Does God Really Exist?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Theory of Knowledge Essay Tsering Norbu

C - Block

10th May 2004

The First Theory of Knowledge Essay.

Does God Really Exist?

Humankind has always endeavoured to find the causes of events and phenomena in his world, for he has been gifted with ignorance to dispel which you need to question. We have questioned the causes behind those phenomena and have come to terms with them as our knowledge about such phenomena widens. But sometimes events occur in such a fashion that it seems to us that their causes can not be determined through logical reasoning using our knowledge of things to the fullest. Men have tried to explain the possibility of these occurrences by suggesting the existence of a supreme, omniscient and omnipresent being known as God to us. God has been accredited with the creation of the universe. God has control over all the phenomena and the actions of the human beings. But there has been no solid evidence on the existence of this supreme-being. Does God really exist? Do we really need God to explain the unexplainable? Is it really God who created the Universe? If yes, then why? What was the need for God to create the Universe?

Let us consider one of the problems stated above - our inability to explain the miracles. I think our inability explain certain phenomena can be attributed to the lack of knowledge about it. To clarify it lets take an example of a magician and his spectators (us). When a magician makes pigeons appear out of thin air, it seems like a "miracle" to the spectators. It is logically inexplicable for them. But to the magician himself, it is just another trick and is logically explicable because he has the knowledge about it. When he shows how he performed the ...

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Let us consider one of the problems stated above - our inability to explain the miracles. I think our inability explain certain phenomena can be attributed to the lack of knowledge about it. To clarify it lets take an example of a magician and his spectators (us). When a magician makes pigeons appear out of thin air, it seems like a "miracle" to the spectators. It is logically inexplicable for them. But to the magician himself, it is just another trick and is logically explicable because he has the knowledge about it. When he shows how he performed the miracle, it remains no longer a "miracle" to us. From this we can understand that occurrences and phenomena that seem unexplainable to us are so because of our lack of knowledge. These "miracles" appear as just another set of events in our world as soon as we know how it happened. So this leads us to question that, are such occurrences necessarily explained as the action of God? If yes then such an answer doesn't explain the causes which led to the event's occurrence. Thus, it leaves the questioner forever in doubt. Martin Luther wrote, "Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear his eyes out of reason ……..Reason should be deluded, blinded and destroyed.

Theory of Knowledge Essay Tsering Norbu

C - Block

10th May 2004

it shows the writer's opinion that things which are unexplained can only be reasoned out by stating it as a result of divine intervention. This implies that it is better not to question about things which are out of one's mental capacities. Such beliefs will bring about stagnation in the development in our knowledge.

Taking the problem of the origin of the Universe, the Islamic-Judeo-Christian beliefs explain it by stating that God was there before the Universe began and he created it. I think the main reason behind this answer is the belief that there should be a first cause - a definite stop to the past from which we can trace down to the present. But if there is an indefinite future then why shouldn't there be an indefinite past since at that indefinite point of time in the future the present point of time will be an indefinite past.

In the diagram above, the circle and the triangle represent two unique points on the time line. It is logically consistent to have an indefinite past.

Theory of Knowledge Essay Tsering Norbu

C - Block

10th May 2004

The above given example illustrates that God is unnecessary since the past is indefinite and there is no particular point of time for the creation of the Universe. Science has also thrown some light over this issue. According to the widely accepted BIG BANG theory on the origin of the Universe, we know that the Universe started with the explosion of a highly condensed object called the Primeval Atom. This seems to imply that the past is definite and thus, brings up the possibility of creation of the Universe by God. But what was before the BIG BANG. Should not there be a cause for the Primeval Atom to exist? Astrophysicists are still trying to find out. The idea that God created the Universe out of nothing is quite impossible to believe. It defies the laws of cause and effect. If there was nothing from which to create then how can one create anything? It is just like saying I wrote on the paper with a pencil without a paper and a pencil.

To conclude, I would like to say that if you can not explain a phenomenon, it does not mean that it is inexplicable. Rather, it is mostly due to our lack of knowledge about it. As our knowledge about it widens the phenomenon seems explicable. Though God may be an easy answer to many unexplained things right now, I am sure with sufficient development in our knowledge in the future; the unexplained can and will be seen as an observer of the law of cause and effect.

Bibliography

On 9th May 2004
Theory of Knowledge by Nicholas Alchin. John Murray (publishers) Ltd, a division of Hodder Headline Ltd. 2003 AD.
The Dhammapada Verses and Stories. (A Reprint of Burma Pitaka Association Publication, 1986.) Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi 1990 AD.