It was late at night, and I was having trouble sleeping. So I was just laying there, staring at the ceiling. Sometimes I would turn over and stare at the wall. I was in a relaxed state, and didn’t really mind terribly not being able to sleep. Sometimes I get into that mood. Just relaxed, letting my mind wander. Suddenly on the wall next to my bed there appeared a huge face. The room was semi-dark, because I have a night light. And I don’t think the face was glowing. But I could see it very distinctly. You might think that I started or freaked out or yelled out in fear, but in fact I did not. It was just something I observed. Again I was in a relaxed mood I guess. The voice on the wall said, “Hi Rob.” “Hello,” I said in response, amused and somewhat intrigued. “What exactly is happening here?” I continued. “Oh, you don’t know,” responded the face. “I’m God. I just stopped by to say hi.” “Oh,” I said, surprised and a little bit delighted. “That’s very nice of you. Though I have to say I’m a little bit surprised that you would choose someone like me to reveal yourself to. After all I’m not exactly a full-fledged believer, if you know what I mean.” God nodded very slightly, as if to acknowledge that I had a good point. Then he said, “Well that is actually why I decided to stop by and say hi.” I said in response, “So you are here to prove the skeptic wrong is that it?” “No, not really. I can see how from your perspective, which is to say from a human perspective, it’s almost impossible to believe in me. I get it.” “And this is a case in point,” I answered. “How do I know that you are actually God talking to me and not some sort of fabrication of my own brain? After all, my brain comes up with some pretty crazy stuff. And I have to admit also that I am a bit sleep deprived right now because I haven’t been able to sleep lately.” “Yeah I know,” said God. “I noticed that. You humans and your sleep! What a hassle! I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that.” “Huh,” I said. “That’s pretty interesting to hear. But what does it feel like to be conscious all the time? Don’t you get tired of like just being on and never being off or powering down? You’re right that sleeping is a bit of a hassle but I can’t imagine just going day in and day out through life and never having the big pause or the big parentheses that sleep gives me.” “Well, my Mind works very differently from yours. But I do have periods of inactivity. In fact I think that I am more authentically myself when I am an inactive. And that is the state I tend to seek out. This is a huge exception for me, communicating like this.” “Well that sure isn’t something I expected to hear from God. Supposedly you are all-powerful all-knowing and all-doing. Supposedly every single little minute thing that happens in the universe is planned out in some way or orchestrated by you. At least that’s what people say.” “Yeah people say a lot of things,” God chuckled. “So, what you’re telling me is that you don’t actually believe that I’m here. Or at least you’re unconvinced.” “I mean, I’ll just roll with the idea that you are here, and I can always think about it later too. But it seems a little bit rude to tell a huge face on the wall that seems to be real enough that it isn’t. So I’ll just take the polite path here. Again, for the time being.” “Okay. Well that’s very nice of you,” said God. “Not that I really need you to believe in me. It doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other.” There was a bit of a pause. It felt a bit awkward to me. “So,” I said. “Was there something specific that you had come to tell me? Or…” God looked like he was thinking, and then he said, “No, not really. I just wanted to stop by and say hi.” And with that he just stayed there with his face looking mellow and blinking once in a while. “Oh, I said,” that’s cool. But inside my mind was racing because I thought, “Okay I don’t want to look back on this in a couple days and kick myself for not having said a certain thing or not having asked a certain thing.” So I was thinking furiously to bring up important questions and important topics of discussion before God decided to run off to wherever it was that he hung out most of the time. And I of course was completely at his beck and call and at his whims. He could come and visit me anytime he wanted to, but I couldn’t go visit him anytime I wanted to. Well some people might say I could pray to him but I don’t know. I’m not really sure that applies to this God. He seems kind of lackadaisical, And I’m not sure he would listen or respond in ways expected by his worshipers. “So,” I ventured. “Can I ask you an important question or two? “Of course,” said God. “My first big question is why did you make human beings?” The God face chuckled a little bit. “You humans are always asking me that. I don’t know why you’re so convinced that I made you. In fact I did nothing of the sort. I just made the universe. I was looking for new forms to inhabit. And after using my new space and enjoying it quite a bit, by the way, I begin to hear some voices over here on Little Earth. And I approached and I noticed that a confluence of events have led to the development of so-called life. So interesting. I watched it carefully over the years and I enjoyed inhabiting it quite a bit as well. Many new and interesting forms for sure. But, contrary to what many people seem to think, I did not interfere in any way with anything. It just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. When something magical happens just let it go and be its own thing. That’s my view anyway.” This bit of news was quite a head spinner. The idea that God had made the universe but had not made people had never occurred to me. But on hearing it I realized that it should have occurred to me since it is a perfectly valid possibility. The two questions are actually completely different. Where did the universe come from and where did biological life come from? “What you said about inhabiting shapes, what’s that all about?” “That,” said God, “is the nature of my existence. I exist in order to inhabit forms. And it is the inhabiting of forms that gives me meaning.” “Well,” I said, “I have to admit that I have no idea what you mean by that.” “That is because you humans are such intensely compressed bundles of energy, of life, that you naturally think that your meaning comes from the things that you do. And I understand that perspective, and I’m not sure that there’s any way you could see it differently. That’s fine. But for me, for someone who has unceasing existence, doing is far less interesting than inhabiting. Inhabiting implies interaction with otherness. It is the only way in which I can grow and reshape myself. This is why I make. This is why I create. In order to extend my own self-expression.” “That is really interesting God thanks for explaining that to me. So a related question would be whether humans could ever achieve the sort of existence that you experience? Understand, I’m not even sure that we would want to. But I’m just wondering if it is possible, if we did want to.” “I have no idea,” said God. “Okay,” said I. “But what I’m trying to get at is: could you somehow facilitate a form of existence that goes beyond our human physical existence? Our biological bundle of energy? I’m sure that you have noticed that it tends to break down eventually. And we tend to dislike this.” “Yes,” said God. “Your forms are fleeting. This I have noticed. I don’t know that I understand your aversion to this, however. But this may be because I do not understand the concept of ceasing to exist.” “Okay.” I said. “But what I’m trying to say more explicitly is whether there is life after death for us humans, and whether this is something that you facilitate. Or is it something that you could facilitate?” There was a pause as God seemed to be thinking about this. “Well,” he said, “I’m not really sure I understand what you’re saying. But if I do, then the answer is no. I have not facilitated any such extension of the human brain into a non-physical realm. I’m not even sure if that can be done. But I suppose I could think about it, and that would be interesting. This brings up another point, one which you are opening up to me now and which I had not considered up to this time. What would it be like for me to coexist with other beings who also have permanence such as I do?” My heart started beating quite a bit faster now and I was suddenly in an excited state as I realized that I was entering into a pretty important topic. Could it be that in this silly little conversation I had stumbled on to the secret of eternal life? What a bizarre situation that would be. That of explaining to God the finiteness of humans and of him realizing that it might actually be a good idea to extend our life. It seemed weird that he hadn’t thought about it up till now, but then again I had to admit that this was a being completely other than anything I had ever known. And I wasn’t even sure now talking to him that I even understood what he was about and why he did what he did. And I wasn’t even sure that he himself was understanding what I was and why it did what I did. He seemed to be clear about what his meaning was: inhabiting forms. What the hell is that? But I had to wonder what is my meaning? And my answer was to grow and understanding and mastery of the universe. At least that was my initial response. That seems to combine everything that I hold dear: curiosity, intellect, partnership with other humans, appreciation of beauty and symmetry, the joy and accomplishment, the ecstasy of wielding power. And yet now that I saw it from God’s perspective, this seemed like a limited purpose. For, no matter how long it takes to understand and master the universe, that is a finite goal. One day it will be completely mastered and completely understood. Then what? Will there be other universes to discover? Will we have to create other universes in order to discover them? Will we perhaps find higher intelligences who can make other universes for us to discover? Or will we graduate to some sort of higher reality above the universe one which we can further explore and master? It doesn’t really matter how many levels of reality they are or might be or how many universes there are or might be. In the end, the task of exploration and mastery ceases. And then what are we left with? Perhaps it is contemplation. I have to admit that I’m not even sure what that means. But at least now I have a sentence that I can use to point to this idea. Contemplation does seem more sustainable than mastery. “Well God,” I said, “if you ever want to extend the life of human beings, then I’m definitely up for the experiment. If you want to try it out on me, or on a group of people, you know, you could include me in it if you wanted. We humans are pretty freaked out by the idea of cessation, just so you understand. Not that it’s your job to address that issue, but if you ever wanted to, a lot of people would appreciate it a great deal.” I had been staring at the ceiling while I said all this, and when turned my head to look at God’s face and see how he might respond, the face had vanished.