labeled lunatic, but if 100 million people have the same belief it's a religion.

D "Are beliefs innate?" Being raised by religious parents inculcates belief in children. "Biological imperative." So many different visions vying for acceptance as divine guidance for life. "Obedience to authority." Ignorance of science for which a bad answer is worse than no answer. Humans have an innate need for knowledge, along with a desire to belong to a group, in which the desire to know produces a mythical story.

E "What is faith?" Belief in God as insurance: "hope and a wish." "Belief without corroboration." Opposite of doubt. "Confirmation bias." "Start from answer rather than question." Opposite of knowledge. "Makes personal prejudice respectable." "Take the risk to believe … voyage to discovery … glimpse of grace." Faith substitutes for absence of evidence: No evidence or miracle has been enough to confirm any religion over another. "Faith leads you to wrong beliefs." "Experiencing the moment." Theorists in science must begin with axioms, initial assumptions, a sort of faith. A fact is an experimental result with predictability; a theory ties all the known facts together. Physicist Leonard Susskind admits to having "faith in the laws of statistics."

F "Can religion and science co-exist?" "Why?" versus "How?" Skeptical science clashes with religious certainty. Science is contingent, constantly revising answers: "We're not attached to our ideas … they're temporal." "The science we know to be true," says Joel R. Primack, professor of physics and astrophysics, "is the science we know to be false." "Religion has science envy," says Dr Dan Rose, a Freudian psychiatrist. In the Bible, "Hebrews were making an educated guess for their day." Science and religion run parallel to each other. Often unawares, people hold contradictory beliefs. "When religion attempts to explain the world it usually gets it wrong." Galileo, who believed in God, was punished for contradicting the Church's geocentric worldview. "Not all religions are willing to co-exit with science." While Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) attributed to the hand of God ("He is omnipresent not only virtually but also substantially … He is all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all force of sensing, of understanding, of acting") preservation of the solar system's coherence, preventing the planets from falling into the Sun or flying off into free space, a century later mathematical physicist Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1749-1827), an atheist, proved mathematically (introducing perturbation theory and the nebular hypothesis) why the solar system is stable and how it evolved.

G "Did humans evolve?" "It's obvious" from "the preponderance of scientific evidence." Research has abundantly confirmed connections throughout the animal worlds on the molecular and DNA levels. The theory of evolution made predictions that have since been found to be accurate. Religion has repeatedly made strong pronouncements contrary to observed facts. "Intelligent design is political fraud." God allowed creation to progress through evolutionary means. "Illusion of design." For most people - who have an emotional, irrational, know-nothing reaction - deep time and deep space are counterintuitive concepts. "If you care anything about evidence, human beings evolved," says Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology: "I think anybody who thinks human beings didn't evolve should be disqualified from a jury. I don't want somebody judging the particulars of a crime who doesn't believe that evidence matters." "Everything evolves," pronounces Stanford Woolsey.

V Sin and Free Will A "What is sin?" Being bad and needing forgiveness: "guilt, doing something wrong." Causing pain; disregard of others. As karma, that which takes one farther away from truth rather than bringing one closer. "A dogmatic, supernatural principle … stain" in need of absolution. Stupidity and pretentiousness. "What we do that we can't live with." Discussion of distinctions between crimes and sins, sickness and evil, temptation and will, actions versus intentions. Conversely, some good intentions are belied by deceptive acts. In Christian doctrine both thoughts and actions may be sins while only actions can be sinful in Judaism. Native Americans (who had begun to settle in the Americas from Northeastern Asia about 7,000 years before Bishop Ussher determined that Adam and Eve were created) had no conception of (original) sin until the Christian missionaries taught them about sinfulness and in many respects demonstrated their own sinful behavior on the Indians.

B "When does life begin?" Biologically continuous, both sperm and egg are alive before they meet, so maybe the question should be: "When does humanhood begin?" The fact that identical twins split from a single egg, the soul can't have come into being at conception. At first breath, the spirit enters the body. Perhaps we become human holistically in a way like a painting or a novel comes into existence, not by a single stroke of the brush or inclusion of a word.

C "When should life be terminated?" While abortion, capital punishment, war, and self-defense are addressed, no mentioned is made at all of whether or not an individual should have the right to choose euthanasia instead of an existence of suffering unbearable pain or being mentally or physically incapacitated. In the Bible there's no mention of abortion as a capital crime, though stoning is a common punishment for various offenses. Pro-life people should be vegetarians. Considering costs versus benefits - the injustices in the legal system and the lack of evidence of deterrence - capital punishment should be eliminated.

D "Should politics and religion mix?" Our representatives in government should be agnostics to avoid further associating patriotism with religious affiliation. Nonsense of common expression from politicians: "God bless America." The British monarch had a divine right to rule. The Bill of Rights protects citizens from the prejudices of voters.

E "Do we have free will?" With regard to all of the limitations imposed upon us - physical, place and time of birth, gender, economics, politics, culture, etc - there is a spectrum over which we have and don't have control. "Useful illusion." Each individual has a unique spiritual capacity. We are conditioned to conformity from birth. People frequently turn their free will over to cults, careers, ideologies, religion, etc. "Might as well pretend we have free will." Choices create value. "I want it to be that way." In the afterlife we'll have more free will than in this life. The question of free will is a defective question without any means of verifying its validity that "What happened could have happened another way." Indeterminacy at the subatomic level may accord us some freedom from the larger forces acting on our choices. It's hard to determine where free will begins and determinism ends. Karma is deterministic, denying free will. Does a lobotomy remove a person's free will? "We will decide whether we will survive."

F "Is there fate or predestination?" Circular thinking that God knows what you're going to choose without causing you to choose what he knows will happen. "We still want to believe in a benevolent force," such as a fate without God or a heaven without hell. "Useful fiction ... for moral culpability." That there could be sin from free will coupled with God's omniscient predetermination is "flapping our lips and making nonsense." Or that God, who knows and allows evil, is fully aware that his creatures will fail and even with his omnipotence permits the outcome as if he were completely impotent. "No adventure" in knowing everything. Everyone has a genetic predisposition, yet identical twins do not live identical lives. Quantum physics and relativity challenged the notion of a predetermined universe by positing "possibilities and related probabilities": ironically, predicting the probability of outcomes but not the outcome itself "brought back free will."

VI Morality and Sexuality A "Why is God interested in human sexual behavior?" Religion has grafted onto emotions already present from evolution, taking control of people's sexuality to have power over their deepest desires. But wouldn't a truly Supreme Being have more concern about overpopulation and depletion of resources for the well-being of his favorite creation? God doesn't regulate sex, we do, because we're embarrassed about still having to employ a primitive act for procreation. The natural, most intimate expression between two people has been turned into something nasty and naughty by associating it with evil, dirty, original sin. Religious leaders tend to be disturbed people; the most puritanical of people tend to have the largest families.

B "Should people have premarital sex?" Several responses were in this vein: "We certainly did," "I endorse it," "Absolutely." Couples should get to know each other before making a long-term commitment. Since it's a natural appetite (as with eating), "Why do you make sex a problem at all?" Obesity is a far greater threat to one's health. How is it that marriage makes sex okay when not every couple has offspring? If one wishes to argue that there are cultural costs, marriage should be regarded as a contract between a person and society.

C "Is it wrong to masturbate?" One wag says: "If it is, I'm in trouble." Natural, instinctive release of tensions; for males, medical evidence suggests frequent masturbation is good for the prostate.

D "Is sexual orientation a choice?" The Bible has "clobber passages" with which homophobic persons strike (fortunately in this country not legally and lethally with stones) at homosexuals. Numerous studies clearly indicate that genetics provide humans with a spectrum or continuum of sexuality with degrees of heterosexual and homosexual predisposition. While atheism is a choice, being gay or lesbian isn't. How is it that anyone who believes in God (no longer of the Greek and Roman deities) could imagine him as a sexual being?

E "What is morality?" Rules to regard and respect others as of equal value. "What everyone or nearly everyone ought to do." Self-discipline. Behavior-control mechanisms. Evolutionary adaptations for survival: pro-social, altruistic, cooperative, being nice to others. "Doesn't require any belief in the supernatural." Few atheists end up in prison. Pragmatic group cohesion for harmonious living arrangement within societies. Good conduct means giving pleasure to others while bad behavior causes others pain. Secular ethical principles (agreement on what is universally right versus wrong) supersede religious dogmas of a moral code (which often determines that even though someone behaves ethically, s/he isn't necessarily regarded as a righteous person). Too often morality has become associated with sex.

F "Is there a moral yardstick among cultures?" A measure of freedom and survival for members of a society. Not only are there differences between human cultures throughout the world, over time standards and values within a culture change as we've seen with slavery, polygamy, privacy, the economic shifts between capitalism and socialism, the balance between liberty and security. Most moral values are relative rather than absolute (incest?), with universal values having been derived from the evolutionary past. If not always in practice, governments appear to give consistent lip service to similar laws and constitutions from one nation to another while religions largely refuse to find common ground with one another.

G "Should women be treated differently than men?" Certainly, when they're pregnant and caring for children. In most sports women cannot be expected to compete against men. For the converse of "wives should be subject to their husbands," refer to Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" for the proper treatment of women. Persons should be treated according to their individual abilities, not with regard to class or gender. Equal under the law, yet there's hypocrisy in our politics and political institutions. In reincarnation, souls alternate from one gender to the other for the full human experience. There are not just two distinct sexes as hermaphrodites confoundedly demonstrate.

H "What is the source of altruism?" The threat of divine punishment doesn't inspire altruism. A sense of shame for not acting benevolently toward others. Conscience, the self-accusing spirit, is in part nature and in part nurtured. Possible without a belief in God since atheists can be decent, kind, loving people. "Everybody does nice things most of the time." As zoology instructs, altruism isn't restricted to humans: a Darwinian adaptation. While a charitable act can be at least partly selfish, shouldn't you get a reward of feeling good for doing good? "Altruism doesn't demand that you suffer. Even a thief knows that stealing is wrong - just try stealing from him.

VII Prayer and Afterlife A "What is prayer?" Praying is wishing, like "a mental letter to Santa Claus." A regression to having had parental intercession. "Magical formula for getting what you want." Prayers aren't answered; no evidence that they are. "Our Father who art in cyberspace, give us today our daily bandwidth …" Placebo effect: having faith is something that makes some people feel better. The only meaningful prayer: "Thy will be done." "It's useless to pray." Prayers "reinforce your own will." Similar to meditation, having a calming effect.

B "What is meditation?" Buddhist chant of "OM MANI PADME HUM." Orientation of sitting, concentration on breathing, setting mind correctly. Cleaning the mind. Losing sense of the self to become one with the universe. "Group mentality" that produces nonreflective thought.

C "Does God intercede in tragedy?" There's no purpose to prayer without divine intervention. A prayer for intercession is a request to an imaginary friend. Yet evil, the suffering and death of innocents, calamities of man (war and genocide) and nature (most recently in Japan), diseases and famine, all suggest, if there is a God, that he has a fickle, unreliable character. On the other hand, good comes out of bad. While the Holocaust was certainly an act of evil enormity, without it the state of Israel might never have come into existence. Apparently God picks sides but can be persuaded to change his association (but by what force?). God is a poor planner in his having to repeatedly destroy and restore humanity as with the Flood. The typical answer that "God works in mysterious ways" is a cop out of nonsense.

D "Why is there suffering?" This question causes most theologians to twist and turn with pretzel logic. The orthodox explanation for the cause of suffering (original sin, bad behavior, Satan's meddling) has gone through an evolutionary process. Having to struggle improves character. Overpopulation causes suffering. Flaws in the mechanism ("ruthless process") of the evolutionary process produce disparities.

E "Is there an afterlife?" A belief that this life alone is not enough. Compensation for unhappiness in this world; hope for justice in immortality. From a terrifying awareness and fear of death arises a "poverty of imagination." The only legacy left behind is of works and the remembrances of others. (But Hitler, Stalin, and other monsters are better remembered than the meek and humble.) A useful construct by those in power, promising to saps a reward to come later. Desire for eternal exploration. Matter returns to energy.

F "Where is Heaven?" A weekend (preceding reincarnation) or permanent vacation from terrestrial existence where souls lounge beside the holy-water swimming pool, munching on wafers and quaffing wine, hanging out with God: doing what and for what purpose? While hell's punishments are imaginable, what can paradise offer since most earthly pleasures are sinful? Which is more ridiculous: the belief that Islamic martyrs will be received by 72 virgins or the idea of paradise itself? Since many Christians believe that babies are granted immediate entrance into heaven if they die before they can become conscious of sin, isn't abortion far kinder than all other forms of killing people?

G "What is a soul?" The immortal, transcendental, inner part. "The feeling of self-consciousness." The life force. "A ghost in the machine." Stardust ("dust to dust"). "A type of wishful thinking." A spirit that leaves behind an empty shell. "The essence of God." The kernel of reincarnation. "Clearly we wouldn't need brains if we had souls," since a soul is believed to house consciousness and memories. After death of the brain, "no energy pattern carries on" as far as science has been able to detect thus far. Like an ant hill, the soul is greater than the sum of our parts. "Are we humans part of a much larger organism that our consciousness contributes to?" asks the late American surgeon and author Leonard Shlain (who now is in a position to know or never will know): "Each one of us by becoming a little more conscious contributes to this global consciousness or even interstellar consciousness, and we're just not aware of it, just like the ants aren't aware that they're part of a much larger thing."

H "When is doomsday?" The end of the universe is just as controversial as its beginning. Within a cosmos forever expanding, our Sun will eventually cool, and the vastness of spacetime "slowly will get colder and colder." On Earth before any of the grander events take place, human civilization may self-destruct with nuclear war, overpopulate the planet, depleting its resources, or expire with greenhouse effects. Millions of evangelists appear overly eager from hatred for their sinful, pagan fellows for the expected Rapture. "No beginning," says a Zen Buddhist, "no end."

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