THOUGHTS
                                by Duane Bristow

                                    RELIGION

        Religions try to answer three questions:
                1.  What is the purpose of existence?
                2.  What is the nature of the universe?
                3.  How should one live his life?

        I am an existentialist on question 1.  I believe with the Zen 
        Buddhists and the existentialists that the purpose of existence 
        is existence itself and living one's life properly to maximize 
        its quality. 

        I believe on question 2 that there is a consciousness in the 
        universe in which time, matter, energy, and spirit are defined 
        and held and in which all existence is reflected.  I do not 
        believe in a personalized being watching over the fate of 
        humans, but only of individual's reflections in a universal 
        spirit.  I believe that, just as electromagnetic energy was 
        completely unknown to primitive man and now is partially 
        understood, so can time and spirit be understood to be a part of 
        existence.   They will be found to be related to matter and 
        energy in a similar way as we now know matter and energy to be 
        related.  We may even find or define other dimensions of 
        existence for which we do not now even have names.  But 
        remember, as the Zen masters know, that a thing is not 
        understood through intellectual abstraction but only through 
        personal experience and spiritual oneness with the universal 
        consciousness. 

        In answer to question 3, I believe that people can be defined as 
        bad or good in terms of whether their life tends to increase the 
        amount of entropy in the universe or to decrease it.  Each 
        person should strive to minimize the amount of pain, suffering, 
        and sorrow in the world and to maximize happiness and pleasure 
        both for themselves and others.  Life should be a celebration of 
        the diversity of experiences of which it is made and should 
        always be lived in the present not in remembrance of the past or 
        hope for the future.