There is something good in everything.
I sincerely believe this. And I actually don’t believe in the opposite, that that means there is bad in everything. I think there is always good and there are sometimes tough lessons. I believe in God but not the Devil. And I do not believe in Hell, meaning a Divinely decreed sentence to a fiery place, a place we go when we die if we were bad when we were alive. Maybe my version is worse: I think Hell is here and humanly made.
But that means we can fight it or learn from it. That’s what I mean by something good in everything. Looking to nature for an example: a butterfly has to fight and struggle to break out of its chrysalis to gain the strength it needs to survive. The struggle makes it strong.
When I say I believe in God, I mean that thing that is bigger than each of us, that collective spirit. I do feel guided by it, at least some of the time. When I say I don’t believe in the Devil, I mean I don’t believe there is an evil being trying to influence us. I believe that we are all capable of evil, but “the Devil made me do it”? I don’t think so.
And Heaven? A lot of people who have had near death experiences get to a place where they feel unconditionally loved and a part of something bigger. When someone I know died, the next morning his wife swears she felt his spirit and heard him, or rather, felt him, say, “I’m so happy now.” It makes sense to me, with my version of God, that when we die, we return to that collective spirit. Maybe that reunion (actually, that recognition of a reunion; I don't think we're ever really separate) is blissful.
But I don’t really know. What do you think?