Is there a God?
That’s a good question for a
Friday afternoon. In my opinion, I think there might be. I doubt there's a “God” in the sense that Christians or Muslims, or any other followers of
man-made organised religion would describe it, as that would be an incredibly
weird, petty and confusing God.
Why would a “God” be at all bothered about
the actions of individual tiny humans, and whether they spent time praying to
him or not? If there really was a God, in that sense, then the influx of calls
and prayers he must receive in one day would be staggering.
OK, so you might say: "He’s God, He’s
omnipotent, He can see into all our hearts and hear our thoughts... blah di
blah." To me, the idea that any God would decree that human beings must do
certain things, such as not work on the Sabbath, or not eat pork, or covet his
neighbour’s ox, etc. just smacks of humans trying to gain control over others
by setting rules. That’s all organised religion is, at the end of the day – 1%
of the people hold the power, usually middle-aged or older men, over the other
99% of the people.
It’s good for the 1% if the majority
continue to believe that if they live their lives quietly according to the
“commandments”, if they do as they’re told and don’t cause a fuss, then they’ll
be rewarded “in the next world” – whether that be heaven, or reincarnation, or
some other afterlife existence. The powerful minority might even hold that
belief themselves, or they might not, but I bet they’re happy for the rest of
the people to keep turning up and paying their monetary contributions to the
church for a new roof, or for the new Pope-mobile.
Wonder what their “God” would make of that?
But this post isn't about the evils of
organised religion; I’ll save that for another day. I'm actually quite open to
the existence of God. In a Universe as infinitely large and boundless as ours,
with the potential for multiple other universes adjacent to/around/within it,
there must be room for a God to exist.
What form that God would take, obviously we
can’t be sure, but I like to imagine that the Romans and Vikings were along the
right lines when they made up their tales of magical beings with super powers
who could play with the lives of humans on a whim, and had story-lines involving
births, marriages and deaths that any Soap scriptwriter would be proud of. Of
course, they’re probably no closer to reality than the God of the Old
Testament, but at least they’re more interesting to read about.
The main reason I don’t think there’s a
“God” is that it’s never been proven to me. Ask anyone religious to prove why
they believe what they do, and the answer is invariably the same: “I don’t need
proof, I have faith!”
Well, faith’s all well and good, but that’s not really a
proper answer, especially for a physicist. I want to have concrete evidence
that God exists, and not in the words or books written by monks thousands of
years ago, or in so-called “miracles”, but in genuine experiential terms. And
that’s (probably) never going to happen.
Also, I don’t see why an all-knowing,
all-powerful God would allow/create such terrible and tragic things as cancer,
AIDS or Hitler, unless they had a pretty bizarre sense of humour, or were
imparting truly cruel punishments on Mankind. I honestly wouldn't want that
type of God to exist, and I certainly wouldn't worship them if they did!
If there is a God, it’s much more likely
that He/She would be more concerned with the life-cycles of stars and galaxies
than with tiny bipeds living on a blue-green rock around a yellow star in the
midst of gazillions of other stars, but you never know. There may be a God who
is omnipotent. We may truly be “God’s children”, made in their image, and
looked over by them for ever more... I doubt it, but if there is a God, I wish
he’d hurry up and answer my prayers and let me win the lottery!
Of course, if there is no God, then I only
have a 1 in 14 million chance of winning the lottery, so even if I keep buying
a ticket every single week, it would take me about 270,000 years to win,
statistically speaking. I guess the moral is that I’ll have to take
responsibility for my own life, and take control of my own destiny.
No matter what you believe in, whether it’s
the existence of God or Allah or Humpty Dumpty, there’s bound to be millions of
other people who believe in something else, which might seem utterly absurd to
you. That’s the wonder of human beings - we all have brains, and most of us can
decide for ourselves whether to believe in God or not, rather than simply
taking for granted what parents, friends or dictators, or bloggers might say.
Most people don’t have the time or inclination to reflect on their own beliefs, and why they hold them.
Sometimes it’s easier to just accept what
we’re told. What about you? What do you believe?
