Reason and Belief in God

October 30, 2020.

• Whatever we have a been living with becomes normal to us. Whatever violates common sense and experience and seems impossible, becomes a limitation on us. This sense of possible and impossible takes the form of a law.

• All laws of physics and logic of mathematics are formulations of our own experiences – our possibilities and our limitations, as perceived by us.

• These laws are true so long as we are bound and unaware of our boundaries. For example, a) 2+2=4, is true so long as the law of conservation of mass holds, and b) Newton’s law of gravitation was true, so long we were moving slow.

• These laws are nothing but our own creation. Down the line we lose the sight of this relationship - we forget that we are the creators of our laws and start thinking that the laws are supreme and govern us.

• A belief that this world is a machine and follows certain fixed laws, is a belief. It is quite possible that someday these laws may change – who has seen the future?

• A belief that Sun would rise in the east because it has been doing so for ages, is a belief. Someday earth may change its rotation - why not?

• Whatever law is working today will continue to work same tomorrow, is a projection – all projections and inferences are beliefs.

• Disbelief in God is of our own creation - there is no law or logic which denies the existence of God. Those who do not believe in the magic do not believe in God and those who believe in the magic believe in God. For God is nothing but a ‘Magic’ which transcends all laws (i.e. our limitations).

• In reality, everything is a wonder – creation of the world, the evolution of life, the evolution of mind, the law of gravitation, etc. all are a wonder – there is no reason for them to be there except by a miracle. There is no law which says gravitation shall be there; there is no law which says that energy and mass shall be interconvertible.

• You may believe in science or in the laws of nature, if that suits you. On the contrary, you may believe in magic, if it suits you. Either way, it is a belief.

• Science neither denies nor affirms God – it only puts the human experiences in mathematical formulations.

• Finally, whether you believe in God or you do not believe in God, is your Choice. Both are beliefs - there is no science, nor any logic in it. Don't fall into the self-gratifying illusion that being an atheist is being rational. 

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October 30, 2020. Excerpts of the discussion on this issue, between 'X' and 'I' elsewhere: 

X: I am an atheist based on arguments for or against the existence of God.

I: As if arguments are complete in themselves. If you look dispassionately, all arguments are based on faith.

X: Based on evidence and logic, neither is faith.

I:  2+2=4 is faith. I hope this makes sense.

X: No it doesn't. How is mathematical logic, faith?

I: Wrote the above Blog.
X: Fair enough. There is no scientific proof of non-existence of God. But this is similar to Bertrand Russell's teapot, small invisible in orbit between Earth and Mars around the Sun. If you do not believe it is there, the burden of non-existence proof is on you.
I prefer the scale formulated by Richard Dawkins 1 being a believer and 7 being an atheist. I am about 6. There is an utter lack of evidence. Hence, it is not faith, but a lack of evidence that suggests that the probability of God's existence is very low. I rest my case.
I: "If you do not believe it is there, the burden of non-existence proof is on you." No, it is your problem - if you want to prove God is not there - it is your problem; if nobody has been able to prove the non-existence of God, you must prove it, because you want proof. But if you want to believe God is not there, it is perfectly fine, - you are free to believe whatever you want to.

"Richard Dawkins 1 being a believer and 7 being an atheist. I am about 6." Wherever you are on this scale - it is your belief. What I am saying that you can't escape believing - even science is a belief. I am not arguing for or against the existence of God, I am simply saying wherever you place yourself, it is a belief. so both believer and non-believer are on the same footing.

 

Opinions, Conflicts, Ego, and the Real ‘I’

 (A letter to IITD-82 Bachelors – a WhatsApp Group)

 Let us Disrobe Ourselves and find the Real Self

This write-up refers to a post in response to X’s on this forum suggesting that we should not post controversial messages on this forum.

Pardon me, I differ: Do we really want to limit this group to jokes and memories of hostel days? If we do so, will any vitality and purpose be left in the group?

Our environment has changed - we need to change: Almost all that we liked during IIT days is no longer relevant to us now. Even the warmth we feel when we meet now is short-lived. I have seen those meetings – they are full of joy for a while, but the joyous moments do not last for long. We have all changed with time; our tastes, preferences, and constraints have changed. Therefore, we need to change our ways – old ways and old memories no longer have the same attraction and thrill.

Virtual groups are large and diverse, and we have grown old, stiff, and wise. Therefore, ego clashes are natural: In pre-social-media days at IIT, our groups were small, and we had the choice of choosing and changing our friends. Moreover, we were still in the learning process. Therefore, the conflicts were less, and we could go along well within a small group. But things have changed now. Our social group is large and diverse - it encompasses all – even those who differ and contradict. Moreover, we have grown old and wise - there is hardly anything left to learn or worth learning. Therefore, ego clashes on the Whatsapp group are but natural.

We are different and limited – there is still much to learn: Instead of blocking the irritant and sleeping comfortably in our cocoons, we need to learn, change, and grow with time, for - 

a)     Our knowledge and experiences are limited, both in time and space. 

b)     Our friends, social groups, books, and other sources of information are limited. 

c)     Our ideals, goals, preferences, and concerns are different. 

d)     Our heritage - religion, language, and caste etc are different.  

Thus, our perceptions, conclusions, and opinions are spontaneously different. Knowing that we are all limited and different, we must continue to remind ourselves that perhaps I do not know the Truth, perhaps my idea is not the supreme. Or it is enough, it is all – we have reached the peak.

If there are higher peaks, we need to follow some rules: If we are aware of our limitations, this group can be quite beneficial to us for we can learn from others what escaped our attention. But for that, we must follow a few rules. 

a)     We shall not presume that one who is opposing our views is casting aspersions on us. He is simply putting his views on the table. We can accept or reject his views. 

b)     When somebody shares his views, we need not condemn it, outcast it or drown it. We can accept or reject his views. 

Perhaps, we have noted that any conversation has many ingredients – information, analysis, opinion, and an effort to dominate or justify oneself. All this is mixed and rides in involuntarily on our words. We need to be vigilant – we can enrich ourselves with the information, learn from the logic and ignore the opinion and the ego content.

Thus, if we do not take things personally, avoid being touchy, and keep our emotions under check, we can avoid conflicts. In turn, we can learn much from the opposite and annoying that we had missed or not accounted for.  

Let us not wear a blind: What ‘X’ shared might have hurt some, but I think what he did was right. It was an eye-opener, at least for me – I came to know of a harsh reality which I did not know before - of course, I had to contain my emotions to view the video; nevertheless, it was informative. It is for us to accept or reject what is shared – but to stop anyone from sharing his views – I think it is to imprison oneself. 

Share with an equanimous mind: But how should one, who is sharing anything, operate – he should do so with an equanimous mind and simply share his experience and knowledge without condemning or opposing anyone else's views, without a sense of superiority for all that we know is incomplete and imperfect.

Can we go back to ragging days and disrobe ourselves - we will find the Real ‘I’: Beyond this exchange of information and opinions, there is something more fundamental that we must not forget – i.e. we are different from our opinions. This is one basic fact which we always tend to forget, and it is the major cause of all conflicts. 

a)     We were neither born with a view nor we will die with the view we possess now. 

b)  We picked up the view we have now in the course of life, we are changing even now, albeit unknowingly, and we will continue to change in future. This is what life is – ever-changing, ever-growing. The moment we stop changing, we die. Then why are we stuck up with any view?

Once you know that you are different from your opinion, you will find that behind the change and growth there is something that remains fixed - that is the awareness of oneself – the Real ‘I’.

Love thy opponent: The day we understand that we are different from our opinions, the problem of conflicts of opinions will be automatically resolved. No more we will associate our opinions with our real ‘I’. No more we would hear the undertone of ‘holier than thou’ or ‘brighter than thou’. Instead, I would love my opponent for he gave me a chance to unrobe, enlarge, and move nearer to Real ‘I’.

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