It's Easter Sunday. Here is what that means to me: it's Sunday. Being Sunday does not make it a better day than any other to talk about God, but I've got the time free. I also want to talk about the Universe, and Truth. The stuff that matters almost as much as the Dodgers. Almost.

When it comes down to God (or god, or gods, or Gods, or whatever), there are two choices: Yes or no. Is or isn't. The details are irrelevant, or at least they exist in plenty. The simple question each person has to ask and answer: Do I believe God exists?

I do.

If God does not exist, the universe (reality, everything) must perforce be a purely physical entity. My problem with that is this (and I'm willing to learn more, and try to learn all I can about the nature of the physical universe): Where the hell did it all come from? The universe does exist — unless this is all some kind of metaphysical dream as some have posited — and that's a lot of stuff. What's the source of all that stuff?

I really have a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the possibility that it has always just been there. I could just accept that as The Fact, but to do so is a huge leap of faith. Yes, it's all here, but that's not proof of a purely physical universe.

The very idea that anything exists at all, whatever the source — physical or spiritual — is overwhelming to me. The most basic state of existence seems to be non-existence. Nothingness. Yet there is no nothingness; there is this. All of this. Whatever it is, wherever it came from.

So I believe that the universe is more than just a physical entity. I believe the universe has a spiritual source; that is, extra-physical. We exist in the physical realm, but we have a connection to that greater realm, the spiritual. I don't mean heaven or nirvana or anything like that; by talking about spirituality, I'm not referring to anyone's religious theories. Whatever the nature of the spiritual part of the universe is, the limitations of physical life prevent us from knowing much more than it is there.

Or that I believe it is there. I admit it: it's easier to believe in a spiritual genesis to the universe than a physical one. A spiritual source to all-and-everything is almost as overwhelming to me, but it makes a bit more sense. It helps explain, I think, why living creatures are more than meat-covered automatons. That's a huge discussion for another time, but the nature of how we humans live our lives — and what we see in other creatures, the more-than-physical nature of their lives — tells me there is likely to be a spiritual aspect to the universe, and we share in it.

In brief, I believe that the spiritual aspect of the universe from which the physical realm emerges is what we also know as love (welcome to the airy-fairy portion of the discussion). This love is the substance of the spiritual universe, the source of the physical universe, and it has a single intent: the creation of life. In every bit of the universe we can observe, we see life being formed. Even what we call "death" leads to the creation of more life. No matter how inhospitable some part of the universe may seem to life — supernova, a super-hot sulfur vent on the deep ocean floor, or southeastern Oregon — we see life emerge and even flourish (ok, flourish is probably an overstatement for southeastern Oregon).

I accept that a purely physical universe is capable of such behavior, but I doubt it. I find the possibility too implausible, and too inhuman. I may be wrong, but my faith in a spiritual universe is one way I choose to be human.

I also choose not to be religious about this. God as defined by most humans: not what I'm talking about. Every human religion is, in my opinion, wrong. Their attempts to be exclusive, to define Truth, to explain away what they don't like, to create God in their own images — wrong, wrong, wrong. If Christians are right, does that make Muslims wrong? If the Hindi are the ones with truth, where does that leave that small, remote tribe along the Amazon?

Nope, religion is a mistake. Religion is how humans knock the stuffings out of the big fat scary mystery that is the universe. A pointless exercise, too, because most people still end up being scared shitless about life. I know that I am: I fear for what lies ahead for my kids, for the possibility that I may be going to someone's hell, that all that waits "beyond" is nothingness. That's all very scary, but somehow I seem more able to live with it now that I have let go of religion.

So, for those of you for whom this is a special day, Happy Easter to you. If your beliefs take you elsewhere, I wish you happiness and peace as well. If you had money on Tiger Woods at the Masters, sorry about that. Tomorrow we return to the secular calendar. Through all the battles to be fought over Iraq, taxes, personal liberties and so on, many people will call upon their god to give them strength, wisdom and an overwhelming victory in politics, law, war and sports.

Good luck with that, kids. You can't all be right, I think you're all wrong, and meanwhile I need to get back outside. The universe is sending me a personal message, and I need to take delivery.