Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Aug 30, 2013
India
Aug 30, 2013
The
majority of us will die fighting a losing battle against aging,
struggling against the inevitable advance of disease and perhaps
disability. Finally and inevitably many of us will die - suffering. If
God exists and God made the world, why did he make it so full of
suffering? If God does not exist then we are locked without hope in a
world filled with gratuitous and unredeemed suffering, and there is no
hope for deliverance from evil. If God does not exist, life is
ultimately meaningless. And ultimately all of mankind is doomed to
perish in the death of the Universe. Not believing in God is thus a
philosophy without hope.
Does
God exist? This ‘controversy’ was raked up by legendary theoretical
physicist Stephen Hawking, in his book The Grand Design. “God did not
create the Universe, and the ‘Big Bang’ was an inevitable consequence of
the laws of physics. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is
something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist,”
he says. The concept he talks about, which he has named as ‘M-theory’,
makes the ‘Creator of the Universe’ redundant. Evidence has been found
that the Universe had an absolute beginning about 13 billion years ago,
in a cataclysmic event known as the Big Bang. The Big Bang represents
the origin of the universe from literally nothing; all matter and
energy, even physical space and time, came into being at the Big Bang.
There
are scientists who believe that this Universe is infinite and eternal.
However, if the universe is infinite, it means it never had a beginning.
David Hilbert, perhaps the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century,
states that the infinite is nowhere to be found in reality; it neither
exists in nature nor provides a legitimate basis for rational thought.
Infinity is just an idea in our minds, not something that exists in
reality. Since past events are not just ideas, but are real, the number
of past events must be finite. Therefore, the universe must have begun,
at some time, for it to exist today. The proponents of this thought
have therefore been forced to adopt the hypothesis that there exist an
infinite number of randomly-ordered universes, composing a sort of World
Ensemble, of which our universe is but a part. During the last 40
years, scientists have discovered that the existence of intelligent life
depends upon a complex and delicate balance of initial conditions that
were present at the Big Bang. Earlier, scientists had believed that
whatever the initial conditions of the universe, intelligent life had
evolved.
Even
if God does not exist, the rational thing to do is to believe in Him.
It is irrational to prefer death, futility and despair over hope,
meaningfulness and happiness. Even atheist philosophers like Sartre,
who has thought very seriously about this problem, admit that the
existence of God has great significance for man. We may or may not
believe in God – or whether he exists – but there is no denying human
suffering, and there is no one to blame for it. There is no escape from
it, though we do try our best to do so. Self-mortification, being hard
on oneself, also does not work. Enlightenment comes when we start facing
the realities of life as they come our way. Let us not rely on an
external or an internal God. It is more important to be enlightened than
to be a religious practitioner. Do not be selfish by exhibiting that
you are close to Him; drop that dissipative selfishness. On the other
hand, do not wear yourself out by feeling guilty that you are not
pursuing daily religious rituals. Instead, start doing something more
positive in your life. Begin with facing your own despair. You will
enter a wholesome, constructive, positive and satisfying way of life -
when you will stop feeling frustrated about what you cannot do anything
about, and start doing whatever you can do something about.
Dr. Rajesh Bhola
is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause
of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and
multiple disabilities for more than 20 years
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