The Ponder Nook

                       Where do we go after we die? To many, this question is both simple and obvious. The belief of an immortal soul is a core teaching in all of the most popular religions in the world today. Among the Abrahamic religions, i.e. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, God judges the faith and or works of all who die and appoints them to either heaven or hell. While Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs all believe in the reincarnation of the soul, or energy, into another being. However, the growing number of atheists, agnostics and people unaffiliated with religion seem to take on a more nihilistic approach where existence begins at birth and ends in death, with no continuation of the consciousness in any known form. Despite identifying as an agnostic atheist myself, I do not subscribe to a state of definitive oblivion. Yet I also fully admit that there is no evidence outside of subjective, anecdotal experiences t...

The Ogden, Utah Temple             When I first had the idea of creating a blog my goal was to empty the clutter out of my head and put it down in written form. To that end, I would say that it has been a success. No, I haven’t made any money, garnered legions of followers, or even had many replies to my posts, but I have found a sense of catharsis in venting my thoughts and ideas to the world that I wouldn’t have attained otherwise. Most, if not all, of my posts would be deemed controversial to the majority of my friends and family, which tends to happen to someone who is a bit of an odd sheep among a conventional flock. Nonetheless, I find my little corner of cyberspace to be a breath of fresh air, and it is something I thoroughly enjoy, which is reason enough to continue this endeavor in chronicling the strange world of my mind. This next venture delves into an extremely sensitive, yet far over due, topic that I have been pondering over for many yea...

The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel (1847)      All stories have an adversary. Sometimes they can be less concrete, such as natural disasters, or inevitable consequences of actions. Usually, however, they come in the form of an antagonist in direct conflict with the hero of the story. The Big Bad Wolf stalks and eats Little Red Riding Hood, The Evil Queen desires to kill Snow White over her beauty, Sauron seeks to destroy all who would come between him and the One Ring. In all these examples, it seems to me that the bad guy is either obsessed with the protagonist or sees them as a hindrance to their own evil agenda. One of the oldest, and most despised adversaries in western culture is, beyond a doubt, the Devil. According to mainstream Christian belief, Satan, or Lucifer, is a fallen archangel who rebelled in a war in heaven and is seen as a rival to God, striving to tempt as many souls as possible into damnation. Within the context of  Christianity, Satan stands ...

“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss.” - Paradise Lost, 1667.          In the epic poem, Paradise Lost, John Milton reexamines the Genesis story of Adam and Eve along with an in-depth interpretation into Satan and his motive as the biblical events play out. What I find interesting is that, having grown up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we are taught that the fall of Adam was God's plan all along, and that it was necessary for humans to fall in order to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth"; but in this version, as well as most mainstream Christian belief, the Fall of Man is considered a great tragedy that could have been avoided if our primordial ancestors would have only listened to God's commandment not to partake of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. In the latter interpretation, I find it strange that God seems to be so ...

  What does it mean to be human? On the surface it doesn't seem like a very complex question. Clearly there are major differences between us and the rest of the animal kingdom. We have opposable thumbs coupled with fine motor skills that help us manipulate our environments, elaborate languages and ways of communicating measurement such as math and science, the ability to understand the past, present, and future, aesthetic appreciation of art, and technological capabilities all make the differences a stark contrast. In my mind, however, everything I brought up are mere branches of a trunk that serves as the core of everything else. The core that I speak of is consciousness.  All living things have consciousness to some degree. Even early micro-organisms had a basic environmental consciousness that told them to swim to the surface of the ocean for sunlight in order to photosynthesize, and to dive down deeper when it became too hot. Human consciousness, on the other hand, is far ...