This book is about the philosophical questions that all human beings – regardless of their beliefs and creeds – ask at some point in their lives. The most basic of all such questions is about the purpose of one’s existence on this planet. My thesis proposes that our creation has not been completed yet, and our presence on earth is part of our creative process. This part of the process is designed for our “spiritual” growth. It turns out that most other questions about life turn out to be simple corollaries of this one basic question. Once this question is resolved, we can answer the other questions relatively easily. The goal of the book is to propose commonsense answers that are acceptable to the majority of the people regardless of what creed they belong to. Though I use religious texts to make certain points, the debate is carried out in such a way that someone who does not profess any religion can still agree with the point being made. The scriptures are used not to build the main thesis, but simply as additional supporting documentation that agrees with the arguments I make. The mix of philosophy, science and religion in the book will help the reader analyze the arguments from various viewpoints. The reader will also learn to view the various positions about “God” – atheistic, agnostic and theistic – from a rational perspective and will perhaps reach the conclusion that the difference between these positions might be due to the rigidity of definitions of such concepts as “God”, “Heaven”, “Hell”, “Predestination” and “Satan”. Viewed from a rational perspective all these concepts can be understood in such a way as to accommodate all the different positions about “God”.
