a Book of LIFE

Anyone who has seen the film, "The Matrix," understands "Matrix Philosophy." Do you choose the red pill, which will answer "The Question." Or, do you choose the blue pill which allows life to simply carry on as before? To paraphrase the words of Morpheus from the film, "...All I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

And what is the truth? It encompasses the meaning and the purpose of life and embraces an understanding of a greater reality. One would think that everyone would want to know Truth. But it is not quite so simple. We can't all quite handle Truth. But that's life!

I have always had a great intellectual curiosity about Man and his universe. The big questions of the meaning and purpose of life have always been with me in some subliminal manner. But, the easier questions of life and death seemed more within my grasp. Perhaps, that is part of the reason I became a physician. So, over many years, I have become very well acquainted with both the mode of entry to and exit from this life. When it came to religious dogma and faith in a higher power, I completely recoiled in disbelief. To choose belief was not a choice I could make. Religions all seemed so disconnected to any truth I could imagine. Unless science could prove the existence of God, it was all silly nonsense: fairy tales for young and old of feeble minds. Prejudice was cloaked in religious garb, dividing, persecuting, and killing people, all in the name of God. What kind of God would allow it? That was all I needed to know about religion. I removed myself from such idiocy.

But life had other things in store for me...