1. This is not a work of fiction or a humorous post, so people who have come to laugh their asses out, shoo...
2. I intend to hurt many religious sentiments. So if you are a religious fanatic, shoo...
3. This is an objective take on God and Religion. It may or may not be my take on these matters. So anyone who wants to ask me my view on religion, shoo...
Cool!! So I am absolved of any sins due to blasphemy that I may incur. Now, lets get down to business.
THE BIG BANG: The beginning of it all
This is the most widely accepted theory about the start of the universe. The Universe started one fine day, some 13.7 billion years ago. That is considered to be the start of of time. Before that, all that we see was a gravitational singularity, which had infinite density and temperature.Space time curvature at this point of time was infinite. That means anything that happened before the big bang is inconsequential and has got no meaning in today's world. This is a smackdown on the theories about the seven days of genesis or the day and night of Brahma ( though the duration of day and night calculated by the Hindus, 8.4 billion years, comes quite close to the accepted age of the universe).
Now some may argue that the Big Bang, in fact, accentuates the presence of a being who created the bang in the first place. After all the universe came out from a state of "nothingness" or creation ex nihilo. Well, I am game for all such explanations. Are you?
EVOLUTION : The earth gets lively
When the Milky Way (the galaxy our sun is in) was thrown away from the centre of the Big Bang, a tiny planet orbiting a medium sized star in the inner rim of the Orion Arm, between the larger Perseus and Sagittarius arms of the galaxy started to cool down. This third planet of this star was somehow at the perfect place, with the perfect materials required for the start of life form (or what we consider to be life).
To quote the wikipedia:
Highly energetic chemistry is believed to have produced a self-replicating molecule around 4 billion years ago, and half a billion years later the last common ancestor of all lifecame into being. The The development of photosynthesis allowed the Sun's energy to be harvested directly by life forms; the resultant oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere and formed in a layer of ozone (a form of molecular oxygen [O3]) in the upper atmosphere.
The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells called eukaryotes. True multicellular organisms formed as cells within colonies became increasingly specialized. Aided by the absorption of harmful ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer, life colonized the surface of Earth.
If we notice through all these, we never see a hand of God creating a being or even prodding it to the next level of evolution. The life forms started growing due to a freak chemical synthesis. If we take into consideration the probabilities, its very natural that we are here. In billions of billions of stars, if one planet has got an intelligent life form, then its just chance.
THEOLOGY : When man decided to take all into his hands
When the early (wo)man walked on the earth, and looked up at the sky he was bewildered. When he faced the natural calamities, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, storms, he was terrified. When he saw the birth of a new child, the growth of a tree, various shaped creatures, he was mystified. There was only one question in his mind : who did all these?
He decided to put an end to all his inquisitiveness and pull out a new rabbit from the empty hat : GOD.
All that was unfathomable, due to the primitive understanding of the world around us, was attributed to the act of God. God also started coming in different shapes and sizes. There was a God for Lightning, a God for the furious seas, a God for the mighty mountains, a God for the big trees, a God for the deadly animals, a God for life and a God even for death. And all these Gods wanted sacrifice from the humans. This was the height of pagan worship.
Then came men who wanted to put a method to these madness. Budhdha, Christ, Prophet Mohammad, to name a few were guys who wanted to show the humanity that the real God is within them. They believed that we need to give up our barbarism and work for the common good of mankind.
But then some greedy men overtook their beliefs, added some myths here and there and 'Godified' them. After all religion is a big business. Heck, the Church is the biggest landlord of us all.
Religious history is full of people who started as normal human beings and worked for the love of the mankind but then were mystified and cut out to be saints. The nearest example I can think of is Sai baba. Go figure out your own examples.
Note : All the blogs I have ever read has got a post or two about God. Now that I consider myself to be the greatest blogger of all **smirk** how can I be left behind.
10 Comments:
u managed to put quite some info in a comparatively small post (keeping in mind peope have terabytes of sites goin 24*7 on this issue) ...ex nihilo u speak of is the one i am most interested in its too hard to even imagine nothingness
@Naveen
Srishti se pehle Kuch nahin thaa
sat bhi nahin, asat bhi nahin
Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhee nahin thaa.
Chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhaka thaa?
Us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa.
Remember this? Used to be played with the opening credits of "Bharat Ek Khoj".
Guess I was only 7or 8 when I first heard it. Dunno if I remember all the words correctly, but this is what I have always wondered about. Ever since I heard them.
You remember the words just fine ... most of the times we imagine a singularity in an endless space ..but the amazing thing is that there was no space also .. only pure "nothing" its something quite enchanting actually
The part where u say about man wanting to put his doubts to rest by talking about God is true, perhaps.
But here's the thing. The 'guy' Prophet Mohammed claimed to have got a holy book from your so called non existent God. And in that Holy Book, were quite a few interesting things. Such as the fact that in the places where two different seas meet, there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity, and density. For example, Mediterranean sea water is warm, saline, and less dense, compared to Atlantic ocean water.
Now this scientific fact was discovered in the 20th Century.
Problem here is....how could this be described in a Holy Text that was revealed in the 7th Century?
Especially, if, as you so eloquently said, there is NO God.
Perhaps Prophet Mohammed was just Super Smart. Though he was an illiterate, and lived in the middle of the desert.
There's are many reasons why less than 3% of the people in the world are Atheists. What I've quoted...is just one of them.
i believe each and everything that u have put forward in this excellent post.....but still I am a theist since as u said there are things that I need explanations for and invention of God seems to be a very safe option i front of me.....
btw have u read my second last post
Who is God??
hmm another "god" post :P have been reading a plenty of them these days.. but that was a very short post and had a good explanation too.. I am a theist but I believe in big bang. I believe that there is some unknown power (you may or may not call it god).. other than that, I have no clue.. neither agree nor disagree..
I had written a similar post on evolution earlier here
@Mustafa
I have not read the Qur'an. So I will refrain from commenting on what the Prophet said about the barriers between different seas. Thouhg I am sure there must be some reason behind these prophesies.
@RSV
And it is the same for all of us. To invent an unknown external force is always easier than to reason out.
@evanescentthoughts
Welcome to the club! :)
I think the idea is to have a healthy discussion without any prejudices or offense to any person or religion.All due respect.
With that disclaimer here's my micro bit atom thought :
An advanced civilization sends it's project managers to genetically engineer a new species.They reach a dead end at Australopithecines.
They went back - re-engineering further, they introduced Homo Erectus. Set it in motion.
They watched over us from time to time sending various Project Managers to guide us every time we went wrong, or sometimes simply show us the right way.
Subsequently books were written about their preaching,teaching and miracles.
Subsequently there were followers.
the A.I. project is been running for a long time, and perhaps will reset it self. Typically when the system slows down.It's time to reboot.
Some of books written earlier share the same ending or the new beginning as the case maybe.
See it makes sense?
@Gyanban
Hmmm.... exciting proposition. Quite Matrixy (if I may). But still I would like to believe we are not mere experimental species. Makes life a hell lot easier for me. :)
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