Despite where I have arrived in life, it is hard to deny my roots. I grew up in the church, was raised by the teachings of various protestant denominations including but not limited to Baptist and the ironically named Nondenominational. This early indoctrination gave me the insight, the lessons, needed to grasp any religious conversation I would have for most of my life.

I've heard a lot of view on God, the benevolent father, the clockmaker theory and those are the ones that stand out the most to me. As a scientist I have always fancied the clockmaker view, that God set the universe into perfect motion and has no involvement as he watches the clock tick away, but this idea can be seen as both correct and incorrect at the same time to a religious individual because of the inherent complexity of the nature of an omnipotent God.

The reason for this has to do with how you view fate. If God is truly omnipotent and exists outside of time as we understand it then everything that has ever happened, is happening and will ever happen has be seen by God. This doesn't mean that we have no impact and everything will happen regardless of what we do, it just means that whatever we decide on, it has been taken into account and included in a much larger plan that we can't hope to fathom.

That in mind, I said I acknowledge there is one God and choose to live my life my own way despite that. Part of this is because I know all choices have been seen and accounted for, so a mortal such as myself cannot in any way hinder His plan, so until such time as I feel the need to return to my childhood life in the church.

Heaven is a tough one to go into, no pun intended. The bible would say that those who go to heaven would spend the rest of eternity in fellowship with God, singing his praises. This is hard to get around because it doesn't necessarily seem appealing, but to someone who has transcended mortality and seen the face of God this would seem the only logical course of action. I would like to think that eternity would be more interesting but I can only assume that once there that would be the most gratifying thing that can be done.

Hell is completely different to me than most. I don't think hell is the location as much as the idea. The unrighteous will be cast into the lake of fire, but I think that that would be hell, that at that moment you would realize what the eternity is and how it would be seperated from God and you loved ones and after that instant, which would be an eternity to you since time would cease to have meaning, you would be welcomed into heaven, since hell in fact was never created for humanity, but as a place where the cast out angels would reside for the sole purpose of being seperate for their Lord.

All that being said, free choice was our greatest gift, one only given to us, so it stands to reason if we make our choices poorly we will be left her, locked in an unending existence separate from our creator. In the end it comes down to faith and what you believe. Since I will always believe there is a plan, I am completely comfortable living my life outside the church as I do because I know when it comes time for me to be of use to that plan I will return and serve my purpose. Hope you enjoyed the read.