Is There a God

However, each of us, I am sure has at some time contemplated on whether God exists, as a child may be, when our parent's told stories about good and evil, as a teenager may be, when we questioned our parent's belief, when we do not follow mom tenet of our religion and wait for GOD's reaction-and so on.

The topic evokes a lot of sentiments and I would endeavor to steer clear of controversy, with a basic intention of throwing light on some different views. 3. I intend to cover this topic as under:- (a) Evolution of God. I would try to bring about a sense of evolution in GOD.

How ancient people defined GOD and how as man's understanding improved, GOD evolved. (b) Attributes. Here I would be covering certain aspects of GOD and his attributes. (c) Man, Religion and God.

In the next section I would delve on the various beliefs of the people and how religions express god. D) Science and God. Under this I would try to bring to your notice the various phenomena science cannot explain, which have then been attributed to god. (e) I will Conclude by with the thought that Belief in God is better than not believing. 4.Let us now dive right into the subject and see the Evolution of God.

To start with, our early ancestors felt very insecure and helpless when faced with natural calamities, hunger, heat, cold. He gradually tried to adjust, understand and sometimes overcome such problems. The main strategy to do that was to organize people and act as a group. That gave rise to group activities like hunting, gathering, cultivation, storing, which increased their chance of success and survival. During this process men understood their limitation in their understanding of all things.So they conceived the existence of supernatural power, which they thought are behind all those forces.

They also started believing that such supernatural forces strike when they are unhappy. They tried to keep them happy, by developing a set of rituals, "worship", as the meaner to keep these "Gods" or "spirits" happy. Each group of people tried to conceive the supernatural powers according to their own experience. If they liked particular meat or drink, they used to offer those to their "Gods". "Gods" also started looking like them, physically.

As most of the natural calamities used to be the same e. G. Rain, flood, storm-wind, drought, sun, wild beasts etc, many of such supernatural powers had high similarities (though not identical) world over. Most of the ancient civilizations had their Gods, as forms of natural elements, the sun, the moon, the stars, fire, earth, wind, the lightening.

This theme of gods continued in the Babylonians, the Mayans and Aztec in South America, the Romans, the Greeks and he Ancient Hindu civilization. Gradually all such activities and concepts gave rise to religion.Religion evolved to make societies more organized and to involve everybody to participate in different activities or "rituals", for betterment of the society. "Religion" made implementing the rules much easier, as punishment was stipulated to be high.

This gave rise to the concept of virtue and vice. Breaking the rules were equated to sin or vice while obeying those were termed as virtues. Here we should keep in mind that all such rules were made by human, most probably the pack leaders of concerned groups. More recent religions like Islam, Christianity, Schism and the many factions of later Hindu sects etc are more like an "ideology".

Almost all of such recent religions conceive a single "God" and the person who introduced that "ideology' became a "prophet. It's like establishing a system mainly to prove one's supremacy than to motivate survival of a group of people. It's the same psychology with which a king rules his subject. Evolution of such recent religions was possible as life, physically became easier. To maintain the social order and their own supremacy, group-leaders did not encourage logical thinking, they forbid any kind of questioning. They started implementing their own version of "truth" in the name of religion.

It became the norm.Gradually every religion started demanding UN-questionable faith. "Search for truth" soon became the fight to establish one's own version of "truth". Now we see the fight among human beings to prove that their version of "truth" is more "true" than that of others! This deformed version of "religion" allegedly is the single most important reason for human sufferings, conflicts and death in the past and remains so even today.

. Now that we know about the evolution of God, let us see What are the Attributes of GOD? When I say attributes, I mean the qualities that one associates with a God. (a) In-corporeality.Which meaner that our God has no body or is non-physical. Man has time and again tried to superimpose his body, color, dress on to a god, however almost all major religions believe that God has no form.

(b) Simplicity. God has no parts or real distinctions. Simplicity of god meaner that no one part or attribute is greater than the rest, simplicity is the opposite complex or compound here. (c) Unity. All modern religions maintain that there is one God, the Ultimate power from which everything else draws its existence. (d) Eternity.

Philosophers have spoken of God remembering the past, knowing the future, and acting in the present. E) Immutability. Or Unchangeable, this draws from the concept that God is an absolutely perfect being and so he cannot change because one only changes for the better or worse. There is no requirement of God to adapt to changing environs, situations and considerations. The strong sense of immutability fits well with a God outside of time. (f) Omnipotence.

The all-powerful, the ability to act as he wishes without the support or will of anything in nature. Many philosophers have said that this contradicts the existence of evil, at the same time others recognize that some good things exist only in the presence of certain types of evil. G) Omniscience. God knows everything. All knowledge emanates from him. (h) Omni benevolence or Goodness.

While goodness encompasses all moral perfection (truth, Justice, and righteousness), benevolence is that particular aspect of goodness that wills the benefit of another. The Good of GOD, his benevolence is not limited to NY one person in particular but envelopes the entire humanity and nature. 5. Knowing what the attributes are, lets us now see what are people's belief with regard to God classified as? Broadly speaking, (a) The first group is of Theists. The term theism derives from the Greek word ethos meaning "god".In a very broad sense, this term is applied to all people who believe that there is 'God'.

..... This can be further divided into various forms, such as:- (I) Monotheism.

Which meaner that there is only one god, the Supreme Being to whom everything in this universe can be attributed. Almost all the modern religions, I. Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrian, Islam, Schism and Hinduism are based on this single concept of god. (it) Polytheism.

The belief that there are many gods, all having different attributes would basically define this group of people. The Greeks, Romans and ancient Hindu Gods could be classified as under this. (b) Atheists.Non believers or people who reject the concept of god are counted here.

In the earlier ages, anybody who was thought to be a non believer would get prosecuted, however, with the spread of free thought, inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, many people can e counted here. The first individuals to identify themselves using the word "atheist" lived in the 18th century Europe. (c)Agnostics. An agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a god or gods. In the strict sense agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of rationally Justifying the belief that gods do, or do not, exist.

. How do religions express God ? Various religions have propounded various theories and have surmised God in various forms. I would like to in Just a little brief, go into how religions have interpreted religion and divinity. A) Zoroastrian believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Aura Mazda, or the 'Wise Lord'. In Zoroastrian, the creator Aura Mazda is all good, and no evil originates from him. Thus, in Zoroastrian good and evil have distinct sources, with evil (drug) trying to destroy the creation of Mazda (ash), and good trying to sustain it.

This religion predates all the other Barbaric religions and in some form affected them. (b) The concept of God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic. God is an absolute one, indivisible and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. In Judaism, the one of Israel is the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is the guide of the world, delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the 613 commandments at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah, he is termed as Jehovah or Yeah. (c) In Christianity, God is the eternal being who created and preserves the world.

Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent. The doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons the Father, the Son Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; "one God in three persons". The three persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or nature". D) In Islamic theology, God (All¤h) is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordained, and Judge of the universe. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular (Tahiti ) unique (w¤bid ) and inherently One (abaci ), all-merciful and omnipotent. E) In Hinduism, Brahmas is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe.

Brahmas is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything in and beyond this universe. (f) Augusta Buddha explicitly rejected the existence of a creator deity, refused to endorse any views on creation and states that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. In Buddhism, the sole aim of spiritual practice is the complete alleviation of stress in samara, which is called nirvana. G) The concept of God in Schism is uncompromisingly monotheistic, as symbolized by "k Ankara"(one God), a central tenet of Sikh philosophy. However Sikhs also believe that God also prevails in everything. 7.

Science and God. How has science perceived God?... Where everything has to have reasoning and logic, there are two very powerful arguments for god explained through the eyes of science.

They are:- (a) The first one is the The Cosmological Argument. And is based on two important questions. How did the universe begin...

. Even if you assume that Big-Bang caused the universe...

. The question still remains... How did big bang happen..

... And there are no logical answers to this important question. The other question is..

. What was there before the big- bang? Something cannot Just start, out of nothing!.....

Lat has to be attributed to a ... Where in comes 'GOD' cause, a reason, (b) The other is the Design or Teleological Argument, which says that the orderliness f the universe suggests an all-powerful agent who must be responsible for its creation.Simply put, as some statisticians have pointed out, the possibility of random mutation of proteins from the primordial soup, to form intelligent creatures is so small.

.. Estimated at 10-39 that it is possible to rule it out as impossible given the time frame of out universe. In Conclusion, I would like to say, that the concept of god was man's answer to the mysteries of the universe. Belief in divinity satisfied the very basic human psychology, of fear, hope, curiosity and death..

When there was no necromancy, no human rights and no concept of social Justice to save the unfit, God ensured survival.The concept of god as a superior being capable of doing a rescue act was indeed a fascinating idea. Certainly god was the most sublime creation of the collective human mind. I conclude this talk, with two sayings, (a) Participant shadbush, vanish customarily, Dharma sympathetically, shamanism huge, huge.

- these were the words spoken by Lord Krishna to Aragua, on the battlefield which meaner For the up-lifetime of the good and virtuous, For the destruction of evil, For the re-establishment of the natural law, I will come, in every age! ) The next is called - Pascal's wager, which says, If logical reasoning cannot positively decide for or against the existence of God; there must seem to be good reasons on both sides. But the question is of such importance that we must at least "wager" if we cannot prove, gentleman, WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO PLACE YOUR BET? If you place it with God * , And even if it turns out that God does not exist, you lose nothing If you place it against God * and you are wrong and God does exist * you lose everything: God, eternity, heaven, infinite gain, So ... Let us place the bet on god!.

... And hope for the betterment of future!