What do we really know?

I read the various online post and the pontifications about God, religion, Heaven, Hell, death and dying. The irony of it all is that none of us really have a clue as to what will happen when we transition from this life to the next, or why evil runs rampant through our miniscule corner of the Universe.

We base our assumptions on our individual paradigm, fear, religious conditioning, and our geographical location.

It is not a shocking discovery that parents pass on their religious beliefs to their children. Muslim parents tend to have Muslim children, Christian parents tend to have Christian children, Hindu parents tend to have Hindu children. Such consistent tradition simply cannot be maintained by chance alone.

If this were a forum based in India, and we were all born and raised there, 80% of us would be Hindu, the other 20% would either support Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, or Jainism.

Consider the fact that Earth is a relatively microscopic planet when you put it up against the vastness of the Universe. The best estimates of the total mass of everything that we can see with our telescopes is roughly 0.01 M.  The other 99% of the 'stuff' of the Universe is referred to as "Dark Matter." Not in the sense that it's evil or sinister, but it's called "dark matter" because we have absolutely no clue what is out there.

There are millions of suns, planets around those suns, and other dimensions that we will never discover, at least not in one lifetime, and not in the very limited knowledge we have. Also remember, we only use 5% of our brain cells, the majority of which is cluttered with archaic beliefs, steeped in religions dogma, prejudice, and flat out ignorance.