Before I commence, I would like to clarify that these are purely my personal views on the subject (more like thinking aloud) and anybody likely to be hurt by a discussion on the concept of God is advised to please stop reading any further.
The belief or non belief in God is at best, well, a belief. Everyone is entitled to one and what I am stating may not be agreeable to most. However I am hoping that people agree with some one who said (Voltaire I guess) something to the effect “I may not agree with what you are saying, but I would defend till the last drop of my blood your right to say it”.
I am keeping the first edition of this discussion simplistic in nature and I would talk about the commonest perception of God held by most. For most, God is a celestial being who has no beginning and no end and who is all knowing, all present, formless and infinite and so on and so forth.
The belief or non belief in God is at best, well, a belief. Everyone is entitled to one and what I am stating may not be agreeable to most. However I am hoping that people agree with some one who said (Voltaire I guess) something to the effect “I may not agree with what you are saying, but I would defend till the last drop of my blood your right to say it”.
I am keeping the first edition of this discussion simplistic in nature and I would talk about the commonest perception of God held by most. For most, God is a celestial being who has no beginning and no end and who is all knowing, all present, formless and infinite and so on and so forth.
I believe in Nature and not in a God per se. According to me the world operates on natural laws. If you throw a ball up in the air it will come down irrespective. All the Gods of this world can’t prevent one simple ball from falling. Miracles do not exist. Everything has an explanation or will get one. Every event in life can be explained according to rules of Nature. Some might say that I am referring to God here as Nature. I disagree. Some say Ok, then who created these laws of Nature (God who else?). I ask then, if there is a God, who created that God? The answer to that question can also be applied to the previous question i.e. who created the laws of Nature
I have seen most people fervently to pray to God for their wishes to come true (want a child, a promotion, save me from the present danger, etc). There are Gods known for their potency in delivering the goods (granting wishes). People put rings on their fingers, ashes on their foreheads, holy threads on their wrists, Crucufixes around their neck etc towards this end. But people have a tendency to remember wishes that have been fulfilled and tend to forget wishes that are unfulfilled. If a thing is left to chance, there is a 50% chance of it being fulfilled and hence wishes are fulfilled fifty percent of the time. But if one has a fervent belief in the presence of a God then s/he is likely to forget the remaining times where wishes remained unfulfilled.
Fervent wishing does no good. It is actions based on established laws of Nature / scientific principles that yield results. I saw my father gasp and die in front of my eyes while I looked on helplessly. At that time I had prayed, wished like never before, wished from the core of my being to save my father. But when a large enough clot blocks the pulmonary artery, the heart stops beating and no amount of praying helps. Law of nature. Period.
As is obvious, I was a believer and now I have ceased to be one. But that puts me at a serious disadvantage. I just threw away the crutch that sustains the majority of humankind through all kinds of stressful times. The biggest (and only) advantage believers have is that they have something to turn to when nothing else seems to work. And if a superstition helps, well, who am I to object. The same goes for palmistry, gemstones, sacred threads, chants, mantras etc. People jump when you mention God and superstition in the same breath. But these same guys won’t believe in the concept of ghosts or even the lochness monster or the snowman (Yeti). Strange!!
I have come to realize that the concept of God is somehow linked to fear. The fear of the unknown. The fear of what happens after death. Where science doesn’t have an explanation (yet), God steps in big time. When people couldn’t explain thunderstorms, the moon, the sun etc they invented a God for each and prayed that nothing bad befell them. But as science progressed gradually, these Gods disappeared one by one.
Before ending I leave you with a few questions:
As is obvious, I was a believer and now I have ceased to be one. But that puts me at a serious disadvantage. I just threw away the crutch that sustains the majority of humankind through all kinds of stressful times. The biggest (and only) advantage believers have is that they have something to turn to when nothing else seems to work. And if a superstition helps, well, who am I to object. The same goes for palmistry, gemstones, sacred threads, chants, mantras etc. People jump when you mention God and superstition in the same breath. But these same guys won’t believe in the concept of ghosts or even the lochness monster or the snowman (Yeti). Strange!!
I have come to realize that the concept of God is somehow linked to fear. The fear of the unknown. The fear of what happens after death. Where science doesn’t have an explanation (yet), God steps in big time. When people couldn’t explain thunderstorms, the moon, the sun etc they invented a God for each and prayed that nothing bad befell them. But as science progressed gradually, these Gods disappeared one by one.
Before ending I leave you with a few questions:
- Why do buses full of pilgrims fall into valleys with all passengers dying?
- Why do people of all kinds (pious, irreverent, holy, unholy, good, bad) die in a nuclear blast a.k.a. Hiroshima / Nagasaki / wars?
- Why do children die inside mother’s womb?
- Why is there suffering on this earth?
That reminds me of a famous saying that either God is impotent (can’t relieve the countless sufferings on this earth) or else he is plain cruel (enjoys the suffering).
