Why do We Need to Understand God?

Why do we need to understand God?

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            Einstein in his address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939 commented about religion that religion lays down clear fundamental ends and valuations and sets them fast in emotional life of an individual and thus in social life of man. The only justification for these fundamental ends is that they exist in all healthy societies as powerful traditions, and it is not necessary to find justification for their existence.

            Further, Einstein in a symposium – Science, Philosophy and Religion at New York 1941 stated:-

                        “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”

                        “What is still lacking here is a connection of profound generality but not knowledge of order itself”

            Our current scientific understanding does not allow us to understand several aspects of nature, universe and human life which include the following amongst other:-

a)     Origin and evolution of nature and universe – The most popular Big Bang theory and its deductions leave many questions unanswered such as What is dense matter?, What is the source of dense matter?, How chaos before Big Bang could have led to order after Big Bang?, Whether origin and evolution is a singular or a perpetual act?

b)    Origin of survival mechanisms essential for existence of any particle, whether of energy or mass or both. Mandatory conditions for existence of any particle have inherent contradictions among them which need to be resolved to allow the given particle to exist over a period of time.

c)     Rational determination of acceptable human conduct.

d)    Rational basis of emotional life. Our emotions are protective reflexes that allow us to care not only for ourselves but also others and thus keep our relations to our social milieu in accordance with Sherrington’s concept of Projiscience i.e. action at a distance.

e)     Rational basis of all morals and ethics.

f)      Rational basis of Law.

g)     Rational basis of all religious principles, practices and to differentiate wheat from chaff.

h)    Rational determination of acceptable human conduct, aspirations and judgment.

i)        Rational differentiation of right from wrong, fair from unfair and just from unjust.

j)       Appreciation of constraints to existence of any particle and mechanisms to circumvent the same.

k)     Rational foundations to social sciences.

l)       Whether economy should be left to greed and phobias of the state or rich and mighty, or needs to be prudently and pragmatically managed in the interest of social justice.

m)  Whatever an individual might think or say or claim, but the unavoidable reality is that any individual survives only in a system. Our current scientific understanding does not allow rational comprehension of ourselves, the system that we live in and our cosmic connections. Therefore, though we all love our freedom, we are unable to appreciate it correctly and instead practice all kinds of aberrant behavior. Therefore we need to understand God to rationally appreciate our freedom and enjoy the same correctly.

n)    And others.

          If by God, one means connections of profound generality, that must have preceded origin of nature and material universe, are valid across the entire natural hierarchy and are still as active as they must have been in the past, then these connections of profound generality must effectively and perpetually be applicable to various aspects of human life.

          One day a priest was narrating as to how a particular disciple is spending tons of money to appease the Gods.

          I listened to him for a while and then raised a query “How to find out that the purpose of the disciple was met through his own efforts or by appeasement of Gods?”

          This infuriated the priest and he began criticizing me for my beliefs.

          In reply I raised another query “Can you tell me in just one word what religion is?”

          This drew a blank.

          I broke the silence and told him that HARMONY is one word that sums up all religions.

          I further explained that all religious principles and practices have their origin in Law of Harmony – intuitively or otherwise. Law of Harmony states that all laws have to be harmoniously construed and as a corollary one must seek greatest harmony in one’s dealings with the world at large. This Law of Harmony has its roots in universal instinct to exist and universal instincts are one of the three aspects of God.

          Understanding God as the one word symbolizing connections of profound generality is essential because current scientific understanding only provides the means and not the ends to which means are applied and current religious understanding provides the ends but only as Gospel truth which one has to dogmatically follow.

          Therefore, to understand God means understanding connections of profound generality and this is essential for our own enlightenment and elevation of consciousness leading to an intelligent, prudent and pragmatic living providing body, mind and soul harmony to the individual on one hand and harmonious relations with the world at large on the other. Therefore understanding God is essential for optimized management of wide and varied aspects of human existence.

Author: Dr Mahesh C. Jain is a practicing medical doctor has written the book “Encounter of Science with Philosophy – A synthetic view”. The book begins with first chapter devoted to scientifically valid concept of God and then explains cosmic phenomena right from origin of nature and universe up to origin of life and evolution of man. The book includes several chapters devoted to auxiliary concepts and social sciences as corollaries to the concept of God.

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Who Needs an External God?

Who needs an external God?

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It has been often argued that there must exist an external God i.e. God external to nature and universe to account for creation/origin, evolution and management of nature and universe. Almost all religions advocate existence of external God which has been described as omnipresent and omnipotent but which is not amenable to sensory perception. It is further stated by almost all religions that the said external God is a matter of experience, feeling, faith and belief and realizing the same would lead one to a state of eternal bliss. It is also said that one is unable to experience that external God only because of one’s inexperience and lack of devotion. This external God is regarded as the ultimate cause and explanation for all natural phenomena that are otherwise inexplicable.

However, if there existed an omnipotent God capable of doing anything and everything, then why should it be constrained in creation by time, place, natural laws, material resources etc. Why there are only 2 million known species of plants and animals on earth and why not all the biodiversity that human mind can imagine can actually be seen. Why an omnipotent external God needs to be bound by its own creations i.e.  natural laws, order of natural origins/creations and properties of various components of nature and universe. Why should this external God opt for natural hierarchy and be dependent upon history in order to express its creativity. Why should that external God create its own rival i.e. man. Why does an external omnipotent God need to establish natural order.  An omnipotent external God could have easily managed its ends without trappings of an order.  Why and how an unconstrained, omnipotent, external God need to and establish universality of communication, co-operation and interaction among its creations. For example for viruses to cause various illnesses, they should be able to interact with genome of their host. How an external God would be able to manage its affairs at all times and at all places. How would one explain relationships, particularly biological relationships such as symbiosis, commensalism, parasitism etc. in a universe created by an external God.

Perception of a natural order induce one to think of an omnipotent external God as the source of the perceived order. But existence of a natural order in itself is antithetical to existence of an omnipotent external God, since there is no reason that such an external God would admit any constraints to its own activities imposed by natural order. So to explain natural order in terms of an external God is self contradictory and absurd.

The universe created by an external God would be quite unlike the universe we see today. It would be more like a universe created by a software engineer devoid of universality of communication and interaction, plagued by compatibility issues and can’t be self evolving and self-healing. For each and every difficulty one would have to rush to the software engineer for effective resolution.

A universe created by an external God can’t be self-evolving, self-organizing, self-managing and self-sustaining. Relationships would be meaningless in such a universe.

Therefore, there can only be an embedded God that expresses itself through its material creations as some of the properties of its creations, is omnipresent but is not omnipotent since it has to provide room to its creations for their self expression. Therefore this embedded God is constrained by natural laws and natural order, yet exercises influences that prevail over the rest. Only an embedded God can explain universality of communication, interaction, co-operation, relationships. Such an embedded God is bound by its own rules/natural laws, so does not derogate its laws but supersedes them by acquisition of higher functions materially expressing as higher formations and this is how evolution proceeds. Only an embedded God contained within its own creations can explain this self-evolving, self-organizing, self-managing and self-sustaining universe.

This God, internal to nature need not have any physical form but its presence can be felt in pursuit of the first cause. This embedded God need not be and is not omnipotent, is rather constrained in its creativity in various ways which includes determination of realizable potentialities and selection thereof.

Therefore, to understand cosmic phenomena, we do not need an external omnipotent God. Rather we need an embedded God that is constrained ab initio and that must have preceded creation of nature and universe, is valid across the natural hierarchy and is as effective today as in the past.  

Author: Dr Mahesh C. Jain is a practicing medical doctor has written the book “Encounter of Science with Philosophy – A synthetic view”. The book begins with first chapter devoted to scientifically valid concept of God and then explains cosmic phenomena right from origin of nature and universe up to origin of life and evolution of man. The book includes several chapters devoted to auxiliary concepts and social sciences as corollaries to the concept of God.

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Whether God is a Fact or Fiction?

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.

Hence, God can only be a fact and not fiction until and unless proved otherwise.

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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.

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