A Brief Guide to God and the Soul

This work is a collection of brief essays that discuss metaphysical areas of inquiry such as the western concept of a human-like god and the soul. Since a religion cannot be classified as mathematics or as a science, then religion should be more properly classified as art. The term art is defined as, works created by human skill and imagination. Just as are tool-making, invention, and the creative arts of theater, film, literature, painting, and sculpture, the many gods and goddesses of religion, are also the result of artistic endeavor, the purely artistic subjective expression of creative talent. Religion must be recognized for what it really is, a creative craft and imaginative artistic expression. The human soul as that which survives physical death has long been associated with reason, ethics, morals, and goodness yet in reality is none these. The soul of life is a relative and triune force of hunger for food, sex and reproduction, and aggression that enable humans to survive life and also to continue after physical death.

Edward Conklin grew up and lived most of his life in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. In 1978 he moved to Florida where he presently resides. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 in the field of the psychology of Religion, and teaches courses in Humanities, Philosophy, Religion, and Psychology at the university and college level.