Monday, September 17, 2012

God is great!


God is truly great! How else can I explain the coincidence!
I was in a mood to write something, make a post of it in my blog space, and bother my friends with it. However, my mind was on strike. I was feeling extremely low, lower than a slithering snake’s belly. It was then God opened up the gates of heaven for me! The following, taken from the September 15, 2012 issue of The Economist, is the opportunity.

It was nearly 25 years ago I came upon philosopher David Hume’s argument that one cannot prove the existence of anything. Well, I am not going to reprise the argument here; for one thing, I do not recall the exact steps that lead to that conclusion. This is not a big problem though, as I have the book that explains it quite nicely. But, I would not want to take that trouble.
Suffice it to say that ever since I heard that argument, I have never – repeat, NEVER – argued that God does not exist. I have merely claimed that I do not find any utility in carrying that burden of belief. I have repeatedly said that God is irrelevant to me. Though I knew that my position cannot but be common amongst rationalists, it appears that I had not done a serious enough search to put a name to that line of thought.
God intervened. He made someone named Dave Dumin write a letter to the editor of the newspaper and also made that editor choose to publish that letter. Then God made sure I read that letter.
All for what? For me to learn that there is a philosophical position called “irrelevantism”! As Dumin says, “I can’t imagine how belief or unbelief in a god will make any difference in my life.”
I say, AMEN to that.
“It really is possible to try to be good without the aid of an organized religion or belief in the supernatural,” Dumin says. I cannot but shout from the roof tops, YES! YES!! And YES!!!
Three times, just like Peter denied that he ever knew Jesus!
The implied challenge is to answer whether with religion one can even try to be good, Think on that. Isn’t religion like the song of Sirens?
Today I found a kindred spirit in Dave Dumin. Thank God for that!
And, there is another letter, this one by someone named Peter Price. He wants to ask a question to seekers of solace (and wealth too!) in religion whether they “subscribe to metaphysics, superstition, bigotry, or dogmatism?” He asserts, without substantiation, that these religious people will answer in the negative. I think he is right.
However, I will even dilute the position of the religious – even if they do not deny that they follow or believe in these things, “the prevalent aspects of most religions,” they will hedge (Antony Flew’s celebrated essay, Theology and falsification is a fine treatise on this hedging). Religion does not allow you to be honest with yourself while preaching that one has to be honest with others!
God gave me these two opportunities not to claim that He does not exist, but only to say, ever so softly but firmly that he is irrelevant to me – “Irrelevantism”.
God is great, because even as He is irrelevant He is useful!
My blue mood; my sterile mind; God’s interventions; letters on atheism in The Economist; my reading them; my mind snapping to attention; my scribbles and a post; a rejuvenated Raghuram – a whole series of coincidences, is it not? Who made it happen? God, of course. Is there any other explanation?
YES! YES!! YES!!!
COINCIDENCE!
Is that any explanation? Yes it is, if religion is any explanation for anything at all.
Sorry God, I took your help only to undermine you even if you existed. I am a snake in the grass. Please pray to yourself for me!
Raghuram Ekambaram

6 comments:

Tomichan Matheikal said...

Whether you like it or not, Raghuram, religion is here to stay. I'm sure you are very much aware (too much, probably) of the renewed life that religions have found in the last couple of decades. I have been itching to write about it for a few days; couldn't find the time yet.

I think what really matters to religions is not the god-issue. It's identity, culture, sense of belonging... and such emotional needs which are better fulfilled by religions than anything else...

mandakolathur said...

No Matheikal, "identity, culture, sense of belonging" and other emotional needs have been hijacked by religion, which is NOT the natural provider of such comforts. In the identity space, religion is but one factor. However, religion made sure that it retains its primacy. This has been done by promoting fear. Why should Tamil not be the primary identity of ALL Tamil people? Because language does not scare you, but religion does.

That is why religion CANNOT be the NATURAL identity of anyone. Nothing founded in fear has legitimacy.

RE

dsampath said...

true god is irrelevant to our lives..the behaviors which people exhibit and their attitude to life in the name of belief in god is important..

mandakolathur said...

DS Sir, what you have said is precisely the statement of the problem!

What happens is if you use the name of god, you become all powerful and hence beyond criticism. The argument here is, you can develop a more humane attitude to life, not only towards yourself but towards humanity, better without belief in god because the "in" and "out" group differentiation is lost.

RE

shajanm said...

I too don't believe in a supernatural God, Raghuram.

The god question is closely linked to another question: 'what is natural?' If this is answered as 'natural is that which is graspable/knowable by human mind' then there is no God.

But I believe this answer is wrong.

To me God is natural, but ungraspable. God becomes supernatural only because man is so used to a particular way of looking at nature- the detached, objective way. Two conclusions are then possible, depending on how far you are prepared to go with your detachment.

1)God becomes a supernatural reality to the ‘mildly detached’. They believe they have grasped the ungraspable in an image, an icon. Vast majority of human race belong to this category of 'mildly detached'. Some of them could even be persuaded to behave in entirely destructive ways to defend the ungraspable they claim to have grasped.

2) Those who are prepared to take their detachment even further reach the inevitable conclusion: there really is nothing 'graspable' behind this so called god, so it is mere fiction.

You said in an earlier response that you experience a sense of wonder and awe looking at the night sky. Could you explain what exactly is this wonder and awe and how is it related to graspable (knowable) aspects of reality you are staring at?

When we experience such wonder and awe (I believe) we are participating in something more than the objective description of reality. That to me is experiencing God. I reached this conclusion not because I am afraid and want to seek consolation in a superior being. I see no way of deriving my inner experience from the objectively known.

Such a God is relevant, because it is just another way of saying I experience wonder and awe in nature, or I follow the golden rule because I see it is right way to live.

mandakolathur said...

shajanm,

You said, "[God] is just another way of saying I experience wonder and awe in nature ..." My response is simple: I just do not need that "another way of saying" because while saying that a lot of negatives intrude (negatives not in any objective sense, please note). That "another way" is irrelevant to me.

Except in a loose unstructured sense I have not denied the existence of God. Why should I, if I have no utility?

By the way, the way I think that natural v. unnatural is a false dichotomy. There CANNOT be anything unnatural. If it is man-made it is NOT unnatural because man himself is a product of natural processes. nature cannot produce unnatural things! If that is a conundrum, so be it!

I don't worry about the levels of attachment /detachment. They are meaningless to me and hence worthless.

RE