THE SOUL

What we call the existence of each individual (or "self") in the progression of mankind, or, indeed, any living entity, through this universe we inhabit is a mere twitch between the oblivion before ones chance conception and the oblivion of ones death

This existence, this twitch, can be either a pleasant or an unpleasant interlude. For the vast majority of individuals of all species throughout history, this experience of living is simply accepted as BOTH pleasant and unpleasant.

To blame or praise any deity for the circumstances of ones interlude of existence between one oblivion and another seems a waste of thought and spirit. You are essentially a chance occurrence in the chaos of the universe. There was once an obscure spoof of the sickeningly emotive, delusional and similarly obscure "Desiderata", occasionally heard on the radio in the early seventies: "Deteriorata", a powerfully rational parody (produced by the same people who published National Lampoon?) put the randomness of existence best...."You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here".

But now that we ARE here, we have the ability to make or break this interlude, to provide ourselves a mortal "soul" made up of the memories and experiences left to those who survive our return to oblivion.

I believe that ones awareness of:

Right and Wrong

Good and Evil

Morality and Immorality...

is the "soul" or "spirit" of humanity. When awareness is gone (as at death), then there is no point in expecting an afterlife because without awareness, we won't know it if we have it. This is assuming that the earth is forever subject to the physical laws that have been proven throughout the existence of the universe (unlike the mythology, mysticism and common spirituality of religion, which has PROVEN NOTHING). (See: Sec. VII of The Manifesto)

Rather than the formulaic and baseless pleas thanking "god" for your good fortune and asking forgiveness for "sins" to alleviate ill fortune, try living life as an aware individual, not as an excessively "spiritual" individual.

The "faithful", all those who believe in the traditional, multi-theistic notions of "God", expect either subconsciously or objectively, and according to their societal deistic doctrine, to be able to "repent", confess and be absolved of "sin" and to pray in their last moments of life that they be graced with "heaven". This last minute "repentance" is expected to ameliorate and expunge a lifetime of mortal error and fallibility of greater or lesser severity.

Reasonable and logical individuals such as myself, on the other hand, expect our entire lives to be a "testament" in our being favorably or unfavorably remembered at death, and we accept that. Oblivion is non-judgmental...history is not.

Life may be a little easier for everyone once we accept the fact that this is all there is.

Page written by: Eric D. Tallberg

October, 1998