The Magic Construct The Afterlife Time is fairly unassailable. It implies past, present and future, although only the present instant can be more than inferred. Only the present can be experienced because the past exists only in memory and the future exists only in imagination. The past is the root of causality. The present has been caused by events that have happened in the past. The future is being created by the present. Events which are occurring now are establishing what will happen in the future. Every single action affects and determines the future. When you are dead, you will have set the future as your legacy. All that is left of you - all the influence you have had and all the impact you have made with your actions and creations will be intrinsic to the future. All that is left of you will reside there. The future is the afterlife. This is undeniable, regardless of supernatural possibilities. Heaven Fidel Castro said, "History will absolve me!" Thus from the mouth of an atheist and communist proceeds the possibility of heaven. He meant that even though he was being vilified, future historians would look back and redeem him from condemnation because his actions, based on his clarity of vision, would have proved to create a positive future. If the afterlife is future history, heaven is a future in which you are absolved, your actions justified. Heaven is the place where you go when you die, if you have been very good. But heaven is not yet upon us because only the present can be more than inferred. Thus heaven can only be a pattern of the way things ought to be. It is our perspicacity and intent that give us the ability to determine this pattern. The Leap of Faith "The way things ought to be" is philosophically meaningless. You can select anything and so define it. The only thing certain is that it is an absolute, and that it is an ultimate goal. An absolute good can be argued for as easily as an absolute evil, if you are willing to argue knowingly and embrace the implied consequences. The same arguments can be made for heaven and hell. If your idea of absolution is fear and fascism and the world in flames, that can logically be defined as heaven. Thus, it is at this point that the mysterious Leap of Faith becomes imperative. This is not an unvalidated belief in the unconfirmable supernatural, except that it is philosophically unprovable. It is just a belief that good is better than evil. It is better to heal than to harm. Nietzsche makes the argument that one can choose 'life' or 'vengeance'- all that is given to humanity is to make this choice over and over again. To choose neither is not an act of will, but simply inertia - the usual acceptance of the flow and force of causality. There is no struggle, and no sacrifice. Vengeance is retaliation against an individual or humanity when you have suffered betrayal - when your fear has been fulfilled over your faith. But what of life? Life is a struggle against inertia and against vengeance. Active kindness. Heroism. This is the act of will open to us. To choose good or evil. The Father It is said that God is good. Good is not an adjective, in this case, but the Platonic Form of goodness. If heaven is the pattern, God is the principle behind that pattern. It is goodness that defines the nature of heaven. The Son An act of will, in keeping with goodness, and with hope for heaven, implies struggle and sacrifice. Jesus embodies this. Crucifixion, and all its paralells, such as Odin on the tree and Prometheus on the rock, describes the nature of sacrifice. It is good, undertaken with open eyes, that leads directly to death or suffering. Every act of will redirects causality. Every act of will destroys the world. Every act of will changes you, killing the person you were. Because of the staggering complexity of causality it is impossible to determine the effects of actions. You are caught, unknowing, between faith and fear, face to face with the void. You must sacrifice yourself and your world on the basis of intent alone. This is struggle, and it is not easy. It is one form of sacrifice. The only other choices are inertia - the natural flow of causality, and vengeance, which can usually be disguised as inertia. In addition to this, an act of will is anomalous. Rene Girard argued that it is one's own sense of unique identity within society that is most tenuous and yet most important, and which is thus most jealously guarded. He said that to threaten this in others is to incite their vengeance, which they will perceive as justified. An act of will is unusual and exposes the uniqueness of the actor as surely as a brand on his forehead. It is a uniqueness whose certainty threatens the identities of the non-actors by throwing them into eclipse, to the actor's peril. This is a second form of sacrifice. Choosing literal life is also always a sacrifice and an act of will against inertia and vengeance, if one does it with open eyes. The Holy Spirit The holy spirit is simply inspiration for acting with goodness - acting with God - often in response to circumstances, but sometimes in seeming pure fiat. Baptism and the Eucharist The sacrament of baptism is a vow to choose life - to do your best to act with God. It is impossible to truly do your best. You can always do more, because possibilities are infinite. Also, in attempting to avoid error in calculating the redirection of causality, you may err on the side of caution. Choosing life is a struggle, and thus, you sometimes fail and give in to fear, inertia, or even vengeance. Hence sin. But with the sacrament of communion, intent is confirmed - the intent to choose life. It is the internalisation and thus acceptance of sacrifice and all that it entails. It is an expression of willingness to struggle. Hence the forgiveness of sin - and the forgiveness of failure and the possibility of failure. From that comes peace and courage. Your path through the world is justified by the confirmation of intent, come what may. The Pattern is re-set in your mind. The Word In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. Speech is the origin of consciousness. God's name is Jehovah, arguably phonetically Ieowa - the unwritten Hebrew vowels, without which there is no speech. The Word and Name of God, of goodness is communication. Without communication, without interaction, and thus without others, there is nothing. At least, there is nothing but inertia. The only choice is literal life or literal death, and it is meaningless, because even it can neither heal nor harm. People are everything and communication is the prerequisite for their existence in your world. Our father, who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us Lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our saviour, Jesus Christ. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever Amen