Friday, May 30, 2008

GOD

God, as generally defined is a superpower that controls everything. God judges rights and wrongs and punishes us accordingly. Oh, by the way I forgot to mention that god also allows us free will.

I as an Atheist do not believe in god. Let me first explain what an Atheist is. An atheist is a person, who through the empirical evidence available to them, through logical reasoning independently arrives at the conclusion that a superpower as described by the many religions of the worlds is not possible.

Why do I think that god does not exist? Simple take two of the powers that are ascribed to god. The age old question to which no answer been given is “Can gods create a rock so big that gods cannot lift it?” No one has been able to successfully as of yet to answer this question. (The question was originally raised, I believe some time during the middle ages in Europe.)

Another argument is if god is omniscience, then god cannot be omnipotent. The reasoning goes some thing like this: Suppose god changes god’s mind over some issue, then god cannot be omnipotent as god would have already known that god’s mind is going to change. But if you say god does not or cannot change god’s mind over any issue then it means the omnipotent power is lost.

One more logical inconsistency with god as generally defined is that, if god is all good then why is there so much evil around? Why is there hunger, poverty, disease? Don’t tell me that all these are there as punishment. Because if god truly created us all, god would not wish us to suffer, at least everyone I know wouldn’t want anything they created to suffer one bit. Another answer given is that, we remember god only when there is suffering. So, god wants to be worshiped even at the cost of pain to its creation?

And they say that god will punish you if you don’t worship god, follow god’s guidelines. So in what way is the god you define any different from an autocrat?

Lets us come to the question of how god allows us free will yet controls all our actions and oh yeah god punishes us if we do “evil” by choosing the wrong choice of actions among all the choice that were presented to us in the first place by god.

How can you control everything that a person does yet give them free will? On yeah that’s because god can do thing that are incomprehensible to the human mind. Please………..

And, I forgot the icing… Take any book on god and you are most likely to see god referred to as a “He” and never as a “She” or “It”. This is true when we speak, we generally use the word he except when of course referring to a goddess or some gods that have an animal form.

How is it that you people decided that god was a male is something that escapes me. And also how is it that most representations of god are in a human likeness? You say god cannot be seen, only felt and yet all your representations of god are in human likeness and especially a likeness to male human.

And I could go on and on…But I will stop here and provide you a link to a George Carlin video on Religion that is damn funny.

And I would suggest reading "A God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Because it is a good read and is a beautiful book on religion and god and written in such logical manner that i coule never achieve.

4 comments:

Messenger to My Lost Soul said...

You know why God is always a 'He'? Because the most aggresive relegions have 'their' gods as men.

Logically, dont you think it should be a she. Given that women are the ones who go through hell to keep the human population at an ever growing rate.

Anyway, since you know that both of us enjoyed the same book, you can safely assume that I completely agree with you.

Aswin Kini said...

Another masterpiece from Lord Nihlus!!!
Mr.Nihlus, i would love to answer your questions, but i am afraid that would lead to hours of arguments. Being a theist, i am afraid i believe in god because i have always believed that there is some supernatural phenomenon responsible for everything that happens in this world.

One: My dad was literally nearing death when something abnormal occured and he recovered back to health much to the surprise of the doctors at the Royappettah hospital.(Let me tell you he had a Gangrene which was penetrating till his backbone, it was so severe that doctors nearly have up. The doctor who treated my father himself exclaimed that in his 30 years of service, he had never seen such a recovery.)
Two: I have myself face situations where i received some signals "They were really weird" asking me to do something. And when i did them, they provided the same result.
Three: Whenever i have prayed for something truly, i have always obtained them(Plz note that i did put in my best effort to achieve them)
Fourth: I am not an intellectual to answer your questions, but you see,
since i have got solid belief in the existence of something which you don't believe, i have no right to make you believe, and nor do you have the right to make me disbelieve.

I can see that you have pointed out to books written by many great intellectuals.
Atheism vs Theism has been a topic which has been on for decades, may be on for several centuries. As of now, i have no proper answers to your questions. BUt all i can say is "Whether god exists or not---- As long as the concept of god does good to humanity- it doesn't matter at all?

Pavithra said...

Hari,
I would like to give you this link, which me and my friend sat together and enjoyed the print version of it. Book being, "Albert Einstein: Ideas and Opinions", I am sure you will enjoy the quotes in this link. http://www.spaceandmotion.com/albert-einstein-god-religion-theology.htm
Einstein and I agree with you on various points like god doesn't have a personal scorecard for everybody with credit and debit sections and finally gives you a ticket for heaven or hell.
And i think it was intentional.. "g" in lowercase for god throughout your post. That itself is a displacement of the concept of god.
As i have learned from history, god has served as an instrument of fear. The fear of punishment from god prevents you from doing something wrong. Its sad, that your basic ethical, humanly qualities doesn't work enough to prevent you. Its sad that human kind needs the "Fear of an Omnipotent Presence"(that will poke your eyes if you are a kid...will send you to hell if you are an adult..dunno which is more kiddish) to remain good.
I think you will like that term "Personal God" or the god who spends his time judging each every action of yours etc.
This topic leaves way for one more: Superstitions, Horoscopes and Crap. Keep me posted in any case.

Padmini said...

Several good questions.
Well, God and Religion are two different things. God must definitely have been created by the philanthropists of the world as the eternal police. Someone to keep tab on good and bad - the ying and yan, your karma. Also a platform to rest all your troubles. When all rationale fails, in a moment of mortal combat, some people need a God to tend to issues at hand rather than obsess with the plausible. God definitely needs a form if one needs to concentrate and a beautiful form at that.
Religion must have followed suit in a valiant attempt to unif and glorify the cliques. Only we now know where all that stands.

Well, If all else is eliminated, just think about hope. Why wouldnt you call that God? It IS a superpower that is inside you. It IS you after all. To each his own - as long as that does not cause harm to others.