One of the few things I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about. Not something you can help, really, when this is one topic that seems universal to humanity. Pops up all over the place....when I see my grandmom fervently putting her palms together each time she passes a temple, when I glance across at my colleague who's got this huge tilak on his forehead, in most books I read, in art, films, everyday life....you name it, and there it is....devotion to God, faith in God, fear of facing 'His' wrath, etc etc.
A few minutes ago, chanced upon an interesting post by another guy called Kaushik on the same topic. I liked the way he categorized people into various classes based on their beliefs in God. In fact, thats what got me thinking about posting my own views on the subject.
Coincidence? Definitely. Divine coincidence, perhaps??.....Naah!!
What I always wonder about when I come across a piece of literature on God, is how the subject is always so....intellectualized...for lack of a better word. I know people who can go on and on weaving complicated, philosophical, intricated theories about who He is and what it means to have faith in Him.
I think the answer lies in doing just the opposite...shut off your brain for a moment...stop those millions of neurons crashing into each other at top speed (thats what they do, right??...thank God...oops..that I'm not a doctor).
No, I dont mean to sit and meditate reflectively and find your inner self. I mean...think you're an animal for a few minutes. A dog, perhaps, or an ape, or even better, a baby (human baby!). You dont find any any of these creatures wondering about God or the Supreme Being, do you? Caesar (my pet GSD) doesn't go rushing off to thank God when I get him a treat, nor does he blame God when he, say, gets a thorn in his paw. Instead, he comes running to me for assistance. Same with a baby...wails for its mom the moment something goes awry. Now, a dog has its master and a baby its mom, but who does the mom have?? Voila!! Enter God.
That, I guess, is my point. God didn't create Man....I believe Man created God. Just as a peron with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) creates a false personality to cover up for his weaknesses, to be everything he's not, humanity created God to hide behind. The more I think about it, the more I believe it. Just like your false personality, God only really exists for most of us when we want Him to. When we need a source of strength in our moments of weakness, or when we need a comforting hand in times of trouble. He's also like the supreme parent that all of us seem to need but dont have...to 'handle the issue' when we have absolutely no solution for a problem or question, or when we are in need of the unconditional love that a parent provides. To repeat myself, a 10 year old runs to its mom for the above, the 'adults' among us realize our moms are not a good enough solution, so we run to God. Yet another reason is our need to have a ready explanation for everything. The ancients had no clue as to what caused lightning and thunder, so they conveniently painted a picture of Indra hurling down thunderbolts. There's other examples like the whole lot Norse and Greek Gods who no longer exist today, because they've outlived their usefulness. Instead, today we attribute the creation of the Universe to God because we still haven't figured out what actually created it.
So, do I think he's real? I think he is, inasmuch as the alter ego of the MPD patient is. He may not be a 'real person', but he breathes air, eats, drinks and has a wide range of emotions and thoughts. The point is he lasts only as long as he is needed, and then he does not exist. I believe it is the same with God, He will cease to exist once mankind does not feel the need for Him. Perhaps this sounds too...casual...but He will probably go out of vogue, He will be discarded as we do with most things we do not need. Just as Apollo and Zeus and Aphrodite who were once fervently worshipped are no longer around today, except perhaps in comic books. Like with all other things, He only exists today to fulfill a fundamental shortcoming in Man, which is our lack of self-belief. The day we believe that we are the ultimate solution, that we ARE the most powerful beings in this planet, and more importantly that WE should take responsibility for our actions and not pawn it off to someone else, I believe he will cease to exist. When will that day come? I'm probably guilty of reading too much science fiction or watching X-Men too often...but the next stage of evolution, perhaps??
As an interesting aside, was going though reviews of 'Phantoms in the Brain' by V.S.Ramachandran, where he associates all religious thoughts and spiritual insights with the temporal lobe of the brain, and cites instances where people who've had the temporal lobe removed also cease to have these spiritual thoughts.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
A few minutes ago, chanced upon an interesting post by another guy called Kaushik on the same topic. I liked the way he categorized people into various classes based on their beliefs in God. In fact, thats what got me thinking about posting my own views on the subject.
Coincidence? Definitely. Divine coincidence, perhaps??.....Naah!!
What I always wonder about when I come across a piece of literature on God, is how the subject is always so....intellectualized...for lack of a better word. I know people who can go on and on weaving complicated, philosophical, intricated theories about who He is and what it means to have faith in Him.
I think the answer lies in doing just the opposite...shut off your brain for a moment...stop those millions of neurons crashing into each other at top speed (thats what they do, right??...thank God...oops..that I'm not a doctor).
No, I dont mean to sit and meditate reflectively and find your inner self. I mean...think you're an animal for a few minutes. A dog, perhaps, or an ape, or even better, a baby (human baby!). You dont find any any of these creatures wondering about God or the Supreme Being, do you? Caesar (my pet GSD) doesn't go rushing off to thank God when I get him a treat, nor does he blame God when he, say, gets a thorn in his paw. Instead, he comes running to me for assistance. Same with a baby...wails for its mom the moment something goes awry. Now, a dog has its master and a baby its mom, but who does the mom have?? Voila!! Enter God.
That, I guess, is my point. God didn't create Man....I believe Man created God. Just as a peron with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) creates a false personality to cover up for his weaknesses, to be everything he's not, humanity created God to hide behind. The more I think about it, the more I believe it. Just like your false personality, God only really exists for most of us when we want Him to. When we need a source of strength in our moments of weakness, or when we need a comforting hand in times of trouble. He's also like the supreme parent that all of us seem to need but dont have...to 'handle the issue' when we have absolutely no solution for a problem or question, or when we are in need of the unconditional love that a parent provides. To repeat myself, a 10 year old runs to its mom for the above, the 'adults' among us realize our moms are not a good enough solution, so we run to God. Yet another reason is our need to have a ready explanation for everything. The ancients had no clue as to what caused lightning and thunder, so they conveniently painted a picture of Indra hurling down thunderbolts. There's other examples like the whole lot Norse and Greek Gods who no longer exist today, because they've outlived their usefulness. Instead, today we attribute the creation of the Universe to God because we still haven't figured out what actually created it.
So, do I think he's real? I think he is, inasmuch as the alter ego of the MPD patient is. He may not be a 'real person', but he breathes air, eats, drinks and has a wide range of emotions and thoughts. The point is he lasts only as long as he is needed, and then he does not exist. I believe it is the same with God, He will cease to exist once mankind does not feel the need for Him. Perhaps this sounds too...casual...but He will probably go out of vogue, He will be discarded as we do with most things we do not need. Just as Apollo and Zeus and Aphrodite who were once fervently worshipped are no longer around today, except perhaps in comic books. Like with all other things, He only exists today to fulfill a fundamental shortcoming in Man, which is our lack of self-belief. The day we believe that we are the ultimate solution, that we ARE the most powerful beings in this planet, and more importantly that WE should take responsibility for our actions and not pawn it off to someone else, I believe he will cease to exist. When will that day come? I'm probably guilty of reading too much science fiction or watching X-Men too often...but the next stage of evolution, perhaps??
As an interesting aside, was going though reviews of 'Phantoms in the Brain' by V.S.Ramachandran, where he associates all religious thoughts and spiritual insights with the temporal lobe of the brain, and cites instances where people who've had the temporal lobe removed also cease to have these spiritual thoughts.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Comments
Nice to see you blogging away! Brought back nice memories of Savandurga.
I would argue that gods have not died out, but the civilizations have, and with them, the gods they believed in. Every succesive civilization that has dawned has continued to believe in one form of god or another, although you've attributed it to a part of the human brain :). While Indra throwing down thunderbolts or Odin showering fire might be exhibits of limited creativity of the human mind, the very fact that we haven't figured out the simplest questions, the very fact that our line of thinking is still so one dimensional is indicative of a supreme force. Also, if you take into account of all the mysterious elements existing on our planet, which we eventually discovered and with which we invented beer.. can anything be more telling of divinity!
Cheers,
Ashok
www.nerdybirders.com
Thanks for stopping by! Couldn't place you for a moment until I saw the URL. Absolutely awesome pics. You took them yourself? Heard about your fundoo camera.
I don't disagree that our thinking is one-dimensional (perhaps my own views reflect a 1D mind!)but that just strengthens my point. God only exists cos we haven't evolved enough to understand the mysteries of nature. We need a 3D mind more than we need God. And if you say Odin is an example of limited creativity, can we take that one step further and say Jesus or Ram or Allah are exhibits of more unlimited human creativity?
There is one supernatural power above is (when i say 'above us' it could be something within us also but more powerful than what we think we are not). And this supernatural power is what is GOd. Now from where did Supernatural power get it's power..i think it's because of a joint venture of enourmous human beings on earth:)
For instance, why are temples considered to be more powerful than any roadside idols, when we think God is there everywhere. The reason being, that's a place where lot of people come and mesmerise that place saying 'U r god, ur powerful, u can do this for me'..And as there are more number of people doing it together temple and the god in the temple becomes more powerful than the people who gave it the powers. And then we call that power as God.
Temple was just an example, we can apply it to any place, any religion,any living.
So i see God as a culmination of all the power from various living beings on earth.
It's a like white light that gets formed by culmonation of several colours and again gets diversified as different colours. So white light cannot exist if the colors do not exist.
This reminds me of one bengali documentry i had seen. There is one ordinary lady who is forced by her husband to act as if she is a powerful goddess who can change people's life so that he can earn money out of this faking. But what happens is instead of faking, she seriously starts feeling like a God and living as if she is a God because of people's devotion and indirect mesmirism and then really gets those powers of God:)
So all in the mind:)