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How to define God? Merely as the creator of the universe, with all its laws of physics, mathematics, logic, etc? In this sense then God is simply the reason for the universe’s existence. He may not be a conscious being at all. The existence of the universe must be explicable (or IS IT???) but is the explanation comprehensible to humans? To any being in the universe? There is a very, very deep mystery here… one that even atheists must recognize. There are only two possibilities, both of which fill me with a feeling so strange I almost can't categorize it. Like a blend of awe, fear and vertigo... One possibility is that God exists. This may seem a better alternative but, frankly, we don't have the intellect to comprehend such an entity and we can't possibly begin to fathom its plans and purposes. We can't help but ask how such a being could simply exist. The other possibility is that God does not exist. This would mean that our universe simply exists. A vast entity with no origin... scary... Is God the product of wishful thinking? Or perhaps of our unwillingness to accept the possibility that the universe is simply here, without ever having been created? Is it possible that humans, because of our fear of ceasing to exist, have created complex myths that make us immortal? Have we given ourselves an importance in the universe that we don’t really have? Just as we are not at the center of the universe, we are not the semi-gods we think we are. We may simply be the byproduct of the laws of nature. Essentially, mechanisms… I've tried to keep my faith alive but I can't do it by believing blindly. At the beginning of my life I believed in God out of pure faith, because of my Catholic upbringing. With the passing of time, as I acquired knowledge, experience and independence of thought, I started questioning this belief. I have thought long and hard about these matters. Nowadays it is sort of fashionable for the highly educated and/or highly intelligent to not believe in God. Personally, I have pretty much concluded that human intelligence is insufficient to understand the final answer, if there is any. I think it's downright arrogant for anyone to be certain that they have it all figured out. How dare that 3-pound mass we call a brain presume of fathoming the ultimate truth? Believing in God, of course, seems to create more problems than it solves. It neatly explains where it all came from, why the laws of nature are how they are, etc. And, by associating God with religion, it gives humanity hope and control of their actions, especially when nobody is watching. But we can't avoid asking questions. We then need to explain something even more complex than the universe. A conscious, probably all-powerful entity which would exist without cause or explanation. We can't even begin to fathom such a being. But we would ask ourselves what thoughts it has, what laws it follows, where it came from, etc. Perhaps it possesses powers beyond intelligence and thought. Things so fantastic, so bizarre for us, we can't even imagine them. We have a penchant for giving things anthropomorphic qualities or properties. Who is to say that the entity that created the universe, if there is such an entity, is not so far removed from being human that we simply have no way of grasping its true nature? I don't fear death per se. Instead, I feel infinitely saddened by the realization that all humans do may be ultimately futile. After my death, will I ever "see" my dear ones again? If not, that is unbearable… |