Monday, January 7, 2008

And on the sixth day, Man created God

After all these years of being uncertain of what to think of god and what my feelings for Him are, i have finally arrived at the conclusion that God is nothing but a concept: a creation of man. The questions that led to my doubting His existence are the age-old inconsistencies viz.

"If god is almighty and wishes only good for mankind then why is there suffering in this world?"

So that we may not forget Him? God chose to give us free will? Because we can't appreciate the good without experiencing the bad? Yeah right !!! Couldn't they have thought of something that sounded less defensive?

"Why is it that dishonourable people are rich and powerful and honest people struggling to live?"

Materialism is not what is important, they say? No wonder Karl Marx wrote, "Religion is the opium of the masses". I say that if god exists then he should be relieved of his services for negligence of duty.

"If Earth has previously been a witness to divine manifestations before (as Avtaars or The Son of God) to rescue mankind, why isn't He coming now, when the world needs him the most?"

It's said He'll come when the time is right. I just hope God doesn't follow IST !!! Face it. Accounts of His coming before are just fake stories. No historical evidence whatsoever.

"Why does God have manlike appearance? And why should God be biased towards man, of all animals?"

Ummmm. Because only man had the intelligence to make him up? That and a little bit of ego on man's part.

Even before the earliest civilization existed, the concept of God started out as a manifestation of the fear of the unknown and unexplained. Natural events like the travelling of the Sun across the sky, eclipses, death, disease all were attributed to the divine. But Man had to allay his fears. So the powerful and punishing God turned into powerful and benevolent God.

This fear/high regard of God and consequently power attributed to His "messengers" was what was exploited by organized religious bodies like the Roman Catholic Church to wield power over men. Not to mention the horrible misuse of that power (Witch-killings and suppression of scientific inquiry - remember Galileo?).

Then came all the wars and communalism so prevalent in our times in which people kill each other in the name of God. I'd say that the biggest murderer of all-time is none other than God Himself.

Now this is not to say that the concept of God should be done away with. I think that the concept of God is a useful one. It helps during meditation to focus on something all-bliss and totally calm and serene. However, i also think that the concept of God is a relic of our caveman days.
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
- Richard Dawkins

9 comments:

indian abhijit said...

thts sumthin we ppl call " out of the box " thinkin... but not in case of samir.....who has actually thought of HIM in every possible angle...

Unknown said...

well i dont know how the hell u get these kinda thought that too at 1:43 am yaar us waqt to mere dimaag mein dreamz ke alawa aur kuch nahi hota well hats of to u , ur brain & ur thought u noctornal

The Thoughtful Philosopher said...

[abhijit] Thinking out of the box is what i am notoriously famous for. I have a reputation to keep u c.

[surya] The thoughts penned in this article were formed up in the course of years. And 1:43 am is the time around which i'm busy looking for something to do :)

Anonymous said...

God could indeed be a manifestation of human thoughts, your line of reasoning seems convincing. One can neither prove nor disprove His existence but I leave it to you, if God was indeed a thought, why bother denying His existence.
And for those who are still pondering, consider these few lines from :

"A Creed for those who suffered"
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey...
I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise...
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...
I got nothing I asked for - but everything I had hoped for;
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among men, most richly blessed!

--- Attributed to an unknown Confederate soldier

Anonymous said...

thats nice way of expressing ur thoughts...god is the inherent creation of man.if something good happens with us,
we think that we must be grateful to god if something bad happens,we
think that god is rude to us.it's the fault of our conscienece-stricken mind...actually it is we who decide our action not god...

The Thoughtful Philosopher said...

[ravi] hmm. Suppose i create from my imagination a creature called let's say dahaka(i love prince of persia) and i tell u that this creature has let's say a list X of properties(attributes). Now i tell u to disprove dahaka's existence. How will u go about it? The basis of your arguement will be that since it doesn't have any tangible effect on the world, it doesn't exist. This is why scientists don't try to learn about things that cannot interact with their surroundings - there is no way to find out any information about them. For ex. Tachyons - particles that move faster than light but can't interact with anything in our world. Any claim that a phenomenon is a indication of God's interaction with the world can't be valid because it cannot be traced back to God. But is either readily explained by science or coincidence. Anything that can't be explained by science now just means that science hasn't progressed enough to understand it.

If God is indeed a thought then denying his existence is important because a lot of people think that he acually exists. People do not consider the existance of God only in the form of a concept. They think him to be real.

Abhishek Sahoo said...

The people who claim that God exists have conveniently personified him. This, I guess helps them to imagine an entity which they call God. Then there are people who are opposed to the belief that God exists. In trying to prove that God does not exist, they start off by trying to prove that the arguments and assumptions of the 'others' are unfounded. So all the counter-question raised by the non-believers also borrow heavily from the beliefs of the believers, which they are trying to refute in the first place. For eg. when the non-believers ask why God hasn't come to humanity's rescue, they're also assuming that God is some kind of 'being', not much unlike a superhuman entity who can control events in space and time. As for me, I'm confused. I'm at a point where I haven't learned or found out enough to either believe or rubbish the existence of a God. But till the time I find my answers, or any semblance to an answer, I'll give God the benefit of doubt. Why? Because it suits my needs to believe in a God. Maybe God is something other than what we have so far imagined him to be. Maybe he is simply an uncorrupted or perfect version of the dualities we see everywhere in the universe. Maybe..

The Thoughtful Philosopher said...

[abhishek]
The personification is probably a sub-concious effort to make oneself at ease because the more similar a being is to one's kind, the more trust one places in it. It may also be a hidden desire to see a heroic/greater image of the self.

You have an interesting way of looking at non-believers. But you assume that there is a possibility of God being an entity that may be different form what people believe He is. The questions raised by non-believers actually attack the belief-system of the believers.......one way to do that is to enumerate the postulates of that belief-system and find inconsistencies in it. And critically examining those postulates isn't borrowing in the usual sense of the word.

Maybe he IS and uncorrupted or perfect version of ......
Maybe he is toally corrupt or a grossly imperfect version of ......
We have no reason to believe either.

Shardool said...

For a different perspective on the God try this book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F