145.  System of the World. Part Three

 

 Materialism with God Theory. This hypothesis is an attempt to compromise the two basic observations that ordinary human beings make. First, everything is made by somebody; thus, this highly complex universe could not have come into existence just spontaneously. Therefore, there has to be a Creator who created it. Secondly, one thing leads to another, every action leads to its consequences. Every human being has observed that such and such thing happened or happens due to such and such thing. For ordinary human beings God never comes and plays any role in their daily lives or anybody else’s daily life

This theory is an amalgam of hypothesis no 1 and 2. It accepts a Creator, and therefore answers the first criticism to the “materialistic theory”, namely, that nothing can be created out of nothing. The theory also explains the second criticism to the  materialistic theory; i.e. the phenomena of miracles, answering of prayers, foretelling of the future, and the existence of the spirits of dead persons who once inhabited earth. God or His deputies are responsible for these occurrences.

 

It also answers the criticism to the religious theory (see details in blog 136), namely, why is there so much suffering and injustice; the answer is, because they have nothing to do with God. God ordinarily does not interfere in the running of the world; therefore, whatever is going on in the world is happening due to the law of cause of effect, just as it would happen if there were no God.  If people are poor, there are economic reasons for it. If they suffer due to old age or disease, that is due to the limitation of their body. If they are preyed upon by cruel or powerful people, it happens because they are weak, or their government is not redressing this problem, and so on. Even animal suffering is due to their weakness or old age. Remember, God does not have to be good according to this hypothesis; at best, He is indifferent and does not care.

God has to be hidden, because He wants human beings to develop on their own, be their own masters, and learn from their own mistakes. It complies with our daily experience of events happening due to our free will interacting with environment.

Human effort is not useless. As a matter of fact, it is the engine that propels us forward. The whole of human history is due to human effort.

If we were to take this theory in its pure form, then God created this universe 13.8 billion years ago, and since then it is running on its own.

But things are not so simple. We still have to answer three questions:

 

1. Does God ever interfere in the running of this world?

2.  What is the purpose of the universe?

3. Is God personal or impersonal? 

Let us try to answer these questions: 

1. Does God ever intervene in human affairs? This is a difficult question to answer, because logic will say No, while evidence points towards Yes. I don’t have the answer.

If you try to place yourself in the position of God, you will imagine Him as some form of tremendous energy with a mind. A mind that is supermind. That Mind sets up an experiment with a set of basic unchangeable rules, like the speed of light (nothing can exceed that limit ); charge of an electron; magnitude of strong nuclear force ( which holds the atoms together ); principle of conservation of energy ( energy can be neither produced or destroyed ); attraction of atoms to each other resulting in the formation of chemicals and thus formation of life, including us; force of gravity to be the weakest of the four forces of nature and yet the only one which acts at long distances, 4-7 billion km in the case of Pluto. It is this force which makes the earth revolve around the sun.  Dark energy pushing the galaxies apart; nuclear fusion atomic reaction that fuels all stars ( including our sun, which then provides solar energy to the earth ). liquid water, a source of energy from a nearby star, and oxygen, are the requirements of life anywhere in the universe, etc.

The purpose of the experiment may be to see the emergence of intelligent, self-aware (animals are not self-aware), sentient (capable of feeling) life forms, and follow their progress over billions of years. After the experiment is over, make necessary changes and start a new experiment. Logically there should be no outside interference because it would pollute the results.

But, this mote thinks that the evidence is to the contrary. God (or His deputies) interferes in two ways:

(a). Minor way, when a person invites God in his/her life

(b) Major way, when He interferes in human development and history 

(a) Minor intervention. Everything in our lives happens by the interaction of our free will with the environments through the law of cause and effect. God is not concerned. He does not interfere, whether we are virtuous or evil, whether we perform good deeds or bad deeds.  To ask God to interfere in your life, you have to invite God in your life. This is a cardinal principle.

 

To be continued.

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