Last Musings For 2011: Is There A God?

Truly fascinating how these remarkable link ups to cyberspace and social media would easily present you a group of interesting individuals of different cultures and beliefs. A really thought-provoking night brought me to a thread of discussions about God and his non-existence. As much as I would want to participate in the discussion, having to argue about the existence of a higher presence and religion is a very complex and delicate matter that I dismissed the thought and decided to keep it to myself (well, almost). I am not a psychologist nor a sociologist nor a philosopher nor a cosmologist nor a theologian. I am far from being one because I'm an engineer who just happen to outwardly express her personal opinion about the matter, but I do take interest in the subject and have read quite a number of decent books expressing topics of evolutionism, creationism, Scientology, atheism, pantheism. As far as I've understood the complexity of such subjects, focusing on human evolution, including the development of man's emotional structure, logical reasoning and analytical thinking which later led to the formation of civilization, the invention of religion would likely to happen and it is inevitable. The same thing with the invention of government and political systems through innate human characteristics of leadership. On a macro view, Religion and God are two entities which are bound for singular context. When we say Religion, it is a collection of fundamental set of beliefs passed along every generation and when we refer to beliefs in religion, something or someone is subject for worship. Although the definition of the word varies as it is also subject to evolution. One particular modern-day definition I found that really caught my attention is religion as a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values which is the most accurate definition of what religion is by far based on other definitions I've read. God, on the other hand, is most often conceived of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe and when we talk about God, most of the time our tendency is to ask which God one refers to and then we easily distinguish the individual's religion and provide us an overview of his culture which will make us understand his behavior. However, if we dissect Religion and God, we could personally create or imagine a clearer framework of what these two entities are. This is where the root of all the confusion and misunderstanding lies which formulate the never ending arguments of no conclusion. It is like having 10 people read a book written entirely metaphorical and at the end of the activity asking them what the book is about finding out that every interpretation is diverse. A product mostly of the culture they have acquired and adapted. But imagine this applied to billions of people. Your ideas would seem a speck. But a tiny portion your ideas may seem, every opinion is important. It can only attest the human capability to think for itself without the will of a higher force other than just mere curiosity. And to elaborate on my personal interpretation of the following, I do not solicit further argument, just a way to personify ideas in the form of a blog entry.

Astronomy is the most essential element of the creation of religion. Archaeological evidence of many ancient cultures demonstrates that celestial bodies were the subject of worship during the Stone and Bronze Ages. Amulets and stone walls in northern Europe depict arrangements of stars in constellations that match their historical positions, particularly circumpolar constellations. These date back as early as 30,000–40,000 years ago. Although this is not the oldest evidence of the origins of religion. The earliest evidence of religious thought is based on the ritual treatment of the dead. Most animals display only a casual interest in the dead of their own species. Ritual burial thus represents a significant advancement in human behavior. Ritual burials represent an awareness of life and death and a possible belief in the afterlife. Paleolithic burials date back as early as 100,000 years ago. History about the origins of religion could go on and on. Since I am inclined to an evolutionist view, in my opinion, Religion is the deepest part of man's emotional structure. It is the test of man's passion for his existence and it is also subject to evolution. During the course of man's brain development, the expansion of this growth not only lies within but is shown in traditions, practices, beliefs and culture which mainly led to various transformation of systems may it be political or religious. The same thing with God. When man can no longer find coherent answer to his queries he turns into a presence higher than his own, a force, similar to science with its physical laws. God is the deduced product of logical and analytical thinking at the limits. It is the cognitive dissonance of most people to conclude anything unexplainable a result of mystics concerning God. It is the test of man's ability to evaluate and explore, the test of intelligence and when combined, God and religion, it is the assessment of your spirituality, your entire being the humanness.

Earlier this December, I went down to search for a book I needed to accomplish a small project of mine, creating my own Dobsonian telescope. I have been recently engrossed with night photography that I got the enthusiasm to build my own telescope. An alarming rate of published atheist books actually struck me. Written by the famous Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and many others. Although I do not have anything against the idea of atheism, the apprehension of such is how people, particularly students recognize the points given through explicit statements that have the tendency to affect them psychologically and emotionally. Actually, reading a thread on facebook regarding the non-existence of God is so inculcating, individuals may actually acknowledge. What's even more surprising is the sudden appearance of militant atheists and when I say militant, they shame your beliefs and substitute their own. They attack you with their numerous unpleasant scenarios and how God has not made his presence felt during those times. Certain delicate subjects that a believer would find insulting, simply because insulting one's belief, religion and God is like wounding his entire being, his humanness. This is mainly the reason why I never argue about religion, spirituality and God because at the end of everything, usual result is the non-popular idea always being ostracized. The customary dispute is what science has not proven, does not exist. But Science is nothing more or less than a method of inquiry based on hypothesis testing facilitated by data collection. It is distinct from, though intimately connected to logic and rationality. Notably, the concept of falsifiability is key to this tradition, hypotheses must be stated in such a way that they can be dis-proven with but one antagonistic observation. Science doesn't prove a thing, but that doesn't mean science is useless. What science does is pare away less plausible explanations for any given phenomenon, thereby hopefully leading us closer and closer to the truth about the phenomenon. And yes, Science has not proven the existence of God but it has not dis-proven his existence as well. I know I've claimed that I follow an evolutionist view and Richard Dakwins is an evolutionary biologist but I do not conclude that there is no higher force governing the universe. Every time I look up at the sky and see these sparkling lights above me while I'm trying to capture them nicely, I can't help but think there must be something that made everything I see. I cannot allow that we came from nothing. The beauty this world presents us is inconceivable that I'd like to believe in Spinoza's God.


As a closing remark, arguments about religion, faith, and God is letting ideas free and allowing it evolve into a different breed that could freely swim in the depths of all unanswered questions but still they will remain unanswered...