THE GOD CONCEPT

Its difficult to actually decide whether He is born out of fear, for there are many concepts about God around us. Different people think of Him at different levels.

After all, for all that we can comprehend, God is just a concept, a concept that is very hard to give up. You may question it, fight it, but it will cling on to you. An atheist is a person who questions the existence of God but not somebody who is not aware of the concept in the first place. The fact that an atheist spends so much time on it is maybe his mind likes the idea but is not totally convinced. May be if somebody gave him a description of God that convinced him, something he could relate to and also help him understand the world better then maybe he will turn into a believer.

I feel when such a concept finds several takers, it turns into a sect and then a religion. New religions were born when somebody did not like the existing God Concept and went ahead and formed his own. Hebrews- Jews- Christianity/Islam. Hinduism-Buddhism-Jainism-Lingayat, you name it. Many many examples if you look for it.

For me what is interesting is, why is the God concept so essential to our lives. That we spend so much time making sense of it points to the fact that a) it definitely has some value in our life

b) it is the outcome (by product) of evolution, the mind can work best in a given way and in that design that hardwiring includes thoughts about god.

The first case would be interesting to study, if important for survival, at what level-individual/ society. When a man’s dependency on society is to such an extent, can we in any way dissect out the two? One of the outcomes of the second instance is that one could survive without this concept. But how can one test this? From the moment a individual is born he is exposed to this concept. Can we create a situation wherein a child is kept oblivious to this concept and see how it would develop? It would be unethical.

But then lets say, this concept was created by man himself, then at some point in the history of man the concept would have been absent. Then may be study of history and the present day evolution of the concept could be give us indirect answers.

What is my take on it? God Concept has definite survival value—both at the individual level and society level. The quality of an individuals life depends on the quality of the society—the quality of the society depends on the quality of life of the individual. Since the knowledge of right and wrong are inherent in the God Concept, belief in existence of God leads an individual to stick to the right path in adverse situations. This act leads to the betterment of the society (of course at the cost of the individual). It’s the con of living in a herd, the probability that anyone deer would be the prey of the hunting lions is lowered when living in a herd. The chances however that the deer gets killed is never zero. So it comes to be that an individual decides to take this chance hoping that other individuals are also equally willing to make the sacrifice when required and thus increase his chances of living in a better society. This is easier to follow when you have belief in God- the protector of the right! The species survival is the driving force.

Secondly life is not easy----in society or wild and one would die (that’s inevitable). Would one like to take the pains knowing that the death is certain( its amazing that we are quite aware of this fact, do other animals know? If they do, how do they deal with it?)? Believing that our lives are not in vain—believing that we are here for a purpose---makes life worth while, does not it?

Well I have stopped questioning the existence of God! I have accepted the fact that man has not conquered the Nature. We are still in its captivity…………….Can we beat the urge to survive, to reproduce to keep going on inspite of all the hurdles we face? No………we just try to find better ways of doing it………the SPECIES MUST SURVIVE!

I do whatever is necessary for that------The traditional way or the modern way---Virtue is Wisdom (Aristotle)!

I believe in GOD at times when its difficult for me to comprehend the on goings in life, when nothing makes sense—I do it because it helps me survive, because I cannot beat the urge to SURVIVE!

All this writing and I could cover only one aspect of believing in GOD! Beliefs out there force us to think that this is not the END!