The Occam's razor principle is a universally recognized problem-solving procedure. It requires the elimination of all unnecessary hypotheses, leaving only the simplest for further exploration.  Our question: "what is the minimal set of axioms that will provide us with a valid system of religious belief."

   Considering the beginning of all things we have only two options: thought was involved, or  all arose spontaneously from nothingness.

   Choosing the latter hypothesis automatically generates difficult insoluble questions, such as: we are thinking, self-conscious beings, capable of creativity, abstract thought, etc. How could such properties arise from nothingness?

   But if we allow thought to be involved, we have a built-in explanation for such phenomena. And so we choose the simpler of the two and express it as:

   Axiom 1. God is the one self-caused fact existent in the whole of reality, hence must be the source and substance of all that is. (from "Origin of Origins of Tao Te Ching," about 500 BCE).

   We give our "Original Creative Thought" the name "God," noting that since time and space came into being together as space-time, prior to that moment there was only the infinite eternal NOW. Hence questions such as what came before God are irrelevant.   

   In order to keep our system simple we have need of one more primary axiom, and propose this:

   Axiom 2. God is perfect goodness.

   Dedicated belief in these two axioms is all that civilization requires to eventually evolve to a near perfect world of love and goodness.

    Given God's perfect goodness, the next most important question every individual must ask is, "what does God require of me?" The simplest possible answer is that God would want us to be like him--good. Why? Well, if God did not want that, then we could make life miserable for others. Hence there would have to be a higher God whose goodness is superior to one who does not require that we should aspire to being good.

   If we have the choice of wanting to be like God or not to be like him, then obviously we have free will. What would a world be like in which all us were created perfectly good--and could be nothing else but perfectly good? Unfortunately the answer to that question is that we would be automata, programmed to respond in fixed ways with no possibility of doing otherwise.

   A God who loves us--as we would expect from one who is perfectly good--must grant us free will to choose, else there must be a more perfect God who would do so.

   Our next question: Is there life after death? A God who is perfectly good must have had a purpose for creating earthly children capable of self-awareness, consciousness, abstract thought, spontaneous worship, etc. That purpose must provide for life beyond physical death. For if not, since our axiomatic God is perfect goodness, there would be a more perfect God who would so do.

   What would qualify us for this reward? Well, certainly the desire, however feeble, to eventually attain God-like goodness. Possibly nothing else.

   Finally--where do we find God? For that, our simplest answer must always be--within ourselves. For if God's spirit did not indwell each of us to encourage us towards our goal of eventual God-like perfection, the fact of our animal heritage would prevent all progression.

   Our real life purpose? That we receive God's gift of eternal life wherein we seek to complete our task, finally to bask in God's presence.

   And because we know that our God is perfectly good, we also know that the eternal life that is on offer is one we will eternally cherish.

   In summary: God is; God is perfect goodness.