Does God Exist? The concept of God is in the minds of people by nature. It is however covered with a lot of confusion. One of the major obstacles to people accepting the concept of a Universal God is that people cannot see Him and thus do not have a rational argument to prove the existence of God. They believe in the direct or observable argument or primary rationalism and not the unseen or inferential argument or secondary rationalism. This is contrary to the fact today. In its issue no. 134 (1992), the journal, Faith and Reason, published from Manchester College, Oxford (England), brought out an article titled, The Relationship between Faith and Reason, by Dr Paul Badham. Dr. Paul Badham is a Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Davids College, Lampeter, in the University of Wales. His paper in this issue had been presented at a Conference of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow in November 1991. Professor Badhams paper can indeed be called thought¬ provoking, and as such, is worth reading, but he has made certain points with which I did not agree. He states that philosophical certainty should not be confused with religious certitude. He writes: As a philosopher of religion I feel compelled to acknowledge that faith could never be placed on the same level of certainty as scientific knowledge (p. 6). I disagree with Professor Badham as after the splitting of the atom in the first quarter of the twentieth century there is no real difference between the two. Now faith and belief can be placed on the same level of certainty as scientific theory. According to me, this argument was valid when science was at the macro world – when it was considered, ‘only what was observable was the reality’. At that time, the atom was considered to be the smallest unit of the observable material world. So people considered all things to be observable as they considered the atom to be observable. But when the atom was split, it was confirmed that the atom was nothing but a mad dance of energy waves or electrons, which could not be observed. In spite of the change in logic, scientists continued to believe in the concept of the atom, albeit it was unobservable. A new logic therefore came into existence – not only was the direct or observable argument thought to be valid, but inferential arguments or the invisible sources of visible effects were also considered to be valid by scientists. An example of this is that X-rays are not visible to the naked eye, but their effect can be seen when we observe the X-ray film. Using the valid inferential argument, if you can believe in the unseen X-rays as you can see their effect, why can you not believe in an unseen God, whose meaningful creation – the Universe you see all around you? Even if God cannot be seen, the effect of His Creation – the Universe – can be seen by us all the time. If we believe in the existence of the Universe – the effect of God’s creation – we have to believe in the Creator of the Universe through the inferential argument which is considered valid by scientists. This provides scientific proof that this division of primary and secondary rationalism is in itself wrong and now that the inferential argument is valid. Therefore, this proves the existence of an unseen God scientifically. I have written about this in my books, God Arises, In Search of God and Religion and Science, by giving credence to the belief in a non-observable God, with the maxim that: “Where there is a design, there is a Designer.” So I say: “The option one has to take is not between the ‘Universe without God’ and the ‘Universe with God’. The option is actually between the ‘Universe with God’ or ‘No Universe at all’. Since we cannot, for obvious reasons, opt for the latter proposition, we are in fact left with no other option except the former — the ‘Universe with God’.” Once we believe that God exists, then the next question that comes to mind is why did He create all the creatures of the world – especially man? For this we need to understand the concept of the Hereafter and the Creation Plan of God.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 03:45:41 +0000
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