IF THERE IS NO GOD , WE HAVE TO INVENT ONE

 

IF THERE IS NO GOD , WE HAVE TO INVENT ONE

 

 

It was,it is and it will be a never ending debate whether God is a reality,concept or

 

myth.Whatever may be the reality He plays an important role in human life.Those who

 

try to find a tangible proof,fail to find any but those who start with faith,find him in every

 

atom and every creation.There is unlimate reality,if we take our reasoning to its logical

 

conclusion;there is the final truth,if we purchase the idea of basic truth  behind

 

apearances,to final end.

 

A scientist,without admitting God to be a reality,concedes His presence by reducing Him

 

to some inexorable and unchanging and ultimate laws;a mathematician may call Him

 

infinite; a religious pundit finds in Him some invisible power which is

 

omnipresent,omniscient,benevolent and just,an embodiment of moral virtue,all

 

powerful,controlling the natural phenomenon of the universe;an aesthete considers Him

 

ultimate beauty.Theists,despite their unflinching faith,may entertain doubts about His

 

existence and atheists,despite their disbelief perceive the glimmer of belief behind it.If

 

God is a concept,it is clever,ingenious stroke of imagination because many systems of

 

metaphysical philosophies,many moral principals have direct or indirect bearing upon

 

the idea of god.If God is a myth,it underlies the story of man’s adventure,man’s search

 

for a better life,man’s relation with man and nature.If God is a reality,it is to be

 

discovered by science,percieved through senses,tested with reason and verified with

 

facts.Perhaps that stage will never be reached;if the mystery is unravelled man may

 

change into another Satan to claim equality and consequently will meet Satan’s

 

fate.Whether concept,myth or reality God’s significant role in man’s life cannot be

 

discounted.

In the earlier times man was leading the life of savages;reasoning faculty

 

was stunted and subordinated to physiological needs.Sympathy was limited to personal

 

self and there was no society,no laws,no code of conduct and nothing else but animal

 

desires and personal demands.In such a state of affairs we will have to subscribe to

 

hobbes’s belief-"life was poor,nasty,brutish and short".The dawn of reason,in the case

 

of a few,made them to formulate a code of conduct through the idea of religion.To a

 

man who was terrified by the forces of nature like rains,floods,hurricanes,volcanic

 

eruptions,earthquakes,etc.,reposed unqualified faith in the imagination,discovery and

 

invention of God.Fear of life after death,fear of the painful death due to long sickness or

 

disease,the idea of hell and heaven (even if God is a reality,heaven and hell seem to be

 

an idea only)the realisation that sinners are punished and saints are rewarded made

 

people God fearing and the relations were regulated according to the moral principles.It

 

is imposible to trace the history of the origin of the idea or reality of God but it played a

 

significant role in stabilising and improving community life.But for it,life upon earth would

 

have come to an end.God was considered to be above man’s petty troubles,selfish

 

designs and earthly desires to his order were obeyed without demur.Moreover

 

all-powerful God cannot be cowed down.His laws are inexorable and this made man to

 

resign to His fate,which was God’s agency to administer justice.

 

With the estabblishment of political organisations,the people in power found God a lever

 

to wield power without encountering opposite and to retain power without any

 

manouvring.The concept of the divine rights of the king’s elicited complete faith from the

 

subjects.The king was supposed to be a privilaged citizen favoured by God.In

 

administering justice he was supposed to carry out the wishes of God;he was supposed

 

to commit no mistake because he executed the orders of the infallibli God;obviously

 

disobedience of the king meant defiance of God’s law.Whatever harm the theory might

 

have done,it was able to hold the people together and had created conditions for

 

political organizations and for inculcating the sense of duty and obedience to the laws of

 

the land.It was difficult to bring the people of different tribes under the one political

 

authority without invoking the name of God.At a later stage idealists like Hegel and

 

others considered state as a march of God upon earth and state is the ideal.This did not

 

have much impact and perhaps reference to God was to emphasise perfection.

 

Coming down from the political and social advantages to the concept of god to the

 

benefits reaped by the individuals,we have many to count.Life is a struggle,where the

 

fittest survives and as such involves risks of failure.Apart from determination,courage

 

and capability one should entertain hope to succeed.Once frustrated in one’s effort,a

 

person may give up the desire to carry on with it.It is the faith in god that keeps the

 

spirits alive;a christian repents over sins and hopes to get pardon because God is

 

charitable;an optimist finds every thing alright,when God is in heaven every thing is right

 

with the world,sings the optimistic poet,Browning.Had this not been the case,sins would

 

have been hanging heavy over the conscience of the individuals as was the case with

 

Lord Jim,the hero of Joseph Conrad’s novel.Such a person has a tendency to become

 

indifferent to social obligations and becomes abnormal in behaviour.Had optimism died

 

out there would have been no contribution to the deliberately managed social

 

effort.Tennyson correctly thinks "More things are wrought with prayer than the word

 

dreams of".Of course prayer gives confidence,and confidence,in its turn,gives sharper

 

edge to effort.Man works because he believes he is to be blessed;the moment man

 

starts disbelieving God’s benign attitude and presence he will lose zest to work.Hope

 

sustains life and the struggle of life.An atheist’s attitude will be inimical to effort and a

 

pessimist’s wings are are often clipped by melancholy.So the belief that God exists

 

keeps us alive in terms of spirit,effort and confidence.

 

Realisation of the existence of God,as a superintending power,awakens the conscience

 

 man and makes him God-fearing.Spiritual enlightenment,which follows meditation over

 

god,brings higher realities to light.Gautama Buddha discovered the futility of this life and

 

the significance of other worldliness.Non-attachment with earth kills anti-social

 

activities,make one to feel that earthly life is a preparation for another life,which is

 

higher,ultimate and everlasting.People undergo penance,do good deeds,acts of charity

 

and what not just to enjoy a better life in the other world.Meeting God is the sublimation

 

of the self and obedience to him,the highest duty.Blind Milton may feel much

 

handicapped to use one’s talent which is death to hide’ yet he consoles himself by

 

saying "they also serve and get served who stand and wait".

 

It is a complete resignation to God’s will and such an attitude,in no case,generates

 

hatred for life.Fatalism,with all the inherent and implied defects,never saps the energy to

 

forge ahead.

 

B.Shaw,the famous english dramatist,propounded the theory of life force,which is

 

working,in more or less,an impersonal manner.Perhaps he discovers it is a scientific

 

minded man’s substitute for God.His unconventional attitude makes him to decry the

 

conventional concept of God when he says-"beware of the man whose god is in the

 

skies".If God is not in the sky man will loose faith in Him because it is the mystery which

 

surrounds the concept of the God that keeps man’s interest alive.Similarly Tennyson’s

 

Lotus Eaters think that God from his watch towers is enjoying the tragic,sense of sinking

 

ships and praying hands.Even here the concept of god makes one to realise the futility

 

of man’s arrogance,conceit and misplaced confidence.taking Wordsworth’s words,out of

 

there context,we may say that god is the "anchor of our purest thoughts and the soul of

 

moral being".Fear of death looses its power to shake,zest for life gets newer

 

sharpness,community life becomes more disciplined,desire to move ahead never

 

becomes dull if God is the presiding deity of our thinking and actions.While passing

 

through sorrows and suffering,wails and travails one needs some booster for depressed

 

feelings,some support to lean upon, some pole star guide over the stormy sea and that

 

is God whether concept,myth or reality.

 

Bibliography :

 

G.W.F.Hegel,Stephen Houlgate(Editor) : The Hegel Reader (Blackwell Publishing,1998)

 

Chopra R. : Invention of God, (Cosmos Bookhive,1981)

 

G.W.F.Hegel,E.S.Haldane(Translator) : Lectures on the History of Philosophy (Univ.of Nebraska,1995)

 

G.W.F.Hegel,H.B.Nisbet(Translator),Allen W. Wood(Editor) : Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Cambridge Univ.Press,1991)

 

 

     – DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU

                          P.A.H.S.1

           www.navraj@gmail.com

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