Thursday, April 1, 2010

Holy shit! The god is dead!

Following my last post "How does it start and how does it end?",I was asked by a friend to write an article on the existance of god.I have given some decent thought into it.My society mainly consists of hindu people so this article is largely influenced by hinduism but I am sure people of other religion will relate to it as well!
I asked a few so called religious people about their thoughts on god.Some of the replies that I got were:
1) God is an entity who lives somewhere in the sky and he made the universe.
2)He is a supernatural being who helps us in our needs and punishes people who sin.
3)God is the one who gave us life and when we die,we go to heaven which is somewhere in the sky and hell    which is undeground.
4)God is the one who keeps track of everything in the world!
                 These are the thoughts about god that people have passed on from generations.But I wonder that how many people have actually given a thought into it and that too logically.How many people have wondered about this from the scientific point of view?
The first point about god being an entity who lives in the universe was made hundereds of years ago when people didnt know about anything beyond the earth.They didnt know about what was beyond that clear blue skies.I am talking about the time when people thought that earth was flat and you would fall off if you went to edge! These were the people who had made these theories about god and we have been accepting them ever since.Did the invention of telescope change our point of view? No.Did the first flight into space and photos of Earth change our view about it? No. Did the landing of Apollo 11 on moon change our thinking? No. Did the pictures of nebullae and galaxies across the universe change our point of view?No. What do we call it- faith or complete ignorance?
People say that god is the creator of universe.But they say this simply because they don't know who else did it.Long before,when people didnt know what sun made of,they said that god made it.But now we know it is made of hydrogen undergoing nuclear fusion.People didn't know how the cloud was formed,they said the moon god made it using threads.Now we know it consists of condensed water vapour.There are countless such examples which tell us that people tend to turn towards god when they can't think of anything else.The creation of universe is one of them.
I am in no way promoting atheism.The thing that I am trying to tell that we should have faith but we should not believe these silly stories that are told to us.It seems a bit stupid from our part to get along with these stories.These religious books of Mahabharta,Bible and Kuran have countless stories that tell us about various feats of god doing various things.These stories were written for us so that we can get inspiration from them and turn out to be a good human being, not to believe these stories and worship these gods who don't exist.
People tell me that believing in god gives them inner strenght to fight of problems.I actually applaud for these people and respect them for their faith. But some of the people try to go a step ahead and actually try to please the god.That's when stupidity comes in,you are trying to please someone that does'nt exist! Recently in India, a court sentenced 5 people to death and gave life sentence to one for brutally sacrificing a married couple for honour killing to please their god.Also,many people perform many rituals and prayers to please their god.They spend thousands on the stuff that you need to buy to perform these rituals.I can't even imagine the ways people can improve their lifestyle if  use that money to make their life better!
All that is left to say that it is upon us to decide what we think about god. Do we just believe in god and work on our inner strength or  believe these immature stories and do those silly tasks we have incorporated in our religion. You think.
Peace
Mrinal

2 comments:

gwlupo said...

Mrinal, I agree with much of what you say, and some of it I don't agree with; but I can understand why you say all that you say. If I had to base my faith in the existence of God on what others believe, teach, and do, or on the complete text of any of the traditional "holy books," including the Bible, I would find it extremely difficult to believe in any God. It is only because of the persistence of supernatural intervention in my life for over half a century that I can maintain belief. There have indeed been times in my life when I lost all faith in the existence of God. Now I'm 64 years old, and when all things add up, I'm convinced there is a God and a "heavenly" spirit life that follows this one. "Heaven" is open to people of all religions and even to people who believe they have no religion. (I believe all religions have some truths, but they also all have a lot of bull shit, as do all the "holy books," including the Bible.) I also believe there is a kind of "purgatory" where we have to review how we lived here and wisen up. In this life there is no way we as finite beings can understand the infinite. That would be like a cockroach trying to understand what it's like to be Albert Einstein or Ghandi. We simply can't imagine exactly what God is, but I do believe that God is an intelligent being not in any way bound by time or space. In the 20th century, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr. probably came closest to understanding the nature of God and to being what God would like us to be. Actually, I prefer to think of God as the god force, of which we all are a part. I have my doubts about an "all powerful" anything, although the power of the god force would certainly seem all powerful to us on earth. I plan to discuss all these things in my blog, "The Supernatural Traveler," as time and space allow. I refer you and others who are interested in these topics to the book, "The God Theory," by Bernard Haisch, who incorporates elements of eastern and western religious thought plus modern astrophysics into his "theory" of God. Haisch is a very accomplished astrophysicist. The book is published by Weiser Books, 500 Third Street, Suite 230, San Francisco, CA 94107 USA.

Mrinal Choudhary said...

@ gwlupo: The way you have described god is pretty interseting but not convincing.I liked your examples as they pretty much draw the picture of what you are trying to present before us but in the end it's all a matter of faith.I would like to see you address this topic and much more in the supernatural traveller amd will like to see your take on this topic.I would also refer to the book you have suggested as the idea of writing a book on the theory of good looks pretty interesting.Take care.
Mrinal