“In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.” Jethro Tull

“The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world.” Georgia Harkness

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.” Steven Weinberg

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” Richard Dawkins

“If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.” Edmond de Goncourt

“If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.” Voltaire

“God has no religion” Mahatma Gandhi

I often wonder, is this really important to prove or disprove God? To me this is not as important as knowing the truth is. And the truth is that human being is absolutely nothing in comparison to the existence of this universe. No matter how big the human knowledge grows in science, philosophy or any other subject of understanding, the universe will still remain unknown and powerful; the power of human doings will still remain trivial and negligible. This leads me to conclusion that humility is the ultimate truth. The wisdom is to know the truth. The wisdom should begin with understanding of this humility.

This truth will empower human being not take this world, this nature and this universe for granted. It is good to have knowledge and confidence but it is better to know our limitations. This will make us humble. Humbleness will promote the idea of co-operation and cohabitation. Haughtiness and pride are self destructive.

Once we start with this understanding of humility in mind, we will be wise enough not to be absorbed in pride and arrogance. This will ensure peace and wellbeing.

To me God is a conceptual being! His/her existence is matter of convenience. For some people it is convenient to conceptualize God (in their own way) for other people it is convenient not to conceptualize God. My perception is very clear about the existence of God. I think those complicated arguments of philosophers and theology experts are imaginary. Those arguments are good as exercise for our brain and thought process but so far application of this argument in human life is concerned, it’s useless.

I am sure you all may be broadly categorized into three groups. Groups-

Who believe in God.

Who don’t believe in God.

Who don’t care!

Personally, I feel you all are right. You do whatever you love to do. You do whatever suits you most. Because the bottom line is that your belief should bring you wellbeing. But a warning- that your wellbeing should not be at the cost of others.

My humble submission is, I am not here to question or support the existence of God. I am here to find some relationship between the concept of God and the wellbeing. But while doing so I will discuss different perspectives on the issue of God’ existence.

Long ago, a young boy from Kolkata, Narendranath Dutta was obsessed with the idea of seeing God. He met several learned and wise men asking them “sir, have you seen God?” He was not happy with the answers of those learned people. He wanted some easy answer to calm his young mind. At last he met an illiterate priest in Kali (A Hindu Goddess) Temple of Dakshineswar, Kolkata. This simple priest replied to his question in simple language- “yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I talk to you”.

With this story I want to make couple of points. The right answer to the question of existence of God depends on -

1. The maturity of questioner in the context of his capacity to think abstract.

2. The attitude of questioner to the life

3. The attitude of the questioner to know the unknown

4. The ability of the questioner to assimilate abstract concept into reality to give meaning to life.

There are thousands of examples of things which we can’t sense with our five senses.

We can’t see our mind but we still know mind exists. We can’t sense numbers one to nine but we know that these numbers exist. Because the mind and all these conceptual numbers can solve many puzzles. Existence is not in sensing physically, existence is in meaning. To get a meaning from the abstract we need to have some initiated perceptual process. The result of perceiving abstracts are immense. This kind of perception can make our life really meaningful.

My interest is whether the concept of God can help us living a meaningful life? Historically the concept of God has helped us in doing so. The concept of God is still helping millions of people in their pain and sufferings. I am not interested in question whether the God ‘really exists’? That is the domain of philosophers and we will let them keep arguing and come up with their answers.

However, just for knowledge I will briefly discuss the philosophical aspect of the God’s existence. There are some traditional proofs of God’s existence like-

1. The argument from design

Have we ever thought about the vastness and complexity yet the discipline of the universe? Are we not mesmerised? Are we not baffled with the thought of this wonderful design? Is this possible that this might have happened by chance? There should definitely be somebody who has done this wonderful job! What happens if we call him God?

2. The ontological argument

God is the perfect being. As He is most perfect, He must have all perfections. If God lacked existence He would not be perfect, as He is perfect he must exist.

3. The cosmological argument

We believe in causal relationship of our all existences. We say everything that exists has a cause. Think of those things with their all those causes. There must be some first cause prior to all other causes. I mean the cause of causes. What happens if we name this pioneer cause as God?

Now we will have a look at what the wise men say-

Blaise Pascal (The French mathematician) argues-God either exists or he does not. If we believe in God and he exists, we will be rewarded with eternal bliss in heaven. If we believe in God and he does not exist then at worst all we have forgone is a few sinful pleasures. If we do not believe in God and he does exist we may enjoy a few sinful pleasures, but we may face eternal damnation. If we do not believe in God and he does not exist then our sins will not be punished. Would any rational gambler think that the experience of a few sinful pleasures is worth the risk of eternal damnation?

Feuerbach and Marx argue-God does not make man. Rather "God" is the invention of human consciousness.

Marx comments that religion is part of an ideological view that encourages the oppressed and poor to accept their life as a fate. He says: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”.

Steven Weinberg says “Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”

Søren Kierkegaard (first existentialist) supports Kant that the existence of God can’t be proven by reason. However Kierkegaard does not think that it is rational to believe in God, rather one should have faith in God even if this seems to reason to be absurd.

We know that reason has no place in faith. God is beyond reason.

Nietzsche writes- "Have you not heard the madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place and cried incessantly, 'I seek God! I seek God!’... Why, did he get lost? Said one. Did he lose his way like a child? Said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Or emigrated?... The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

"'Whither is God'? He cried. 'I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. All of us are his murderers...'"

"...the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke and went out. 'I came too early,' he said then; 'my time has not come yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering -it has not yet reached the ears of man."

Nietzsche’s writings about God and “Death of God” concept appear at same time of history. Nietzsche shows the inevitable unfolding of anthropocentrism (putting man at the centre of the world). If we view our existence through human categories, then our concept of God is itself a human creation. He suggests that if we are aware of the fact that the concept of God is our own creation we can no longer base our religious and moral beliefs on any notion of a divine external reality.

We are not discussing politics here. But I find those comments interesting in context of God. This shows that the same concept which can be utilised for goodness can also be utilised for destruction. God and the religion have been used to destroy creation in the past and if we don’t understand the truth we will use God and the religion to destroy creation in future too.

Personally I respect the view of both believer and non-believer. Like many others I do have my own view on God and religion. I basically come from Hindu family but I know very little of Hinduism and other religion. In my journey, I have learnt that the existence and concept of God and Religion are just means but are not the end. Now I have understood that the end is- the understanding of the truth. I now firmly believe that the most important truth is the humility. Once I have learnt little bit of this humility (I still deviate and quite often!), this learning has changed my life altogether. I now understand the hollowness of pride and possessions. This leads me to peace and serenity. This keeps me away from anger, hatred and arrogance. I feel good about life. I do have problems like all of you have but now I know that no problem in this world can lead me to madness.

I follow what I conceive as human religion. I do have my own description of what I mean by this. I am a member of humanity. To me, any other member of this family is my brother or sister. And the principle of living this religion is, we all will live together in harmony and will help each other. We will happily accept the differences we have and will joyously celebrate the beauty of these differences.

I do believe in God because this belief suits me. I may find myself frustrated with some obstacle or failure and then I get back to God to get some peace. I speak in silence “God, give me more courage and wisdom to help me grow stronger”. Or if I find myself in dilemma, I ask for divine help to guide me through this dilemma. Sometimes it clicks and other times it does not. Even when it does not click, I maintain my calm and serenity with this belief. But like many of you I am not sure whether God really exists but that does not stop me to believe or conceptualize God. To me God is a conceptual being that I have created for my own convenience.

I am interested in wellbeing of myself and other members of this planet. I think each of us can choose anything we want. The question of ‘real existence’ of God is immaterial to our purpose of journey to wellbeing. Our bottom line is our belief or disbelief should lead us to wellbeing. And our belief or disbelief should not cause any harm to others.

It is unfortunate and heartbreaking to find the conflicts and killings of our brothers and sisters across this world on ground of differences in faith and religion. This is an absolute stupidity of human mind. Everybody has the right to choose his faith and belief. Everybody should be granted that privilege. But in return we all will expect he will not interfere with the belief of others. This is so simple truth!

Ralph Waldo Emerson says “Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.” And Dalai Lama says “We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.”