I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t. ~ Jules Renard

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. ~ Thomas Paine

Just because I don’t share your belief in the traditional Judeo-Christian, monotheistic view of god, it doesn’t mean that I am spiritually bankrupt or that I don’t have my own personal relationship with the energy- the life force if you will- that permeates the entire universe and flows through every atom, every particle of our existence. None of us could possibly exist if it weren’t for the ancient deaths of great stars- unimaginably powerful and violent events which created the ingredients for life. It’s chaotic and beautiful and perfect and random- and much more amazing and mind-blowing than recycled children’s stories in a 2000 year old book.

The universe is my god, science is my prophet. He is cruel and benevolent and unfair and uncaring. But he is honest. And that is more than I can say of the gods of the Bible or Qur’an or Tanakh. When bad things happen, I don’t have to try to justify why my gods chose to let them happen to me. I don’t cling to silly outdated ideas out of fear or ignorance or guilt. Justification is not necessary or prudent when dealing with nature.

And, most importantly, people don’t often carry out mass violence or fight wars in the name of the universe.

Believing in Christianity or Islam or any other organized religious system is easy, especially when you’ve been raised to do so since your birth. Letting go is the hard part. Questioning what you’ve always been taught was the truth has always been more difficult than blindly believing in fairytales.

You certainly have the right to believe whatever you want to believe, whatever gets you through your days, so long as it’s not hurting anyone. In the end, we just don’t fucking know. But whatever the afterlife is or isn’t, I seriously doubt that in the billions of years the earth has been around, a few men wearing animal skins got it right just a few centuries ago.

But if you do believe that, that’s okay too. I still love you and want you all to be happy!

Come on people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together, try to love one another right now…

About the Author: Nick Allison is just a banged-up combat infantry veteran of the War in Iraq. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife, their children and two big, dumb, ugly mongrel dogs.

Please feel free to send your love letters and hate mail to nick.chaossection@gmail.com.

Twitter: @ChaosSection.com or @NickAllison80