Why Do We Need to Understand God?

Einstein in his address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939 commented about religion that religion lays down clear fundamental ends and valuations and sets them fast in emotional life of an individual and thus in social life of man. The only justification for these fundamental ends is that they exist in all healthy societies as powerful traditions, and it is not necessary to find justification for their existence.

Further, Einstein in a symposium - Science, Philosophy and Religion at New York 1941 stated:

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind"

"What is still lacking here is a connection of profound generality but not knowledge of order itself"

Our current scientific understanding does not allow us to understand several aspects of nature, universe and human life which include the following amongst other:-

a) Origin and evolution of nature and universe - The most popular Big Bang theory and its deductions leave many questions unanswered such as What is dense matter?, What is the source of dense matter?, How chaos before Big Bang could have led to order after Big Bang?, Whether origin and evolution is a singular or a perpetual act?

b) Origin of survival mechanisms essential for existence of any particle, whether of energy or mass or both. Mandatory conditions for existence of any particle have inherent contradictions among them which need to be resolved to allow the given particle to exist over a period of time.

c) Rational determination of acceptable human conduct.

d) Rational basis of emotional life. Our emotions are protective reflexes that allow us to care not only for ourselves but also others and thus keep our relations to our social milieu in accordance with Sherrington's concept of Projicience i.e. action at a distance.

e) Rational basis of all morals and ethics.

f) Rational basis of Law.

g) Rational basis of all religious principles, practices and to differentiate wheat from chaff.

h) Rational determination of acceptable human conduct, aspirations and judgment.

i) Rational differentiation of right from wrong, fair from unfair and just from unjust.

j) Appreciation of constraints to existence of any particle and mechanisms to circumvent the same.

k) Rational foundations to social sciences.

l) Whether economy should be left to greed and phobias of the state or rich and mighty, or needs to be prudently and pragmatically managed in the interest of social justice.

m) Whatever an individual might think or say or claim, but the unavoidable reality is that any individual survives only in a system. Our current scientific understanding does not allow rational comprehension of ourselves, the system that we live in and our cosmic connections. Therefore, though we all love our freedom, we are unable to appreciate it correctly and instead practice all kinds of aberrant behavior. Therefore we need to understand God to rationally appreciate our freedom and enjoy the same correctly.

n) And others.

If by God, one means connections of profound generality, that must have preceded origin of nature and material universe, are valid across the entire natural hierarchy and are still as active as they must have been in the past, then these connections of profound generality must effectively and perpetually be applicable to various aspects of human life.

One day a priest was narrating as to how a particular disciple is spending tons of money to appease the Gods.

I listened to him for a while and then raised a query "How to find out that the purpose of the disciple was met through his own efforts or by appeasement of Gods?"

This infuriated the priest and he began criticizing me for my beliefs.

In reply I raised another query "Can you tell me in just one word what religion is?"

This drew a blank.

I broke the silence and told him that HARMONY is one word that sums up all religions.

I further explained that all religious principles and practices have their origin in Law of Harmony - intuitively or otherwise. Law of Harmony states that all laws have to be harmoniously construed and as a corollary one must seek greatest harmony in one's dealings with the world at large. This Law of Harmony has its roots in universal instinct to exist and universal instincts are one of the three aspects of God.

Understanding God as the one word symbolizing connections of profound generality is essential because current scientific understanding only provides the means and not the ends to which means are applied and current religious understanding provides the ends but only as Gospel truth which one has to dogmatically follow.

Therefore, to understand God means understanding connections of profound generality and this is essential for our own enlightenment and elevation of consciousness leading to an intelligent, prudent and pragmatic living providing body, mind and soul harmony to the individual on one hand and harmonious relations with the world at large on the other. Therefore understanding God is essential for optimized management of wide and varied aspects of human existence.


Article Source: Mahesh C Jain