I am a borderline atheist in that way, as is my brother and most of my friends. Why borderline? Because I don’t reject the idea of God. But I reject everything that we think we know about God, if any. Possibly – I don’t reject the idea. And I don’t want to”
“There are some minimum standards that I had that He couldn’t live upto. That’s where I got let down. And none of these were selfish wants. These were for the world.”
“I am open to possibilities.”
“Again. I am good with God. I just think Religion is evil by design… where people are forcefully divided into insiders and outsiders. ”
“I need some explanations from somewhere though. About His apathy to those closest (to Him). About His apathy in general and why He is interested in testing and rules”
So writes a young man to his high school teacher, as an explanation, or maybe, as an excuse, for the listlessness of his young life. And this, differently worded here and there, might be what many a bright young person might say when asked about God.
I am not planning to answer these deep questions in this article, but wanted to try and set up a framework for further discussion. We should “define our terms”. Or in other words, we have to be clear as to what are the things that we have a common understanding on, before we proceed. Otherwise, at the end of the discussion, we might find that, though we are speaking the same language, we are not communicating at all.
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Some of the core “terms” are listed below
Validity of thinking and Reasoning – Is thinking just movements in our brain cells or is it a process by which we can get “a genuine insight into realities beyond” our mind.
Professor J S Haldane expresses it thus: “If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true”
Our discussion should not be, as G K Chesterton puts it, “confused with the horrible heresy that our minds are merely manufactured by accidental conditions and therefore, have not ultimate relation to truth at all…. Nobody can correct anybody’s bias, if all mind is all bias”.
Do we accept, the process of Reasoning, the action for thinking about something in a logical, sensible way, is an objective, universal way of arriving at the truth?
Truth….is that which conforms to Reality. So whenever, we give our opinion and substantiate that with cogent reasons, we are, whether we admit or not, trying to bring out the Truth, the objective reality. Even in the statements given by the young man, he is saying that he has reasons to believe that his explanation is more, nearer to truth, nearer to Reality
Reality – There is an objective reality external to us and that its existence is not directly dependent on us. It might seem frivolous to make such a statement, but there are systems of philosophies which finally conclude that there no eternal reality, and that everything is only in the thinker’s mind. “Matrix’ movie brings this out in an interesting way!
Religion… We have to state as to what we understand by this term, as the topic that we are discussing is somehow related to that.
All Religions has its own world view – an elaborate system of doctrines, explanations and directives, which tries to make sense of the magnificence, tragedy and mystery of the life around us. When we oppose any religion, we usually articulate our opposition by citing that religion’s world view about any reality and then trying to prove that, that particular interpretation is not true.
But why bother about all this at all? Why can’t we just, as John Lennon sang, “Imagine there is no heaven, no religion too?”. The answer is there in the John Lennon’s proposition itself. He is not denying any of the terms that we have agreed but giving his own solution to that. So just like we examine the common propositions and raise objections, we have to consider this one too.
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But on what basis do we judge a world view? All the major religious world view presents its solution to the worlds problems. We can look at the young man’s questions to get some hints as to what are the common issues that are to be considered while formulating a World View.
Element 1 – I… In his outpouring of about 17 sentences, the young man refers to himself in the first person, I, about 11 times.
What is this I? ..made up of a trillion cells, completely irrigated by miles and miles of veins and arteries, wired by endless lines of finely tuned nerves, packed with wonderful organs with functions which I still don’t fully understand,
..who existed, in my childhood, when I did not know myself,
..and will exist, in my old age, even after I have forgotten myself.
Even when I use the world I, I realise that I don’t exactly own which I claim as my own….
For example, I can’t say “My life”, in the sense I own it… I never asked for in the first place, and it can go, even when I want to hold on to it.
–Or “My memory”, which drugs, wine, sodium imbalance and old age can play havoc with.
How do we explain this glorious entity? I?
Element 2 – Reasoning….The young man uses the typical key words of reasoning like “because” “why”. He makes statements and then goes on to say as to why he said that..that is, the Reason for saying that .
Let us be clear about the centrality for Reasoning in our daily existence. We perceive the outside world through Reason. Which is the organ with which I see? Eye.. Hear? Ear…. Smell? Nose…Taste? Tongue…..NO….It is the brain…. The eye, ear, nose and tongue are the receptors….and how do I know that the curry is going to excellent? The nose gives the aroma to the brain, which compares this with previously experienced aromas of delicious curries and gives the verdict that today’s dinner is going to be glorious! Reasoning….
on what basis can we say that our Reasoning is valid?
Element 3– Right and Wrong
Again, the young man, assumes, correctly, that we share a common moral law. Otherwise, he cannot expect us to believe his words when he cogently reasons as to why he feels let down by God.
The young man clarifies that the minimum standards that he expects from God are “selfish wants. These were for the world”. He presumes, rightly, that at selfishness is wrong
All our talk shows are about that. What is right… and in all these discussions and arguments, we assume that all of us will accept what is right when we are given enough reasons….We all nod assent to a common moral law, whether we are atheists or Pentecostals or Sufis or Rishis.
How does our world view explain the prevalence of a common moral law?
Element 4 – Evil… The young man uses this strange word, to describe Religion, and in substantiating that judgement, he gives a plausible explanation of Evil. Something that causes division and exclusion.
The popular movies usually depict a character who is evil, against all known good, who is despicable and we are eager to see the evil destroyed….We perceive this evil when we read about rapes and murders and cruelty to children and animals and we, as a race, abhor that and we abhor people who don’t abhor that
How do we explain the reality of evil? In us and in others?
Element 5 – the External Universe.. Not directly referred to by the young man, but an essential ingredient of any world view
–Watch a sunrise when you are on an early morning flight next time and think of the Sun, which is a million times bigger than the earth, which itself will take 40 hours for a jet plane to circumnavigate
–Hold an about-to-be-hatched egg to your ear, if you ever get a chance, and hear the chick squeak from within
–Bite a raw mango and feel its sourness
–Say a tongue twister and observe your tongue twist
–watch a tiger at the zoo
–Look at your brother, child, mother, father, sister, wife with eyes tuned for wonder, and for once, see them in their splendour
How do we explain the complexity and the splendour of the Universe?
Element 6 – Death … Not mentioned by the young man, but this is one element, along with unexplained suffering which forces us to scream out at the Universe for a rationale..
Death, even when we dress it up, like in the western world, in nice words and satin, is still death. And it is there in the stars and in the grass on the field. The grim reaper, who shadows everything, cuts down everything
What and why, is Death?
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Just to ensure that we don’t waste time on trifles, let us trash some of the common simplistic world view, which does not stand up to scrutiny, in that it does not cover all the questions satisfactorily
Simplistic solution 1 – Nothing is real, all is an illusion…If that is true, how do I know know that? If that is so, then why do I insist that this particular world view is true? How can I use the words like right and wrong if I think that there is no yardstick to measure anything?
Simplistic solution 2 – Why bother about all this? Let everyone do what he feels like doing – Then why do I intutively object when some crackpot on an over speeding bike kill a child on a zebra crossing? Or when someone decides to do away with all these freethinkers? Like Pol Pot and many others did and still do?
Simplistic solution 3 – Everything is chance. There is no meaning in life. “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.” says C S Lewis, an Oxford don, considered by many to be one of the finest minds of recent times.
For the time being, let us leave it here. But, let us be honest with ourselves, by not only just asking the questions but by also taking take time and effort to seek out the answers.
PS – an observant person raised an objection to my quoting of Lewis and Chesterton as they are Christians. But then, Haldane also has to be left out because he also subscribes to a world view.. Atheism. Truly speaking, we should evaluate a statement objectively, ‘on common principles” just like we seek to evaluate everything else, so the persons particular world view should not be an obstacle.
‘’Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. ” ~ C.S. Lewis
My two bits 