Theists and Atheists, the ontologically sound and the hollow, the epistemologically inclined and the abstinent, lend me your ears, listen to what i have to say on this one. I don't want to hurt your opinions, i don't want to change your perceptions. All i want, is to present this discussion in new light, a sumptuous food for thought, if you'd like to put it after reading this one.
The theists and the Atheists have had sempiternal debates over this, and bet me, the debates have led to nothing concrete. In the end both people from both parties go back to where the were. Believers stay believers, non believers stay non-believers. Debates over such topics are a waste. It is because the believers present the the notion of God as nothing short of a reckless magic, wherein by virtue of being God, some supreme being is hailed the creator, perpetuator and the destroyer of this Universe.
Being a believer is easy. The whole of the Universe with its infinite artistic beauty on the outside strutted with the rationalist mathematics and science on the inside makes human beings wonder whether there is a supreme power that has bestowed us with this enigmatic Life and all the surroundings. Failing to find answers of which, instills their faith in a power supreme. What adds to their belief are the mere coincidences which are given the name of mystical realism. In this world of mad believers and foolish pawns, God is the shortest escape from reality into a world of fairies and fairy tales.
Being a non-believer is easy too. When the die hard followers of science and logic step into the arena armed with their reasoning ability and argue that what cannot be seen or felt is non-existent, it puts the believers in a trap they can't get out of. But, when asked to comment on the magnitude of the construction of this Universe with its myriad manifestations in the form of diversity in all the living and the non living things, they tend to shy away and blame it all on chance events and randomness. It may be a good leeway, but then again it leads to nothing of much use and moreover helps in hiding the meaning of life and the purpose of creation in deeper darker and dangerous dungeons.
Who am i? Am i an Atheist?
No.
Am i a believer?
Read On.
What i have, is, faith in the concept of God. God for me, is not the creator or the destroyer of life in this Universe, but he is the manifestation of my faith, the faith that keeps me going. Having faith is the only thing that makes any person want to live this life, the purpose of which is otherwise indeterminate. To me, the whole point of life is figuring what life is all about. Now faith manifests itself in a huge number of ways. Some people have faith that they'll end up being filthy rich and enjoy all the pleasures of life, while others have faith that they'll live happy lives by sticking to only the bare necessities and no more. Some people have faith that they will help the needy in the society and change their lives and make the planet a better place for them to live while others have faith that they'll change the world as we see it through groundbreaking research in the domains of the Science and Mathematics. To me God is the piggy(Faith) bank where in i can put all my faith coins in, and pull them out when i need them, and i have no shame in admitting it. When i go about doing a task and i know at the back of my mind that something powerful is taking good care of me, chances are, i'd give it my best shot, almost always. If it turns out to be a success, i thank him, i implant more faith in my Faith bank, and drop in fresh coins. If it doesn't turn out to be a success, i thank him for the experiences gained. God is that piece of code, that keeps running in the kernel of my body, or the mind, that keeps me motivated in my endeavors, consoles me when the chips are down, pats me on the back when i do something good. In short God is the mentor that i always wanted. Its easy to blame him when things don't go my way, but then, mentors too, are allowed to make mistakes. Its important not to hand him the string of your life, but let him be the Krishna that guides the Arjun, the Arjun being you in this case. He does not have answers to all the questions, but he strengthens the gut instincts that lead to to wisdom. Talking to him is nothing more than just taking out time for yourself and we all have realized how important that is.
No.
Am i a believer?
Read On.
What i have, is, faith in the concept of God. God for me, is not the creator or the destroyer of life in this Universe, but he is the manifestation of my faith, the faith that keeps me going. Having faith is the only thing that makes any person want to live this life, the purpose of which is otherwise indeterminate. To me, the whole point of life is figuring what life is all about. Now faith manifests itself in a huge number of ways. Some people have faith that they'll end up being filthy rich and enjoy all the pleasures of life, while others have faith that they'll live happy lives by sticking to only the bare necessities and no more. Some people have faith that they will help the needy in the society and change their lives and make the planet a better place for them to live while others have faith that they'll change the world as we see it through groundbreaking research in the domains of the Science and Mathematics. To me God is the piggy(Faith) bank where in i can put all my faith coins in, and pull them out when i need them, and i have no shame in admitting it. When i go about doing a task and i know at the back of my mind that something powerful is taking good care of me, chances are, i'd give it my best shot, almost always. If it turns out to be a success, i thank him, i implant more faith in my Faith bank, and drop in fresh coins. If it doesn't turn out to be a success, i thank him for the experiences gained. God is that piece of code, that keeps running in the kernel of my body, or the mind, that keeps me motivated in my endeavors, consoles me when the chips are down, pats me on the back when i do something good. In short God is the mentor that i always wanted. Its easy to blame him when things don't go my way, but then, mentors too, are allowed to make mistakes. Its important not to hand him the string of your life, but let him be the Krishna that guides the Arjun, the Arjun being you in this case. He does not have answers to all the questions, but he strengthens the gut instincts that lead to to wisdom. Talking to him is nothing more than just taking out time for yourself and we all have realized how important that is.
God to me is as living as anything in this world, only that he is omnipotent because he resides in my mind and i can talk to him whenever and wherever i feel like. He is not the person that is running this Universe, which we are a part of, but He is as much a part of this as any living being. And with all the grandeur and the might we are witness to, at all times and at all places, i have reason to believe that there is more to my Faith bank than just a store house of my Faith coins. And that is about it, i have said a lot, but a lot more is hidden between the lines of this text and still a lot more can be said, but i'll not spill out everything for you.
I have just presented one manifestation of God as my Faith bank, the way you would like it to be is your call. Call him power supreme, call him the creator, call him God, call him luck, call him by any name; for me he makes life, a hell lot simpler. Thanks for your time, Ciao! :)
awesome.....exactly wat i believed in and what i percieved god as, u have wrtitten it down....:)
ReplyDeletegud work :)
Joohi Mittal
Nicely put. Esp. liked 'God is that piece of code, that keeps running in the kernel of my body, or the mind' .... written in true CompSci spirit indeed! This one obviously didn't come effortlessly to you, and being a hardcore athiest I do not feel quite the same way, but it was a refreshing view nonetheless. :)
ReplyDelete@Joohi: High 5 to like mindedness! :)
ReplyDelete@Pixie: Why it didn't come as effortlessly to me as the others, i'd like to know.
"[..] rationalist mathematics and science on the inside makes human beings wonder whether there is a supreme power that has bestowed us with this enigmatic Life and all the surroundings. FAILING to find answers of which, instills their faith in a power supreme" - Yes, but don't you think this is a decline from reason to submission?Why should Men of Science submit to the notion, triggered by "failure"!
ReplyDelete"To me God is the piggy(Faith) bank where in i can put all my faith coins in, and pull them out when i need them.." - Damn good, I must admit. This is so settling.
"[..] he strengthens the gut instincts that lead to wisdom" - Thinking deeply I would say that He manifests himself in every particle of this universe, and us as well. So, if he is The Krishna and The Arjun both, then why should Arjun need a guide?I believe Karma answers this.
@ Post : You chose a highly debatable yet pregnant topic. In fact this is the 1st time you've chosen one such. And you have done good justice with it, lending it a harmless dimension; A dimension that atleast the epistemologically abstinent can subscribe to.Great work.I wish the post never ended! :)
Liked your concept of GOD. And actually you need these 3 kinds of people in any society. The orthodox believers( theists), the modern thinkers(atheists), the moderate performers( the confused lot).
ReplyDelete@Akash
ReplyDelete1.I said it instills faith in a power supreme and not that they are forced into it through some kind of a submission hold. The Men of science have failed in some sense. With reckless abandon they have carried out the search for Knowledge supreme. Time and again they have faltered because they have somehow failed to see the big picture and have got lost in their own minuscule maddening pursuit of the unification theory. Nature teaches us in ways we can never imagine :)
2."In this world of mad believers and foolish pawns, God is the shortest escape from reality into a world of fairies and fairy tales." is my favorite one :)
3.It is subjective. In this case, Arjuna failed to realize it. The people who wrote the epic failed to realize it :)
4.It was a tough one, i admit. One of the hardest times I've ever spent writing :)
I love the 3rd answer.
ReplyDeleteYes, Men of Science,should understand that this complex yet beautiful universe,the pursuit for disentanglement of which alone led to most of the Science we boast of,if has a Supreme Power,then there's no reason to believe that we,with just the limited-range sense organs of our's and few tools shall be able to experience it's Pure-Grand Self.In fact,I'd say : Have faith in him, 'Coz you're just too much into infancy to challenge the Being.
And so I subscribe to the Faith-bank-concept! :)
@Blue Sword : You've tried to be subtly sarcastic. "Orthodoxy = Theism", "Modernity = Atheism" & "Moderation = Confusion" show that it's high time you were introduced to a good Thesaurus, and the sooner, the better.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I pity the society that has only these 3 stereotypes.How do you guys manage stuff, there?!
@ Chunnu : Maybe you over-thought it a bit, but the end result was appreciable anyway :)
ReplyDelete@ Ethannacon : absolutely agree with your reply to the Blue Sword.
@ The Blue Sword : Sir, I am an very moderate and traditional atheist. :P
@Blue Sword
ReplyDeleteFirst, there is no "need" of any kind of person in this world. Second, how are Atheists the *modern* thinkers, and how can the rest be called *moderate performers*? Sir, you find it very convenient to label everyone on this planet. The world doesn't work that way. Going by this, i have to fit in one of those classifications and sadly, i do not. Think it over.
I think we talked about this before, and I repeat, show me any example of non-faith, and I'll show you how it is simply faith in its non-faith nature ;) Words are powerful, as we bloggers should know, but words are dangerous as tools of argument. Time and time again dubious choice of language is mistaken for some radical new philosophy (ask the ancient Greeks, they spent half of their time trying to dance around this issue). Talking about science, one can argue that the only kind of faith it requires is faith the Universe is ultimately decipherable; if you don't believe that, then there's no point trying to understand anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd the personal God idea is brilliant; I just wish it worked that way. Organized religion, and the way it monopolizes faith (faith credits if you will) is an unavoidable part of today's world. It's OK, a few years of railing later, anyone will conclude that it cannot be done away with. I only wish that faith will never come in the way of the pursuit of knowledge.
PS: The faith/non-faith argument is completely reversible, in case any one thinks I'm anti-atheist.
A brilliant post..as usual :).I appreciate that unlike most of us, at least you have your own definition of GOD.
ReplyDeleteAs you pointed out towards the end of the post the concept of GOD helps to make life a lot simpler,to leave a myriad of questions unanswered, to fall back to someone in case of failure, to thank someone in case of success and to have a feeling that someone's watching your back out all the time. And I think that's a good enough reason to believe in GOD.
God is none, but your own search for perfection, a perfect being that you can never be, never realize and hence end up idolizing.
ReplyDeleteDeep insight unlike people who botch depth perception about such concepts.
ReplyDeleteYou've always been a numismatist, haven't you? =D
A lot's been said on this thread till now. I just want to say I loved the post, simply because I have the exact same views about GOD, and I thought I was an Agnost. You just made me realize that I am not. Beacause an Agnost believes that the existence of GOD cannot be proved. We (you and me) on the contrary, do believe in the existence of GOD, not in its manifestation as a supreme creator, but as faith. So I am not Theist or Atheist or even Agnostic for that matter, I belong to a fourth category - Believers. 'Brahmoaham' as the scriptures say, 'I am GOD.' Guess Blue Sword needs to check this out !!
ReplyDelete