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DOES GOD REALLY EXIST? I was reading an excellent article just a few days back about God and God’s existence or one can say about somebody who we like to call “The Almighty”. The article appeared in , everystudent.com by Marilyn Adamson on 17th of March 2009. We have now started questioning about HIS very existence. How prudish on our part. I would take my readers to one of my small articles in scribd.com titled “are mortals more powerful than god? ” Where I have written about a dialogue that had appeared in the film Jurassic Park. The dialogue goes like this,” God created Dinosaur, God created man, God destroyed dinosaur and man created dinosaur” This really echoes our attitude towards God and his very existence, because here we have started playing GOD. Therefore at the end of everything that we do, have done, we do come up with this question time and again, does God Really Exist? Do we really want an objective answer to this question? Here are some important and interesting observations that can set one’s mind ticking. Discoveries in astronomy have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the universe did, in fact, have a beginning. There was a single moment of creation. Advances in molecular biology have revealed vast amounts of information encoded in each and every living cell, and molecular biologists have discovered thousands upon thousands of exquisitely designed machines at the molecular level. Information requires intelligence and design requires a designer. Biochemists and mathematicians have calculated the odds against life arising from non-life naturally via unintelligent processes. The odds are astronomical. In fact, scientists aren't even sure if life could have evolved naturally via unintelligent processes. If life did not arise by chance, how did it arise? The universe is ordered by natural laws. Where did these laws come from and what purpose do they serve? Philosophers agree that a transcendent Law Giver is the only plausible explanation for an objective moral standard. So, ask yourself if you believe in right and wrong and then ask yourself why. Who gave you your conscience? Why does it exist? People of every race, creed, color, and culture, both men and women, young and old, wise and foolish, from the educated to the ignorant, claim to have personally experienced something of the supernatural. So what are we supposed to do with these prodigious accounts of divine healing, prophetic revelation, answered prayer, and other miraculous phenomena? Ignorance and imagination may have played a part to be sure, but is there something more? If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalized or explained away. It is like if someone refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon, and then no amount of information is going to change their thinking. Photographs of astronauts walking on the moon, interviews with the astronauts, moon rocks...all the evidence would be worthless, because the person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon. Similarly one has to think about these with a non prejudiced mind set. Again let us think or rather ask ourselves some other pertinent questions. The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter.3 Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life. The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. If the earth would have been a little closer, than its present position, to sun the corresponding heat would not have allowed life to form. If the earth was a little farther away from its present position then the cold would not have allowed life to form. A designer is required to design this perfect place with all the perfect calculations and all the perfect peripherals like the moon which we call the EARTH. Water...colorless, odorless and without taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water). You'll see why the characteristics of water are uniquely suited to life: It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing point. Water allows us to live in an environment of fluctuating temperature changes, while keeping our bodies a steady 98.6 degrees. Water has a unique surface tension. Water in plants can therefore flow upward against gravity, bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top of even the tallest trees. Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter. An intelligent and extremely deft chemist was at work when water was made out of 2molecules of oxygen and 1 molecule of hydrogen. There is an imprint or one can say a finger print of intelligence. Shall we call that as GOD? The human brain...simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes in all the colors and objects you see , the temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor, the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of your keyboard. Your brain holds and processes all your emotions, thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands. Think of the entire human body or that of any multi cellular organism or a unicellular organism and think of the precision that these machines are working with. These machines have the capacity to rectify itself, to correct itself. A very intelligent designer and a sculptor was at work. Shall we call that as GOD? The first of six Vedic philosophical systems, Nyaya (logic), offers three proofs of the existence of God: 1. existence of order in nature and man (teleological argument) It establishes intelligent design but it is not clear how many beings were involved in creating the order and if they were supreme or not. 2. existence of different conditions for different living beings (different karma of individuals must come from higher intelligence) This argument is used for example by King Prthu in SB 4.21.27: "My dear respectable ladies and gentlemen, according to the authoritative statements of sastra, there must be a supreme authority who is able to award the respective benefits of our present activities. Otherwise, why should there be persons who are unusually beautiful and powerful both in this life and in the life after death?" 3. existence of revealed scriptures which basically speak about the same topics and one God The scriptures say that the existence of God can be inferred neither from sense perception (pratyaksa) nor from logic (anumana) but it can be understood from the revealed scriptures (sabda): "Supreme Truth is neither established nor refuted by logical argument." (Vedanta-sutra 2.1.11 paraphrased) Vedanta-sutra refutes various atheistic and semi-theistic philosophies and establishes the supremacy of Brahman. Brahman is understood either as impersonal brahmajyoti in schools of Advaita Vedanta, person Bhagavan Visnu/Krsna in Dvaita Vedanta, or both in Acintya-bhedabheda-tattva philosophy of Gaudiya Vaisnava Vedanta. Vedanta-sutra also mentions teleological argument: "Within the effect (world) the cause (Brahman) can be seen just as cobweb makes one [intelligent person] think of a spider." (Vedanta-sutra 2.2.15 paraphrased) Also according to Vedanta-sutra 2.2.1,2,8 matter cannot cause creation because it cannot be shown how and why the passive dead matter started to act. The real evidence is however present on the countless pages of Vedic scriptures. For Hindus God, as is, is beyond any attributes of form, color, shapes ... That is, God does not have any specific form or name. In this state God is referred to as nirguNa brahman (attributeless god). However God takes forms as perceived by humans and this perceived form is called saguNa brahman (god with (good) attributes). These forms could range from calm to fierce to yogic God is the Almighty and Supreme. So how can there be anything good or bad against It? If the good things are the creation of God and bad things of some other evil force, will the gravitational force of the earth be attributed to God or the other force, as it is vital good element for us to live at the same time kills somebody who falls down from a high-rise building! In the system made by God, normally one gets to enjoy the good or bad things based on what have been their inclinations and the actions they made because of that. (This is called karma). There is no evil (satan type) against God. In fact atharva veda puts it very clearly, "na dvitIyo na tR^itIyashchaturtho napyuchyate na pa.nchamo na shashth saptamo napyuchyate nashTamo na navamo dashamo napyuchyate ya etam devamekavR^itam veda" There is none second to It, neither third not even fourth. There is none fifth to It, neither sixth not even seventh. There is none eighth to It, neither ninth not even tenth. It is the only Supreme. This is to be known. Hinduism says, God is not just a He. It is beyond the created contours of gender. For this reason the scriptures very often use the term "It" to refer to God apart from using He and She. Especially when it comes to the Supreme in the natural state (Formless, Attributeless), they prefer It to He or She. The form of Lord ardhanarishvara(3) clearly conveys that God is masculine, feminine and neuter. When the God is called the Lord of all creatures, It is the God irrespective of the gender, animal race, or whatever other differentiation one could think of. God is understood not only postulated. The beauty of Hinduism is that the concept of God is tried to be understood, experienced. There are puranas that elaborately tell through the voice of the divines the glory of God. These are one part. On the other hand the scriptures like Upanishads analyze through questioning and reasoning the concept of God. These two types go very much hand in hand. Neither the divine glory limited to the reaches of the human mind with the puranas like scriptures telling the things beyond the normal human reach. At the same time they do not command a blind following of some super-human texts, but also very much permit analysis. I am not writing about Hinduism here I am just talking about God and his existence as seen in the Hindu texts and scripture. All of us, all over the world, do agree in one count that there is some power that keeps everything, that controls life, in control, in check and in tip top working condition. When the astronauts do their routine space walk they come across the most spellbinding site that any human can see. They see the very blue planet, a huge ball of blue and white, right in front of them and they probably say to each other “that’s where we all live, that’s where all the life is, simple and complex”. It is only they who have realized how precious the earth is and how enormous the forces are that keep this giant galaxy working in clockwork precision. They have realized that there is God. A Muslim will say there is Allah, a Hindu will say there is bhagawan, a Christian will say there is Jesus, but all are basically talking of the same power that these astronauts have experienced as THE GOD.
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