My take on GOD (No, Not Sachin. God as defined in the dictionary)

For the past few years, I have been examining my idea of religion, belief and God. I should begin with the disclaimer that I have not read any of the religious scriptures before forming my opinions about theism/atheism/agnosticism. Whatever belief I have, is thus the result of discussions and the subsequent reflections. The interesting thing about this quest is that my beliefs have constantly been challenged and thus have been constantly changing. Let me try to answer a few questions to give everyone a glimpse of what I believe in:

Do I believe in God? Yes, I believe that there is a supreme power who acted as the trigger, just the trigger OR the master-designer who crafted each detail – one of these two. The world is so beautiful, the design so brilliant, the scheme so flawless that I find it hard to believe that it all happened without a supreme power.

Do I believe in prayer? I don’t believe in making wishes during prayer. The beauty of the design lies in its ability to evolve. In my opinion, if the supreme power interferes with what is happening in the universe by responding to the prayers of individuals, it would amount to disturbing the delicate yet beautiful design. Also, God, being supreme, is not expected to stoop so low that He will respond to/help only those who fall at his feet. If it is actually true that he ‘helps’ only those who pray to him (by responding to their prayers), He is no better than Indian politicians like Mayawati or Jayalalithaa who want minions to fall at their feet for their wishes to be granted. Given the fact that I hold God in high esteem (by considering Him to be supreme) I don’t believe that he’ll resort to such irresponsible favouritism :P

Random or by design? The question that has been plaguing me lately. Having eliminated the possibility that the supreme power would interfere with whatever is happening, I am left with two options :

1. Everything that happens is random and God’s only role was to act as the trigger and design a system that can evolve and handle itself: Even the supreme power does not know what’s about to happen the next moment.

2. Everything that happens in the universe is pre-determined: fate or destiny – whatever you call it. We, the actors play by the script – just that we don’t know what the script is.

I was quite convinced that it is ‘1’ that is valid, for quite some time until I was challenged with certain things: Stories of how some astrologers could predict the future of some people or tell about the past with such precision, stories of people who have seen spectacular rise (or fall), legends like Sachin Tendulkar confessing that they believe in destiny (when people asked him when his 50^th test century would come), geniuses like A.R.Rahman confessing that he owes his success to God (on the Oscar stage when he said ‘Ellaapugazhum Iravainukkae’ and on many other occasions). It makes me wonder whether these people were destined for greatness. It is possible to explain that it is just probability that a bus conductor became RajiniKanth but what is the probability that an astrologer can correctly ‘guess’ one’s past or future?

I came to know about an incident in Albert Einstein’s life. When his dad (who was quite sure that there is no God) argued that everything that happens is just random and nothing but probability can explain it, Albert Einstein did something to prove him wrong: he painted a wonderful portrait and kept it at a place where his father could see. His father saw that and asked Einstein as to who drew it, for which he replied no one made it, it just happened randomly. I found this anecdote extremely intriguing and deeply thought-provoking. You take a sheet of paper, and randomly throw colours on it. Technically speaking, the probability that we’ll get a nice portrait is not 0. But do you think it is reasonable to expect a wonderful portrait? I am tempted to liken the design of this universe (with all the beautiful mountains, oceans, seas, life and more than anything humans who can think) to a beautiful portrait. Thus I find it hard to think that everything that happens is random. I am tempted to believe that everything is pre-determined – just that we do not know what destiny has in store for us.