RE: existance
This was one of the very first points I raised if I remember correctly. There is no doubt about it, and this is one of the problems that I have with religion today. What is there that explains God's existence?
One thing that I continue to believe (don't recall if I brought it up here or not) is that the world exists only because it cannot not exist. This might not make sense at first, but after a while, you start to understand it.
Imagine nothing, imagine the universe gone, and then describe what you see? Many people I have asked this question to simply see an oblivion where our reality had once been. I think it takes a certain sort of creativity and imagination to admit that there cannot be nothing. Somehow, I believe that the fact that there cannot be nothing is what created our existence. Exactly how far back down the process of creation this happened is up to you. Maybe there is a god, maybe he did create our world, maybe he did create us, but he can only be as strong as we choose to make him.
Creation might as well work both ways. If we did not exist, how could God himself exist? You might as well say that we created God, and in fact we did.
Quite frankly, God was the creation of our almost ancient ancestors to explain the overwhelming concepts of philosophy. With very little to no knowledge of science, many things must have seemed overwhelming to the primitive man, and the best way he could possibly explain this was an almighty supernatural being who was responsible for it all.
The fact that God was loving, and provided a life after death proves this even more. Given human's instinct for survival, the fact that he must eventually die one way or another must seem equally as overwhelming, and so the idea of life after death was created to give people hope. After all, if there was nothing after death, what would be the point in life? And, humans could not accept the harshness of reality, and so they created something to replace the balance between law and chaos that dictates what comes of our reality. Now there was certainty, if they make good out of their lives, they will be rewarded, if they make evil, then they will be punished. The world does not work this way, but wouldn't it be good if it did?
There was a need for God, and perhaps we would not be where we are today without him (one way or another). This is clearly visible if you study many religions that are around today, they are just an excuse to explain what humans cannot explain.
How did the world form? When exactly did reality begin? Are we the first? Or the last? Maybe we are what happens when we achieved death in the true life? Maybe our souls were made from the dead of another world. Maybe the universe has repeated the cycle of creation and destruction a million times before it has reached us. But there is no way for us to know the how and why of it. Perhaps one day, we will be in a different place on reality, perhaps then we will be in a better position to understand our world. Until then, we simply cannot. We can theorize on philosophy, come to a mutual agreement on what is most probable, but we can never truly come onto a solid conclusion other than this: We must accept that things are the way they are.
"If we cannot live proudly, we die so!"
-Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
