Forty-Two

She brought him inside.
'Everything is yours. Play with them wisely', so bidding, she left him.
The place was filled with bounty. There were so many objects, that the eye could not see them all in one glance. He started exploring, slowly and steadily.
He found surprises, some nasty some pleasant. He found nourishments. He found objects with which he could fashion tools. He found objects which helped him move faster, horizontally and vertically.
Sometime his interest strayed towards his own body. He found pain. He found blood. He found instruments in the outer world that helped him examine organs in the inner world. He found ways to understand his body. He found ways to understand other species' body.
He could not get enough of the knowledge. But in everything, he felt that he could not achieve complete understanding. He had the feeling there was always an elusive element which was beyond his reach. All he knew that when that element was caught and tamed, he would have found her. But he could not, try as he might.
After a long time, not he but she found him. She had come to take him back.
He was mightily glad to see her. "I had a feeling I'll have all the answers once I saw you. Who are you?", he asked her.
"Mmmmmm", she pondered, "I'm not totally sure, but sometimes I've been referred to as God."

Does God Exist?

The debate over the existence of God has, for a long time, been a continuous and an interesting one. When answering this question, however, it is imperative that we have the knowledge of the subject, that is, God. What exactly is meant by this three-letter word? The connotations that this word brings to the minds of different people are countless.

People who assiduously follow the teachings of their religion believe that God is the Supreme Being, one who has the powers to create, destroy and protect the world and all its elements. Different religions give different shapes to this Supreme Being. For some, God is anthropomorphic. For some, God takes the shape of a tree, or a stone. Some others believe that God has no shape. But they’re all unanimous on the point that God is the one responsible for all creations. And by long practice, generally God is given the pronoun of ‘He’.

The believers contend that God is the reason behind all existence. Their argument is that for every creation there must be a reason, there must be a source, there must be a prototype. And these are provided by none other than God. God is the reason that Earth is round. He is the reason that leaves are green. A very high intelligence is needed to create something as complex as a human brain. This high intelligence is attributed to none other than God. An extremely high intelligence is needed to create zillions of different kinds of species, plants, minerals, elements and all that goes into creating the Earth as we know it. Only God, they say, is capable of such a feat.

Physicists attribute the reason for Earth’s shape to Gravity. Botanists attribute to pigments and chlorophyll and light reflection, the reason that leaves are green. And evolution is how humans are created, assert scientists.

While the believers may say that God is the reason for Gravity, the non-believers on the other hand, choose to believe that the reason stops with Gravity and does not go beyond that - to God. Such a debate is endless. But one underlying factor is common to both the sides – it is the existence of power or energy that is beyond human. An example of this power in this case can be Gravity. What atheists call Gravity, the religious lot call God.

The believers choose to attach a shape to this power. The shape enables them to visualize their Supreme Being. An invisible Supreme Being is in many cases unsettling and inadequate. When they want to worship their Supreme Being but know not what or where to worship, it creates confusion in their minds. A tangible image is reassuring to them. They are now clear what to worship. Their religion teaches them how to worship this image. They follow the path set to them by their elders. The vague inquietude arising from their daily interactions with others is dispelled when they worship this Supreme Being.

There are some other believers who do not attach any shape to their God, but have the ability of seeing their God in all images they behold. They do not need a place of worship or a shape to worship. They see God in their minds. They are well content worshipping God in places of their own choice and images of their own preference. They achieve the inner peace and quiet in their own methods of worship.

God, for every one of the believers, is a being who has the power and the benevolence to soothe a disturbed mind, to ease the pain, to help them learn kindness and to live in peace and goodwill. God is the feeling of happiness and peace instilled in them. This feeling arises for them when they worship their images of God. For the non-believers, this feeling arises when they are doing something they’re most passionate about, something that they love doing, something that gives them extreme pleasure. Like when they hear music or when they see beautiful sights of nature or when they’re helping another human to live.

The feelings evoked in the minds of humans when they think about this Supreme Being or a Supreme Power is the same for both the believers and the non-believers. An extreme feeling of happiness, a joy in being alive and thankfulness for the experience.

While the non-believers do not attach any name for this power, the believers choose to call the power as God.
As uttered by Shakespeare’s Juliet,

….that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

The same holds good for God too. The power is the same. The only difference is in what people call it. God does exist, in the minds of people.