A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is.

  - Lao-tzu

The Big Questions include the nature of reality, the existence and nature of God, the meaning and purpose of life, and the grounds for ethical behavior.  The most compelling Big Question is the meaning and purpose of life, why we exist at all.  People throughout history have been so clueless, they glibly guess that the purpose is to be happy, or to glorify God, or to avoid reincarnation, or to win the ultimate vacation in heaven, or worse, that there is no purpose. These are all from the viewpoint of man, and have nothing to say about God's possible motives.  No one has ever attempted to answer the most important question, Why?  This book examines the biased and narrow views of science, philosophy, religion, theology, gnosticism, mysticism, shamanism, art, and literature from the vastly broader viewpoint of the art and science of Systems of Systems Engineering with surprisingly satisfying results.  Historically, each of these schools of thought had to cautiously guard their beliefs, as those with alternate models of the universe were too often persecuted, hunted down, tortured and murdered, and their books were burned. Without open communications, these groups were isolated and secretive, their range of perceptions was limited, and they came to believe that their Model of the universe was factual and every other Model either wrong, or heretical. In modern times, those with alternate views are often merely ridiculed or relegated to the lunatic fringe.

Things have changed radically since then, such as the spectacular findings of modern physics, the scholarship of historians, the new appreciation of gnosis and esotericism, the astonishing availability of research materials on the internet, and the power of Systems of Systems Engineering as a way to model enormously complex systems scientifically, methodically, and much more importantly, without biases or preconceived notions.  We have learned from modern physics that the fundamental laws of the universe are ultimately simple, and based upon symmetry and beauty. A startling concurrence has been discovered between modern physics and the Kabbalah. Accordingly, we return to an examination of fundamentals, to determine whether traditional preconceived notions have obscured our foundational beliefs and unexamined prejudices.

One of the keys to unlocking these mysteries is a profound re-examination of metaphysics, epistemology, and methodology. Most of the literature on these subjects is arduously confusing, enormously complicated, and based upon unfounded guesses.  Here we present a simpler, more rational, intuitive model of epistemology. This model has the advantage of being able to assess the validity of knowledge without complex logical machinations or lack of falsifiability.  We also explain why scientists have such an unfounded fear of metaphysics, which leads to contempt for humanistic, philosophical, and spiritual viewpoints.  Methodologies used by researchers are strongly influenced by the choice of epistemology.  This is not really a free choice, because they imagine their particular epistemology represents the facts of the sources of knowledge, rather than just their unique viewpoint, and causes the beliefs of the various schools of thought to harden into orthodoxy.  The methodology of Systems of Systems Engineering is described and shown to be eminently suitable for examining the most complex system in the universe, the universe itself, without the baggage of preconceived notions.

The goal of this analysis is the development of a satisfying interdisciplinary Model of the universe.  The Big Questions become addressable, and often intuitively obvious, such as the existence and nature of God, an important part of the purpose of life from both God's and man's point of view, and the origin of the universe.  Lesser questions are also addressed, such as a reasonable theory to explain complementarity, a resolution of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox; the mystery of quantum entanglement; why physicists think that the extra dimensions of reality are curled up and tiny; the location of the center of the universe; the solution of the non-locality faster-than-light paradox; whether gravity is monopolar; what is the Trinity; what are the real hidden mysteries of Freemasonry; what is the most fundamental reason behind depression and addiction; and whether there is free will.

I know this sounds arrogant and presumptuous, but I present a strong case that it is the scientists, theologians and philosophers who arrogantly dismiss the ideas of those outside their isolated communities for what they think are solid and unimpeachable reasons, which, however, can be demonstrated to be based upon internal inconsistencies, and an illogical and irrational epistemology.