Here, I take the liberty to use a conversation I had with my friends, through mails. I am sure they will forgive me for this use of private conversation since my object is to understand the logic behind the concept of God, as we see it.
The conversation began when one of my friends, Ms P, forwarded two photographs to all of us in the group. The first photograph shows the close up of an accident site where two young passengers had a miraculous escape, after their car went over a railing and did many summersaults before landing many feet below from the road. What shocks one is the second photograph. It shows that if the car had moved a bit more it would have fallen 100s of feet down into a precipice and the survival chances would be practically none.
Ms P ends her mail with a question; “If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he believes now?”
To the above question another friend Ms E responded;
“Whether he believes or not, I BELIEVE, though some people may call it just luck....”. She was convinced that it was the God rather than sheer luck that saved the passengers in the car.
I joined the debate with these words: “Dear P, It is neither God nor Luck. It is just physics and the law of motions. If this guy starts believing that it was the God who saved him he will only think the God will save him again and continue to be reckless. But if he realizes that it was a sheer chance that saved him this time, he may be more conscious in his future driving. If it was the God who saved him God could have saved all this trouble in the first place by avoiding this accident at all.
No.., Don't try to tell me this is the way God teaches people for if all these are controlled by God then the way those people turns out in their life is also God's responsibility; I mean the driver's reckless driving is also the responsibility of the God and the driver can wash his hands off from any culpability.
Accidents do happen as reaction to some action. Do not start searching God's hands there. It is an insult to God. It is like the survivors of Tsunami claiming that they were saved by God for it would mean that those who lost their lives were killed by God.”
I was waiting for the rejoinders and Ms S another friend of ours did not disappoint. She immediately replied to P; “Please don’t make a mistake of preaching the Gospel to Lucifer(s). Whatever said and done...I believe in God. There are various circumstances in your life where your wealth, health, knowledge, power, foresight and whatever else does not have any value and we tend to stand helpless despite being whoever we are....This is when you really believe and trust in God...” (when she mentioned the Lucifer(s) it meant me and another friend Mr J, only two male members in the group and it is out of fondness rather than any malice).
While Ms S was trying to get even with me in the debate, she actually stated a universal truth that is applicable to most of the believers. God is the believer’s last resort of hope. When (s)he stand hopeless, as in the case of a sinking person trying to hold on to some grass, s(he) tries to hang on by taking the name of God. In other words the faith in God is similar to the ostrich mentality; to close your eyes and believe all that is happening is planned by the God in advance and God will save you from there. It makes the life easier with no remorse or disappointment. No question asked because it is God’s will.
This kind of thoughts and the blind belief in fate makes the people rather susceptive to all sort of exploitation by so called men of God. The brahminical society in India has suppressed the masses, for ages, by this line of thought. The Christian priests of pre-protestant era England could get money by selling homes in heaven to gullible people in the most organised way. The list of exploitation in the name of God is endless. The believers would just sit back and accept their ‘fate’ without raising any questions.
While I agree that the ‘God’s will’ may have therapeutic value for those who are “standing helpless despite being whoever” they are, it diminishes the will to fight back and change the system. If all the human beings in the history of mankind had accepted all their experiences in this world as God’s will we would not have reached the stage where we are now. It is the willingness of human kind to explore and challenge the known that differentiated us from the animal world.
If an accident takes place, we must see what caused it and try to learn lessons so as not to repeat the same. Instead, if we choose to believe that God made it to happen or God helped us to escape that then we are shirking our individual responsibilities and the result can only be bad.
I have nothing against someone believing in God. What I dislike is the tendency to blame or give credit to God for everything. Instead let us always try our best to achieve what we dream or desire and accept that every dream is not achievable and failures are as much a result of efforts (or lack of it) as the successes are. One must learn to assume responsibility for one's failures or successes.
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