Whether God is a fact or fiction?
The subject of
God has intrigued mankind since times immemorial. For the majority, it is a
matter of personal faith and belief or feelings and therefore it has also been
often said that every human being has a personal God which is beyond enquiry
and investigation. Personal God of one human being can not be compared with
personal God of another. God being a matter of faith and belief, any critical
analysis is totally unwarranted. Therefore Hindus recognize 330 million Gods
and Goddesses. On a website I found more than 1600 views about what is God,
none verified or proved.
At the same
time it is also said that God is one and various recognized Gods and Goddesses
are merely reincarnations of the one and only God. Irreconcilable differences
between various forms of God are totally ignored. Critical analysis is
forbidden and understanding or realization of God becomes a matter of personal
experience elevated to the level of a divine or out of this world experience.
Those who are unable to acknowledge realization of God are declared ignorant by
those who claim to have realized God leaving them even more confused. There is
literally no test to verify claims of the claimants. To atheists, there claims
are in a state of eternal doubt and an eternal debate between atheists and believers
continues without any effective resolution. I have come across believers who
even though do not claim to have yet realized God, argue that subject matter of
God should not be made a matter of scientific investigation and enquiry. They
just want to drift in a divine current.
So there arises
a question as to what is the necessity of believing or feeling existence of God
and is there a compulsion of scientifically acknowledged facts and logic that
leads us not only to postulate existence of God but also define it? Such a God
shall be amenable to verification and therefore shall be a universally
acknowledged truth.
There arises
another question whether or not natural phenomenon can be sufficiently
explained on the basis of our understanding of time, space, matter, and energy;
and laws of physics, chemistry and biology.
In this
endeavor, be guided by the following two principles:-
1) Let nature be my only teacher and guide.
2) C.L.Morgan’s cannon:-
“In no case is animal activity to be
interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of higher psychical faculty, if it
can be fairly interpreted as the outcome of his exercise of one which stands
lower in psychological scale”
Explanation: In any complex situation
there would exist a hierarchy of plausible natural explanations to explain a
natural phenomenon such as death can be explained as caused by a disease or
wish of destiny etc. In this hierarchy of explanations material or physical
stands at the lowest rung and metaphysical or transcendental at the highest provided
transcendental explanations are natural and not supernatural. In any given
hierarchy of plausible explanations if a natural phenomenon can be sufficiently
explained at physical level, than metaphysical explanations should not be
invoked and so on and so forth.
In nature, several phenomenon such as
creation of universe, origin of life, origin of mechanisms essential for
existence of even the simplest of particles such as photons, origin of
mechanisms enabling perpetual compliance of laws of conservation of mass,
momentum and energy by all the stable particles all the time over ruling
inherent contradictions to enable survival are beyond any material explanation
so far.
Even evolution of universe and biological
evolution are beyond materialistic explanations. Much of the nature’s diversity
is beyond physical explanations.
Something had to precede creation of
material universe. At present one has to invoke metaphysical explanations to
explain the above stated natural phenomenon. What preceded all origins and
creations may be collectively referred to as metaphysical influences or
transcendental influences or God. In fact name doesn’t matter so long as it
refers to the same reality. You can choose your own name for this aspect of
reality.
Therefore, until such time that we are
able to find suitable material explanations for these phenomena, existence of
God or metaphysical influences or transcendental influences can’t be ruled out.
Author:
Dr Mahesh C. Jain – he is practicing medicine and has written the book
“Encounter of Science with Philosophy – A synthetic view” The book begins from
a scientifically valid concept of God and from this humble beginning embraces
the entire cosmic phenomena within its fold.
http://www.sciencengod.com/clipboard.htm 
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