(if) There is a God!

To whom this may concern – Chapter 4/5

Foreword

I deeply apologize for another yet long hiatus; this will be the last hiatus… I promise! I’ve been busy with moving to a new apartment, studies and also working on my first book-projects (and perhaps a pinch of depression as well) that I haven’t found much room for finishing the final pieces, and I wanted to put as much vital insights as possible on all my pieces so I don’t feel like I’ve left out anything (some chapters will be updated with additional add-ons later on) because this topic is epically thick and almost never-ending. Making them compact like I’m doing so that generally everyone can understand is quite the hard work.

And this time I vow to finish off and post the final chapter this week as well so there’s no need to wait long again and so that I can finally cross this topic off to move on with one less thing on my plate.

I guess there’s no need for me to put any more emphasis in the foreword about the topic since I believe you’ve caught my drift after the first three chapters. Otherwise if you’ve just opened this up and missed or haven’t read any of the previous chapters I suggest you go check up on them before reading this chapter.

Congratulations! …now what?!

Imagine you’re doing whatever it is you might be doing on any given day; Working. At school. Cleaning the house. Mowing the lawn. Plowing the fields. Planting at the rice-field. Traveling. Reading a book at the park. Attending a funeral. Giving birth. Having supper with your family. On a date at the cinemas. Rocking in your chair and looking at old family photo-albums. Robbing a bank or a store. Plotting a terrorist attack. Operating on a patient. Milking the cows. Praying at a church/mosque/temple. At your sports/martial-arts practice. Drowning your depression at the pub. Standing on the edge of a cliff/building/bridge or on the train tracks to top yourself… and et cetera et cetera.

The list could go on and on for there are so many people; coming from such vast varieties of background, choices and mindsets with even vaster varieties of activities in this world. Then out of the sudden blue you hear word; probably from the breaking-news public announcement from the radio/television, calls or text messages from friends/family, or read about it on people’s Facebook status or twits on Twitter, people running out of their homes and take into the streets as if in total disarraying chaos because of the news they’ve come across… of that God, It’s almighty self, finally showed Itself to the World!

[Pause for heavy reflections]


How about that… wouldn’t that be the greatest thing of all time?

A religious person would undoubtedly praise the moment as the greatest, for they finally can be assured that there is a higher being. Even an atheist would attest to it being so. And an agnostic would finally have mind’s clarity about the decision to believe in a higher being.

The whole world would celebrate this easing moment; fireworks, confetti, trumpets, cheers and cries of joy… whatever it is that we do to celebrate, picture that picture… in all the faces of this planet that is populated. It’s like what those cinematic Hollywood and Disney happy-endings have always depicted.

Finally, we can all live happily ever after.

Or… can/will we?


i) Why God Won’t Show Itself To Us Just Yet

Given the situation that God does show Itself (let’s assume that it is one being and not several gods that appear), how will people generally respond to the appearance and what life-altering things are at stake? We cannot just assume that it will all be fade-to-black with a fairy-tale happy ending; what comes at an end must be followed by a new beginning.

Even if we’d all be happy that a higher being showed itself, we all won’t be all that too happy; for all our questions that have been lingering in our minds unanswered will now resurface and take a demanding tone to be answered; now we finally know we have someone who can answer them.

Why didn’t You answer my prayers? How come was I an orphan and not blessed with the gift of family like everyone I know? How come did You allow some people to be blind/deaf? Why didn’t You stop Your creations from killing each other through cruelties such as wars? Can You bring back my lost loved ones so I may spend time with them once again? Are we alone in this universe? Is there such a thing as parallel universes? Does Heaven and Hell exist? Did You create mankind just as experiments? What’s Our PURPOSE? What’s Your PLAN for mankind, if You even have one? Are You the only god or are there more of You “people”?

The list of questions and prayers can be a thousand per person (an approximate estimation), and with a world population of nearly 7 billion… 7 billion simultaneous questions is tough enough to handle for a single person, imagine a thousand times more will be flung at you, but if a higher being can handle them is still and forever will be a mystery which we can only hypothesize about. If the higher being can handle to answer all questions and answer peoples’ prayers then It is an omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing) being. But even if God is omnipotent and omniscient, there will still be disappointments and misery among people just like before the stated God-revealed-Itself scenario; for we’d then have to struggle against understanding and coping with It’s PLAN or in other words God’s Divine Plan… whether or not the plan is convenient for us all, just a few of us or none at all.

Then again, another issue we’d have to think about is which God does appear; will it be the Catholic, the Christian, the Muslim or the Jewish god? Or will it be a collection of several gods that will appear such as the Hindu, the Ancient Greeks with Zeus as overlord and dozens of sub-gods, Ancient Egyptian with Ra, the Norse with such gods as Thor and Odin, Joseph Smith of the Mormons, Xenu of the Scientologists, Buddha, Shiva, Ganesh… or perhaps a collective presentation of all the gods that ever came to mankind’s religious understanding, wouldn’t that be great then… having ALL gods present at the same time (such as the aforementioned lot)? Everyone can be slightly content then of not having chosen the wrong god/religion.

For the issue that will cause global depression of having a god showing itself would be that of having picked the wrong religion; the ones who happened to have chosen correctly will run the tempting risk of gloating or boasting their superiority over the majority that weren’t in the same religious god, and that majority will then chose to either convert to the proper religion or not; leading to a high risk of mass suicides all over the world due to disappointment and depression over unawarely believing strongly in nothing all their lives.

And the segregation will be even clearer, if not stronger, than before God decided to show Itself.


ii) Prayers versus the Divine Plan

There are many paradoxes, contradictions and dilemmas within religion (in general), but the one practical thing that I’ve found to be one of the most vague and oblivious to people’s logic is the collaboration of prayers alongside believing in a divine plan; just like dancing at a party wearing a sneaker on one foot and a fancy high-heel on the other… it doesn’t make sense outside of the party for it’ll make people think you’re either stupid or blind or both, but it’ll work at the party anyways because it’s a party and at parties people become oblivious to the obvious when intoxicated, and you’ll get to see other intoxicated people do or wear things that don’t make sense either. But they take the party wherever they go and are constantly intoxicated; ergo most people are still oblivious to the obvious, even the ones who are not religious and don’t denounce the influence of a divine plan at the same time as occasionally pray due to an intuition or a feeling.

Has anyone even begun to think of the thick red line between prayers and God’s plan?

With the use of God’s Plan there are no needs for prayers; because everything that occurs, occurred and will occur already is according to the Divine Plan… making prayers an unauthorized method like trying to put a Betamax tape into a Blu-Ray disc player.

If prayers were allowed to interfere with God’s Plan it’d be truly annoying to be God not catching any break because people keep messing up The Plan (for a modern practical example and experience of this, go play The Sims and take on the role as god).

And as for prayers, how can one be so certain they work? It’s a nice and comforting feeling when something you’ve prayed for went your way but it cannot be viable for everyone because it worked for you. A person who’s not religious in any way and doesn’t pray can do equally well at an exam as someone who is religious and prayed to do well at that exam.

One other thing about the collaboration of God’s Plan and prayers among people is the instant automatic switch between the two; for example, people praying for the salvation of a person’s life (either they know of them in person or not) who’s health is hovering between life and death after a horrible accident.

-Scenario A: Despite the intense prayers from that person’s close loved ones, the doctors weren’t able to keep that person from bleeding to death. A life lost is always hard to take for the loved ones, but nevertheless they must come to terms and accept it sooner or later. They might even reflect that they didn’t pray hard enough and blame themselves, and later on they wave it off as God had other plans and that it was his/her time. Perhaps blame the doctors as well for being incompetent and not thinking about how much critical time they had to work on the patient from the moment that person got injured to getting rushed to the hospital (circumstances play a major role for life-savers such as doctors).

-Scenario B: The doctors were able to save the person’s life and the loved ones are thankful to God for hearing their prayers, instead of putting all the thankful praises to the doctors for being the heroes.

To become a doctor or even be in the medical field takes a whole lot of work, dedication and patience… added with the pile of years of hard work and studies one must endure just to be entitled Doctor, not even forgetting the amount of social life and free-time they must sacrifice to get to where they want to be. And all of that swiped aside instantly in favor of a higher being’s plan or hearing of prayers… ain’t that a tad bit insensitive for the doctors, if not a figurative slap in their faces?

We have a longing to let out our utmost gratitude when we ourselves or a loved one survived a life-changing happening; for instance during the time my step-father was still alive he was rushed to the hospital on several occasions because he had strokes, when the doctors told us later that he was fine I was more than happy because I loved him dearly and he was the only father-figure I had other than my grandfather, losing him would make my world collapse somewhat. I really wanted to thank heaven for keeping him alive and intuitively that’s what I did, even if I didn’t know if there were people up there in heaven that heard my prayers. Either way, the first and immediate reflex I had was to thank any higher being who saved my step-father.

The other period in my life where I felt most gratitude to have been kept alive was when I was just a small boy and was in a drowning incident with two others. My body was totally filled with water and I’ve been down under water for a long period of time but was fortunately saved by a neighbor along with the other younger kid. I was considered dead on the spot, now imagine an alternative life-story where you’ve never met me (I’ll write about this episode some time soon after the topic of religion because it’s a long story on its own).

A prayer is like a scratch-lottery ticket: a million people can buy the tickets but the mega-big prizes are only distributed to a few tickets whereas there are so many minor-prizes which will make you feel great that you’ve won something; either the equivalent to the same amount of prayer you’ve given or double that, maybe even triple… but still you’ll keep on wanting more in the end. In this given logic there is no such thing as an omnipotent God, for then God would be able to cure all people whom have a piece or several pieces of body parts missing like a leg, an arm or others, and have those missing parts re-grown back.

The hypothetical God is either selective of the people It chooses to save, making The Plan for us others who are not according to The Plan obsolete, or perhaps God’s not omnipotent.

For those who say “God works in mysterious ways” or that “It’s a faith thing”, I will continue in a short moment about that.

So simply, either you believe in Prayers or in God’s Plan… or neither.

Here’s a very humorous clip from the late George Carlin at his very best on one of my favorite verbal tirades about religion (skip to 6:13 - 7:18 for his rant about the Prayer vs Divine Plan logic)


CHALLENGE

Reflect for yourself and pick which tool of faith to continue with, affective immediately: Prayer or the Divine Plan… you may only choose one.

If still unsure, go and try one week having the policy and philosophy of Prayer and then another week using the policy and philosophy of God’s Plan.

In the end, you must choose only one of them and continue your life with that choice.

(The bailout option is: neither of them.)


iii) What’s God Got to Do, Got to Do With It?


“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God.”

-Epicurus


I bet the thing that’s been on some of your minds all throughout this chapter has been “The logic of God is different from our logic.” Now, I cannot vouch for God, I don’t even know anyone can… other than claiming it’s a faith thing.

This is the final resort of anybody who cannot respond to all the illogical, hypocritical, paradoxical and misleading logic of religion (especially organized religion).

A physically baseless clinging to faith as the ultimate backup point is not helpful, by any means even useful, if not advocating arrogance and laziness of accepting the truth. Although we all claim that we one way or another have faith, all that really is is mere intuition, simple as that. We do not know, period!

For some reversal changes it’d be humorous to see or hear star athletes gladly thank their god for losing important games, or landmine victims praising their god for now being limbless all of their lives.

How can one even begin to have faith in an omniscient and omnipotent God when you go to a third world country (or see images from there) and see with your own eyes the miseries of people who live in the worst of conditions … and also find that they are the ones praying the most and intensively? How about the third world nations who have the highest rates of religious followers but are the ones consistently being helplessly punished by Mother Nature’s wrath?

In the given logic, they should be the ones getting front-row seats to God’s prayers-come-true policy… and even get a boost with their economy and development, if not being the leading powerful nations in the world.

For people who still believe in the biblical beginning of the world and existence, the first books of the bible already denounces the omniscience and omnipotence of God, for Adam and Eve were tricked by the snake (the devil in disguise) into breaking God’s rule of not eating anything from the Tree of Knowledge. All the while when Adam and Eve were biting off the fruit from the forbidden tree and the discussion that led to it, where was God all along? Had God been omniscient and omnipotent God would’ve already have known all about what would happen before, during and after thus preventing the devil-snake from talking to Adam and Eve thus prevented them from biting off the fruit of the forbidden tree… unless, God wanted them to. This just advocates that the Divine Plan is being used, but that God, whom in this logic is not all-knowing and all-powerful, had intended for mankind to be miserable in the first place… and there’s nothing you nor I could do but to accept of this so-called Divine Plan.

We have been doing fine without God revealing Itself so far, there’s clearly a gargantuan room for improvements in the way we run the world… but if there is a god who won’t show itself due to this logic then that god has only allowed mankind the gift of freedom of choice, that is if God exists and is also able and willing.

All we simply need is to be nicer to each other and treat each other with respect. Religion is not obliged to claim dibs on morality and virtues. We’re all simply afraid of death, but we shouldn’t give in to stories or myths about the afterlife that comes from other people’s delusions or hallucinations.

I’m not going as far as to claiming that there is no god, but if there was a god who allowed all of the horrible things mankind had to go through… one thing’s certain though, you can cross off Omniscient and Omnipotent off God’s Curriculum Vitae.

One final point that’s probably scratching the surface of your head and wanting to ask me is: What if you’re wrong?

I stand for myself by boomeranging that same question back at you: what if YOU are wrong… and also, will it matter much? If I am wrong then so be it, I’ll accept a wrongdoing. If I burn in hell as well then so be it, hell might be an unpleasant place but I’ll worry about that when I get there… if that place even exists, but for now I am more concerned about what’s real and beautiful in this world and also what’s really happening in front of my eyes thus what impact I can make to this world while I still can. Deciding whether or not there is a god and insuring one’s own spot in heaven should be the last peas on our plates when we see people being collateral damage or casualties of war, dying from famine and affected by natural disasters. It is time we open our eyes to what’s real now, not to what we feel is real.

Live your life to the fullest and allow others to have that very same freedom, not prevent them by claiming you’ll burn in hell or that you are an infidel for doing certain things that might not be acceptable in the social or chosen religious norm. We are simple learning beings, beings that all through our lives learn from mistakes by seeing patterns and determining the best actions and outcome; and even if we make another mistake by that choice we just made poorly… we’ll still learn from it afterwards. A curios child who never knew that touching burning firewood is very painful will learn not to do so again. Some lessons though are clearly more vital and hard learned than others.

The purpose of religion is, in my deepest opinion and reflection, a big lesson in life we must learn from, sooner rather than later. Not for the attesting of God’s existence, but for the mistakes man is driven to by it.


“Wherever there are facts of any kind to be known, one thing is certain; not all people will discover them at the same time or understand them equally well…
…Wherever there are right and wrong answers to important questions, there will be better or worse ways to get those answers, and better or worse ways to put them to use.” –from Sam Harris’ “The End of Faith” (p.145)