When I first began debating the question that I might want to research, I had many ideas and I thought that if I started with my beliefs, stating things that I thought mattered, it would help narrow my thoughts. I have many beliefs, some which I feel strongly about, while others, I feel like there could be more than one thing I believe about that particular topic. I pondered several different beliefs to discuss, topics such as how I believe people should care more for strangers, how justice is not always fair, or the energy I have felt while mourning someone’s death. Some of these ideas I will continue to believe while others I feel the need to explore. While recalling some of the things I remembered, especially about the strong energy around me, I felt while mourning for a loved one, I remembered the shooting star I saw at my time of need and I mentioned that I saw a circular rainbow that was in the sky above the funeral home that I was about to enter. I questioned whether these things were signs of a miracle or was it just life revolving in a circle. These were the types of topics that I wanted more information about, so I began searching where life comes from and what happens when we die.
As I continued on my journey exploring where life comes from, I read some interesting articles such as Let’s Talk About Death, by Jonathan Aiken. Mr. Aiken seemed to have Christian beliefs and surmised in his article that if you weren’t Christian, there was no chance for a pleasant passing, since Christians were the only ones to have this ending. Further along in my journey of the knowledge that I was obtaining, I came across an article about how life may have begun in ice. Could it be possible that RNA molecules could have existed in temperatures so cold that life as we know it would have ceased to exist from conditions such as hypothermia? This seems so extreme but then again when I read articles about the big bang theory, I wonder if life could have happened by sheer accident or were we made from a creator, namely God?
Creationist seem to believe in God, but are willing to accept that evolution may have played a part in creating the universe. They also believe that God may be of any religion, and some traditional creationist resent that God is only portrayed as a Christian God. When I was younger, I was taught that there was a God and if we didn’t believe in God, then we would perish in Hell. The more scientific articles I reviewed, the more doubts that I began to have, doubts such as my belief in where life came from. I was afraid to explore some of these thoughts because I was afraid to go against everything that I was taught, however I continued to explore different possibilities such as Darwin’s’ theory about the origin of life.
In the article titled Darwin’s example, Phillip Appleman discussed how when Darwin faced death, he was not afraid to die. How could this be? Appleman stated that this was because Darwin knew that death was inevitable, that death was a natural part of a natural process. After reading the article, Appleman stated that the meaning of life is found in all of us. Does this mean we can all find our own happiness within ourselves? If we believe in the scientific explanation of where life comes from, does that mean we may go to Hell for doubting the belief in a creator? Having doubts about a creator also made me wonder about if it is possible for life after death. This is when I read the article about near death experiences.
Apparently, many people claim to have had some near death experiences, where they claim that they know there is a God and they have seen signs of life on the other side. They claim to have had experiences such as seeing a white light at the end of a tunnel or seeing loved one’s standing around their lifeless body, while they floated above, where they could see them.
Some psychiatrists and neuroscientists doubt that these experiences can be corroborated. These professionals state that they can induce these so called experiences by stimulating the brain. Other people believe these people having these near death experiences may be inventing these stories or they may be suffering from some sort of trauma and this is how their mind attempts to handle it.
I have agreed with many of these articles and some I feel may be biased such as the Creationist believing solely in a power in which they cannot see or prove. In conclusion of my research I cannot help but feel that while I am interested in where life comes from and what happens when we die, I believe my true research will never be answered because my question would be do I believe in God, is God our higher power and is God the creator of life? I think I will still believe in miracles of some sort and wonder how they happen but to believe in one creator, responsible for creating all of life and when I wonder how if there is a God, how come things aren’t different such as everyone blissfully living in true happiness, dying peaceful deaths and seeing the other side? My research into what I believe will continue.
