My God

By Aritra Biswas (Alumnus of GWH)

God is a difficult topic to discuss. Why wouldn’t it be? Billions of people’s lives around the world literally revolve around their faith in God. You would think that in the 21st century, where science and technology have wormed itself into every nook and cranny of our existence, that faith in religion would have disappeared, that we would no longer believe in the same explanations of natural phenomena that existed tens of thousands of years ago. But religion is still alive, as alive as it’s ever been. Millions upon millions still flock to their Mosques, Churches and Temples, even scientists, whose very job is to refute the explanations that religion has given.

Then what is it about the idea of God, that makes it so powerful that it resonates with nearly every single individual on the planet. It’s a weird idea really, the fact that every single religion proclaims that their God is the only one, yet hundreds of religions exist and they all point fingers at each other calling each other false. The fact that so many religions exist should be proof enough that no god really exists. But yet we Believe.

And the reason for that is that there are two reasons God exists in society: First, to provide an explanation for natural phenomena; for example, earthquakes, lightning and fire. The second is a more important one: to establish a moral code. This moral code is called many things in different languages, but as a person who has grown up in a Hindu household, I call it Karma. Karma is the belief that peoples actions are repaid by God, bad actions are met with bad luck and good actions are met with good luck. This is a priceless attribute of human society, what sets humans apart from apes, chimpanzees, and every single other living thing on our planet. This moral code, scientists say, that existed before the introduction of a law and order system was what kept human society civilized and allowed us to evolve into the culture we are today.

The existence of a moral code is one of the most important parts of the religions we believe in. Now this moral code, the idea of Karma, is open to interpretation. The interpretation of Karma is where the story of My God begins. Most people believe Karma is controlled by God. That He decides what is right and what is wrong. But I feel that is a flawed interpretation. The idea of right and wrong is individual and varies from person to person. What kind of Karma does an abortion doctor have for example, good or bad? There’s really no way to tell because the idea of right and wrong depends from person to person. Some people feel, that if you, for example, mistreat a beggar, physical harm can befall you. You may be involved in an accident, or you may make a huge financial loss.

My interpretation is different. If you do a bad deed, you may not fall down a ladder, or get a heart attack, or lose money on a stock, but what will happen is that deep inside you, you will feel bad about what you did. The phenomena of our emotional wellbeing being dependent on our actions is something science yet cannot explain, and maybe never will. This is what I call God: the subconscious conscience that each and every one of us possesses. The God I believe in is our desire to do the right thing, to do our best. People believe that God is inside every one of us. I feel so too, just not that God is a supernatural being that inhabits our bodies, but instead that God is our desire to always be the kindest person we can possibly be. To me, God does exist, but he or she is not a supernatural being looking down on us from the clouds and granting our wishes, God is a fundamental part of each and every single one of us.

The stories of how the demon Rahu eats the sun and causes solar eclipses, of how Moses parted the Red sea, of angels and magic and demons, may not exist, as to me they are just outdated ways of explaining natural phenomena, but the core message of religion: to be a constructive member of society, remains steadfast to this day.

Personally, the conflict between science and God has always troubled me. I felt that there should be a way for a person to be able to follow the path to god while still accepting the logical arguments that science gives us. Religion is the cause for many of the worlds current problems, from ethnic cleansing and racism to terrorism, but I feel that the objective of religion is not to cause these problems, but rather as a path to overcome them. My God consists of ideas from different places that I liked and this is solely my personal view, the debate about God has lasted forever, and will never end, but I hope that my views may resonate with some of you that read this.

“One should never do something to others that one would regard as an injury to one's own self. In brief, this is dharma” - Mahabharata

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow” – Babylonian Talmud

“Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith” – Prophet Muhammad

The Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a church that’s architecture is so advanced, that it took nearly 150 years for computers to become advanced enough to handle its architectural complexity. Designed by the genius architect Antoni Gaudí, it is the centre point of the book Origin, by Dan Brown. For me, this is a perfect example of science and religion combining together to produce something beautiful.