On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a doctor's office watching television when, to my horror, the planes slammed into the World Trade Towers in New York City causing them to collapse and kill thousands of innocent people. I watched the whole thing live. I could hardly believe what I was watching or believe that such a thing could even happen. It felt like Armageddon or the end of the world. How could anyone do such a horrible and cruel thing? What makes people do such things?

Many people, Americans in particular, have expressed an opinion similar to the idea that Bin Laden is nothing more than a murderous dog who needs to be caught and destroyed. He certainly fits the description of what some Christians would call "the anti-Christ" - the embodiment of Satan on Earth who persecutes the saints. We might even find it incredible that there is anyone on Earth who actually has any feelings of love for him. But common sense tells us that there are people who do love him - even if it is only his mother. One must certainly conclude that God loves Bin Laden unconditionally. In my opinion, the best source of understanding this kind of love (unconditional) comes from near-death experiences. People who have been in the very presence of God and have returned, often describe a realization that they experience in the light of a "one-ness" of all things. This is the realization that all of humanity is actually a single organism - a single soul. It is the realization that everyone is a manifestation of one God. This would partly explain why so many religions teach a philosophy that when we do to others, we do to ourselves and God. For this reason, our first step toward learning to love Osama Bin Laden unconditionally is to acknowledge that he is a part of God in the same way that all of us are a part of God. We are all connected as one. Hating Bin Laden is really hating ourselves and hating God. This also means that whenever Bin Laden kills someone, he is killing not just them, but himself and God.

Is it evil to kill God? I am going to show that killing God is not "evil" - it is ignorant. I am also going to show that there is no "evil" - that people make mistakes by being ignorant. There is a good and higher reason why Bin Laden is murdering innocent people. I make this claim based upon the "higher knowledge" brought back by those who have had a near-death experience. Here are some of their insights:

There really is no sin as it is known in the world. The only thing that has any meaning in the spirit world is what we think. The very core of our being is perfect love and light. (Jayne Smith)

There is no evil in any human soul. It is the lack of love that distorts people. We are designed by God to self-correct, just like the rest of the universe. No one is lost because everyone is already saved. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

Howard Storm was given the following insights from beings of light after his life review when he was fearful of returning to earth life and afraid he would make mistakes again: Mistakes are an acceptable part of being human. We are here to make all the mistakes we want because it is through our mistakes that we learn. As long as we try to do what we know to be right, we will be on the right path. If we make a mistake, we should fully recognize it as a mistake, then put it behind us and simply try not to make the same mistake again. The important thing is to try our best, keep our standards of goodness and truth, and not compromise them to win people's approval. God loves us just the way we are, mistakes and all. When we make a mistake, we should ask for forgiveness. After that, it would be an insult if we don't accept that we are forgiven. We shouldn't continue going around with a sense of guilt, and we should try not to repeat our mistakes. We should learn from our mistakes. God wants us to do what we want to do. That means making choices - and there isn't necessarily any right choice. There are a spectrum of possibilities, and we should make the best choice from those possibilities. If we do that, we will receive help from the Other Side. (Rev. Howard Storm)

Near-death accounts reveal that God's love for us is not a passive kind of love that sits idly by and watches humans destroy the world and everyone in it. The evidence suggests that although God does not want people to kill each other, God permits it for the purpose of instruction and soul growth. Such evidence suggests that unconditional love is a "tough" love.

God's overriding desire is to purify the darkness of our souls, irrespective of the suffering it puts us through to achieve that end. If we learn to accept our situations in life, instead of fighting it, then our suffering is greatly minimized. (Daniel Rosenblit)

Ned Dougherty once lived a very unspiritual and hedonistic life. In the middle of attempting to murder his business partner, Dougherty had a heart attack and a NDE. He saw the light of God and felt God's embrace and love - a love greater than any love he had ever known. Spiritual beings began cheering him and conveying their loving encouragement and support. They cheered: "You are doing wonderfully. We are here to support you. Continue to do good work, and we will help you. You are part of us, and we are part of you. We stand ready to come to your aid when you need us, and you will. Call us. Beckon us. We will flock to you when the time comes!" Ned was confused by all the attention because there wasn't anything wonderful about the way he had conducted his life. He thought, "How can I be doing wonderfully? I almost killed someone tonight. Could I be justified in what I tried to do?" (Ned Dougherty)

"I'm sure that I asked the question that had been plaguing me since childhood about the sufferings of my people (i.e., Jews and the Holocaust). I do remember this: There was a reason for everything that happened, no matter how awful it appeared in the physical realm. And within myself, as I was given the answer, my own awakening mind now responded in the same manner: "Of course," I would think, "I already know that. How could I ever have forgotten!" (Beverly Brodsky)

From these and a multitude of other NDE insights, I conclude that people such as Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden are NOT "evil" men. This is because evil does not exist - only ignorance. There is no "sin" - only mistakes made out of ignorance. If "evil" is really ignorance, the people such as Bin Laden should be considered retarded.

It would not take a great leap of logic to conclude that people such as Bin Laden have a mental handicap. It is common knowledge in the science of criminology that many serial killers have a dysfunctional frontal lobe of the brain. Some serial killers have already been defended in court with the "My brain made me do it" defense. We should probably think of all criminals, serial killers, and mass murders as mentally handicapped people who are actually, on a higher level, "powerful spiritual beings" like the rest of us. Having this kind of attitude toward such people makes it easier to love them unconditionally. How can anyone hate a retarded person? Isn't it much easier to love and sympathize with them - even while they are cutting your head off. Jesus did. While on the cross he said, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." This should be our attitude toward those people who are so mentally challenged that they are willing to butcher innocent people.

There are qualities within us which people call "good" and goodness certainly does exists. "Evil" then is just the absence of good - the nonexistence of goodness. In the same way, we define ignorance as the lack of knowledge or forgetfulness as the lack of memory. They have no real existence on their own. For example, some snakes are extremely poisonous to humans. Does this mean that snakes are "evil" because they bite and kill us? Of course not. Their fangs and poison are their way of defending themselves and this is a "good" thing. As regards to themselves, they are "good." Our bodies are sometimes invaded by a virus for which the antibodies within us fight and destroy them. We cannot say that these viruses are "evil." Nor can we say that our bodies are "evil" for fighting and destroying them.

By demonstrating how something considered to be "evil" is actually, in of itself, not evil, then we have proven that evil does not exist.

It is written in the Bible that God created all things and it was "good." It is also written that God created the light and the darkness. There is even a Bible verse which declares that God created "evil" (Isaiah 45:7). Darkness is merely the absence of light. Light is an existing thing. But darkness is not something that exists in of itself. We can also say that love is an existing thing, but hatred is merely the absence of love. In other words, hatred is really a nonexistent thing - a nonexistent "power" unto itself. Hatred is the condition where there is an absence of love. In the same way, we can say that love never hurts. It is the absence of love that hurts.

"Good" people must sometimes kill other people. It may be in self-defense or to protect the lives of their family. We slaughter all kinds of plants and animals for food and clothes and this certainly is not "evil". Nor should killing innocent people be considered "evil." Killing people unjustly is just plain stupid and retarded. This is because it is equivalent to killing God or unjustly killing yourself. Also there is the principle of "whatever goes around, comes around." Bin Laden is not to be hated or feared. He is to be greatly pitied and greatly helped. And he must be stopped - for his sake and everyone else's.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural catastrophes unmercifully kill multitudes of people and destroy billions of dollars worth of property every year. We don't call nature "evil". Many people refer to such things as "acts of God." Some day in the future, the entire world might be in danger of being destroyed by a killer asteroid or comet. Ultimately, the whole universe may end someday as it began - with a violent explosion of unimaginable destruction.

Ultimately, there really is no such thing as "good" either. There is only God and a multitude of manifestations of God. The Bible declares that life is God (John 14:6; John 1:3-4; Col.1:17, 1 John 5:20). This is perhaps the most important doctrine of mysticism and it is found in so many religions. It means that all is one and separation is the grand illusion - the big lie. The idea of the one-ness of all things has been called the one "true religion," and the Truth behind all religions. In the same way, there really is no "death" because life and "death" are one and the same. Death is just another aspect of life.

Taoism is the most explicit declaration of the concept of one-ness. There is only the Tao. Yin and Yang, however, are the illusion of separation and reality of unification. All religious paths should lead people back to this one-ness (i.e., God). Hindus seek a "yogi" to accomplish this. The word "yogi" means to yoke. The yogi seeks to yoke the individual soul (atman) to the universal soul (Brahman). Jesus taught, "I am in you, just as the Father is in me. Therefore the Father is also in you." Here Jesus is saying that we all share the same soul - the soul of God. In Judaism, it is written that God made man in his image and breathed life into him. In Islam, the path to one-ness is called "submission" where a person must submit to the will of God. This means joining your will with the will of God and acting as God would act. Unfortunately, Bin Laden is not acting as God would act and many Muslims are aware of it. One can even say that Bin Laden is "God acting ignorantly." In the same way, fanatical Christians who bomb abortion clinics and kill innocent people are not acting as Jesus would act. Such people give Christianity a bad name in the same way that Bin Laden is giving Islam a bad name. Evil does not exist. It is only ignorance.

For adherents to the Middle Eastern religions, the story of Adam and Eve is the lesson about the origin of humanity's distinction between what is "good" and what is considered "evil." This belief of a separation of reality between good and evil is what makes people believe they are separated from God. In the Book of Genesis, God is referred to as "Elohim" - the gods. The Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image." In the Garden stood the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." The Bible states that God created humans without the knowledge of a separation between good and evil - nor of a knowledge of a separation between God and man. Then the "snake" (the Biblical symbol for wisdom) appeared before Adam and Eve and led them to think that they would "become LIKE God" if they ate from the Tree of knowledge. But Jesus revealed that we did not "become LIKE God." Jesus declared that we ARE Gods (John 10:30-36) which means that we are one with God and a part of God - not separate. This shows that the real "sin" (mistake) is believing that you are "LIKE God" - that you are separate from God - when in reality you are "one with God" or "you are Gods." Then when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, the Elohim declared, "The man has now become LIKE one of us. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of life and eat, and live forever." In other words, Adam and Eve erroneously believed they were separated from God and no longer united with God. Had they received more knowledge from the Tree, they would have received eternal life (i.e., they would never have become subjected to reincarnation). So instead they were banished from the Garden and subjected to death and rebirth.

Of course, this story of the Garden of Eden is actually a highly symbolic account of the story of the heavenly origin of our souls and how we have left our heavenly home to be born into this world for educational purposes. History is the record of humanity's struggle with the illusion of separation and its consequences. It is the record of our knowledge gained from this struggle and what we have done with this knowledge. But the divine perspective is that there is no separation. The gospel of Jesus is the good news that we are actually one with God in the same way that Jesus was. Our ego-self is a condition of forgetfulness of our one-ness with all things. It is our lower natural self which we must "crucify" in order for our higher spiritual nature to come through. It is the message of Jesus that through self-sacrifice out of love for others, we can bring into our awareness the one-ness that we really are.

And this the simple message of all mystical religions. We are one with the Whole. Separation is an illusion. "Evil" is merely being ignorant of these realities. As Jesus said to not be so stupid as to hate your enemies (paraphrase). Instead, love those who persecute you. Osama Bin Laden is an "arm of God" in the same way that we all are "arms of God." One might even say that Bin Laden is a "tool" of God in the same way that some people believe that Satan is a "tool" of God meting out divine justice to people. And if a Satan really does exist (which I believe he doesn't), then I am sure that we are obligated to love even him unconditionally as well. According to Jesus, God loves all his so-called "enemies." So the horrible terrorism that Bin Laden is causing, must have a higher purpose for it - even if Bin Laden is completely ignorant of it. For example, the Bible reveals that the people who killed Jesus were only doing God's will and their actions were predestined by God before they were even born. Many Christians believe that the unjustified killing of Jesus was the greatest atrocity ever committed. But, at the same time, Christians also believe his death resulted the greatest good of all - the redemption of humanity. Is it possible that the greatest "sin" can also be the greatest "good" at the same time? It appears that way. The Bible even states that Jesus was made perfect because of what he suffered. But does this mean we should be going around acting like Bin Laden and having people killed so that good will result from it? Of course not. That would be very ignorant. Paul was erroneously accused of teaching this very thing. It just means that God's will is always done - even if it implies that God allows people to commit terrible atrocities for a higher purpose. Near-death experiences reveal this to be the case as well:

Bin Laden and many Muslims in the Middle East express their hatred for American as "the Great Satan" because it exports its culture of what they view as pornography and gratuitous violence. I am NOT agreeing with Jerry Falwell who blamed September 11 on America's permissiveness with "homosexuals and pagans" which is completely absurd. What I am saying is that there is a cultural war going on - in America, but even greater, in the entire world. It is a war over religion and philosophy. Whether you call it a "holy war" or a "Crusade" or a "culture war" or a "political struggle", it doesn't matter. Such wars have been the scourge of human history. And it appears that human beings do not learn enough from history. Perhaps it is just the same actors on the stage throughout history that are creating a stir. But like all the religious wars that have broken out over the ages, the larger the destruction that occurs, the greater the healing that takes place afterward. World War II was certainly a religious war. It was a war fought between fascism in Germany, communism in Russia, imperialism in Japan, capitalism in America (If you don't believe that capitalism is a religion, read about how modern capitalism grew from the Protestant work ethic), and Judaism in Europe.

For these reasons, it should be no stretch of logic to believe that World War III began on September 11, 2001. The war could even be called "Armageddon" - the war that the Bible predicts will occur before a new era of human enlightenment comes to the world. Unfortunately, the wars that humanity fights also results in massive natural disasters as revealed in so many near-death experiences:

The near-death experiencer Reverend Howard Storm described what the light beings told him concerning events that will occur on earth for the next two hundred years. He asked the light beings the question: "Will the United States be the leader of the world in this change?" The light beings replied:

Howard Storm also wrote, "I don't know if the richest country in the history of the world is doomed to lose God's blessing or if the people of the United States will become the moral light of the world. How long will God allow the injustice to continue? The future lies in the choices we make right now. God is intervening in direct ways in human events. May God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!" (Rev. Howard Storm)

In a Spirit Daily.com online newspaper article on August 18, 2003 by Michael H. Brown entitled Near-Death Prophecy: Man was shown Failure of Infrastructure, Power Grid, Howard Storm discussed America's future as shown to him during his NDE. He stated:

In conclusion, we should not only not hate Osama Bin Laden and their pals, we should try to love and understand them and everyone in the Middle East. They are our brothers after all. Their terrorist attacks are really a cry out for help and it is our obligation to help them. It may require the "tough love" of God to stop Bin Laden from hurting others and therefore himself. One thing is for certain: By loving and helping them, we are loving and helping ourselves and God. And because we are all one, praying for them would be an excellent idea as well. Maybe instead of dropping bombs on them, we should start dropping massive quantities of food and goods. Maybe that would begin to change hearts and minds.

We should also look within ourselves and try to understand what it is about us that causes them to hate us so much. Whatever it is, perhaps we should try to be more understanding and tolerant of their views. As the great John Lennon once said, "We can work it out." Pray for peace.