Science and God

Faith does not protect you. Medicine and airbags… those are things that protect you. God does not protect you. Intelligence protects you. Enlightenment. Put your faith in something with tangible results. How long has it been since someone walked on water? Modern miracles belong to science… computers, vaccines, space stations… even the divine miracle of creation. Matter from nothing… in a lab. Who needs God? No! Science is God.

A paragraph from Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I am in general impressed by Mr. Brown's skills and I wouldn’t like to write about how brilliant a writer he is or how good the books that he's written are. I've read all of them. I would like to write about something that his first book Angels & Demons deals with. The conflict between Science and Religion/God.

First and foremost these are my personal opinions and I don’t wish to offend any one.

I couldn't keep these thoughts to myself so am blogging about it.I won’t say I'm an atheist. But I won’t say I believe in God either, at least not in its conventional, contemporary form. Now that’s a new concept God's change of form... God does change form not only over the course of time but also from person to person. Every person has his own interpretations. Some believe God will be pleased/happy by bombing the WTC, some believe God will be pleased by fasting/sacrifice.

I rarely visit temples. It’s not because I don’t have faith its just because I believe God as a concept is too vast and too universal to be confined to places of worship. But still the above mentioned passage struck a chord some where. Isn't it true to some extent at least? May be I'm too scientific in my thought, so probably am seeing it that way. But has Science taken over from God? Was God ever in power? Or was God a convenient escape route for all the things that we couldn't explain? Or God was the creation of man? Rather than the other way round?

Since the beginning of time, spirituality and religion have been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven the truth. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask. There are only a few questions left and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?

Nothing around us cant be explained by Science. From the blooming of flowers to the construction of 120-storyed towers! The Internet provides information, knowledge and wisdom(?) like any wise man long ago...

As we all know religions are man-made no exceptions, so are all the religious texts. Then how come the God they talk about in it is Divine. Everything right from the beginning of life can be explained in a Science Lab... But how about circumstances that take place, the so-called good luck or bad luck? Those can also be explained by science! Just that what will happen can’t be predicted by it. Nor can we hope in a lab that something we want should happen.So then this is it! Hope, faith are the elements that make a supreme power necessary... Its required so that people have something as an anchor. It inspires people to do great things. Things that were in their capabilities but they wouldn’t have attempted them or would’ve taken long time to accomplish. Even though religion and beliefs are shaped by where we are born rather than what we actually think and believe as individuals, Faith is universal.

Some pray to one God from one religion, some pray to different Gods in same religion, some become scientists! In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.This is what I believe God is and this is what God means to me. It’s not something that gives me super powers. I don’t thank god for what ever good happens in my life, I guess that's fair because neither do I blame God for anything that goes wrong.

It’s Faith.

The concept of God could’ve been brought up for a variety of reasons, including inducing discipline, fear into man. So that man never thinks that he is the Supreme Being and ends up annihilating himself. Being an anchor for the masses could also have been another reason… But now it’s the whole and sole on which people depend. I am no one to comment if that’s right or wrong.

Look around at all that’s happening. All the things that are/have been going wrong. For some of them Science itself is responsible. Or is it? Will the atomic bomb be the failure of Science or failure of man? Would the airplanes that crashed into the WTC be the failure of Science? Or man? Or worse still, God?

But whenever such points are raised, the argument that God is not at fault in this. It’s the misguided soul… God wants us to learn from our mistakes and so he lets these things take place… Is this true? I find it tough to believe this argument.

God, for me is an idea, it’s like a catalyst in a chemical reaction.

Catalyst is something that aids the rate at which the reaction takes place without affecting the eventual result. In such a case we should give the catalyst it’s due credit, but saying that it was the reason that the reaction took place wouldn’t be right… Would it?

Science provides all the answers, but God provides me the thrust for pursuing those answers. I respect both of them. For me its not a question of Science or God... Its Science and God but more importantly I know what the roles of both those things are in my life!

Cheers!