Those are good questions, Bill. Here's how I would answer them...not that I'm saying I have the final answers, but it's my best guess at this point.

1)IS there a real cognitive, creative force behind the universe as we know it?


Yes. All manifested reality has sprung forth out of a directed, conscious, creative intelligence that wishes to express itself in an infinite number of ways...and it does. Everything we see around us, including us, is an expression of that intelligence. Why does the Infinite do that? It wants to know itself. You can't know what you are until you know what you are not. This requires the creation of a world of relativity (apparent opposites). This led to a formless, measureless, infinite state of Being deliberately splitting itself up into millions of measurable, finite forms and phenomena which we call "the Universe". The Universe is a singularity, but it appears as a collective of many finite things. Thus the Infinite is able to know itself by observing what it is not....finite. And so on. It observes itself as light/dark, here/there, "good"/"evil", happy/sad, full/empty, and so on....temporary appearances of something that is all-inclusive and not temporary. It's outside of time.


2) IF there is, does 'it' care what we do, including worshiping 'it'?


No. Not in the least. The Infinite, being the complete Unity of All that IS, lacks nothing. It needs nothing. It requires nothing. Under such circumstances it doesn't "care" what we do in the sense you mean. It certainly doesn't require us to worship it. We ARE it, individualized, and so is everything else. Would something require itself to worship itself? Only if it was insecure, and that's ridiculous. How can something which is everything be insecure? The best evidence of the fact that the Infinite requires nothing from us is this: we have absolute free will within the limits of the various natural laws that suffice to establish a coherent and functioning Universe that has form.

This is not to say, however, that the Infinite does not Love us (and everything else). Why would it not. All conscious beings love themselves at a deep level, because they ARE the reality they know.


3)IF it does, how do we know what the rules are?


There are no rules (other than observable natural laws, such as: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction...that's what karma is!). There are no moral or ethical rules. We make those up ourselves, in our attempts to have a better life. If there were rules, it would stand in the way of our creative use of free will.

So there are no rules, but there are useful suggestions...if we ask for them. Accordingly, let's say we want to live a peaceful and harmonious and prosperous life. Well, if you listen carefully to your better inner voice (which is the voice of the Infinite), you will soon be able to find plently of good suggestions as to how to achieve that...and help others achieve it likewise.

If you listen to the voice of Fear (which arises out of your own consciousness of separation...the notion "I am completely alone here!"), then you will not hear those good suggestions. You will hear other suggestions, such as: If I get a lot of weapons and go and kill or enslave those other people over there and take all their land and goodies...then I will be prosperous, happy, and feared! Then I will be safe! Won't that be marvelous! I think I'll start raising my army right now and go out there and kick ass!

That guy was not listening to the kindly suggestions that arise out of the Infinite (which knows there is already enough of everything for everyone to live well)...he was listening to his own separated fear...because he thinks he's alone! He's not alone.

Now you take someone like that guy and put him in charge of a nation, a political party or a religion...And you've got a really big problem. We've seen this happen a lot on Planet Earth, haven't we? Talking as if one was representing the Infinite God, but really just representing one's own fear.

People can believe in God, and still totally fail to grasp what is godly in terms of behaviour. And what is godly? To love without conditions, to be generous, to work in favour of all life, to allow, to accept, to rejoice, not to judge others, to endure in all those qualities regardless of outer conditions, and not to fear. To see Oneself in everyone and everything else. I believe this describes a man like Mahatma Gandhi quite well. He was well tuned in.