by Eli Chisholm

Created on: April 24, 2010

Who are we?  Why are we here?  What happens after we die?  Timeless questions, and ones people have tried to answer for just about as long as we have been able to formulate them.  We want answers to everything, even the Mysteries (which really aren't that mysterious at all).  And, it seems, everyone has their own answer, and everyone is right, but everyone ELSE is wrong.  I'VE got the right answer, the right way, YOU don't.  And everyone wants to save everyone else.

Have you been saved?

How common a question, with so many different answers.  The very implication of the question is incredible, yet we don't even flinch at it: we NEED to be saved.  It just goes without saying.  Every religion agrees on it: Hindus and Buddhists think you need to be saved from the great karmic cycle of birth and rebirth, Zoroastrians believe you need to be saved from purification for wicked deeds, words, and thoughts; and the great monotheistic religions all believe we need to be saved from our own flaws and the divine retribution of  a God that set us up to fail in the first place, and in many cases asks impossible standards of His believers.

I was born Catholic, but had the good fortune to have a family that encouraged curiosity and allowed me to find my own answers.  I spent part of my 2nd grade reading a book of Greek myths, given to me by my grandmother, a librarian at the Catholic school I went to.  Some kids my age were given coloring books to entertain themselves with; I was given a set of Tarot cards with pretty pictures.  I wasn't afraid to ask questions, because I was met with honest answers, instead of being told, "Just because."  And I spent a lot of time looking over the answers that many religions give, and the implications behind those answers.  I found something amazing: the colors might all be different, but pretty much every religion I came across was the same critter at the core.

I found a set of axioms that every major religion holds.  First, that some divine force or creator(s) made everything.  They made everything perfectly, working flawlessly, and absolutely harmoniously, EXCEPT humans; what is in every religion's eyes the most significant single creation, the one most important, the one closest and dearest and receiving the most attention, is invariably the one that gets screwed up.  That's the second point: by reason outside of our control, we are all flawed

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