Do we need God?

 “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him” - Voltaire

The simple answer to who needs God is “everyone”. Why we need God could be different.  

As many scholars and philosophers had taught us over last few generations. Religion and belief had played a key role in creating societies and civilisations. Without religion or a common thread of belief system or culture for that matter, we humans cannot be organised and disciplined. I do agree there will be always those outliers who could manage without a system. What happens without a system is well understood assuming most of my readers are living in countries which has an order. Theories on how it all started could be that alien as aliens themselves would feel less alien.

Is it a culture that we often label as religion? Is it common practices? Is it a doctrine and set of rules that makes up a religion? Is it God’s words translated by other humans before us that constitutes a religion? It could be all of these and much more. Have you ever thought why do you follow a particular faith? What if you were born into a different faith in your human avatar, will you follow another faith that you currently don’t accept without a question? Maybe yes, maybe not but some who question the religion in which they are born into, are they wrong in doing so? The beauty of a religious discussion is that, it’s all subjective to what exposure we got while growing up. The tolerance is directly proportional to exposure.

Every religion over few thousand years, underwent revisions to fit into the contemporary world of those times. In ancient times, every state followed the practices their kings or emperors imposed them to. If a ruler changes his religious affinity, he expected his subjects to follow. History of various kingdoms across the world, shows examples of these. There was a time when people listened to might and now we are moving to a world where right takes precedence.

Deep study into various religions had shown similarity in understanding of God as a power. Some accept forms and some can’t define one or doesn’t agree to one. But an energy and central power is recognised by all religions. Few say it is within us and we have to connect to it, some say we are clients and there is a server giving us power, some say we are pawns and someone else moves us, some say don’t do anything God will come to you and while some believe do good and rest God will take care. In short, there is a mention of higher power in all cases. How we interpret it and use it, is up to the faith we follow or the part of the brain we use.

A need for a faith for a common man is for spiritual advancement in reality and this is overlooked by many. Man had started to see faith as blind set of actions based on rewards and benefits. Why would God reward us when God had the power to do anything he wants if he can create the universe and create all of us? 

We need God to keep our unwavering trust intact on an external energy which gives us more power to tackle things. It’s more like a kid learning to cycle thinking his parents or friends are holding it while the reality is he or she only learns when the cycle is not held. Some smart kids learn using support wheels. God is often that support system whom we put our trust on thinking God is behind us. Is God really behind us? Now that gets complicated. God is that companion for many to whom they can speak their mind, cry to and get a shoulder anytime. Some of us have found great friends who could stand in for God while God focuses on better things of this world than our sob stories. For some God is an energy reservoir from which they recharge their spiritual batteries. For many others, God helps them to understand who they really are as a person and helps in changing to a better social animal. For few God is the reason to be alive and appreciate this otherwise mad world. For all, God is a personification of hope and an invisible friend. Some religions give God a humanly relatable form and often we tend to be attracted to certain form based on our character.  We all have our favourites for sure and a secret superstition of how God connects to us too. We see God in everything but not everyone for some reason. There are umpteen ways to explain why we need faith. But again it is a choice and not a mandate.

A keen observer would already realise that religion and God doesn’t look like same thing. A doctrine is not equal to God, a God becomes a tool in a doctrine. Following a doctrine is a choice and we can follow God without it too. I know it’s a dangerous claim which could be misunderstood. Doctrines need God as much as we do or maybe more than how much we need. This should not be of interest to us until the doctrine uses God to control us. An intelligent Godly person would understand that God should not be someone whom we should be afraid of, God is not a punisher, God is not blood thirsty and God is not waiting for us to act with vengeance for his or her personal gains And of course God is not there to take revenge on behalf of us to our enemies. If so, then what is the difference between a puny human and the supreme power? 

Let’s think deeper, If there is only one God then what is the point fighting for and against it? If there are multiple Gods, will they want us to kill each other and belittle themselves acting like humans? And if there is no God, who are we trying to impress? Without God and faith, normal unintelligent humans cannot be kept in check as they get fearless of any repercussions and can be harmful for the society. That makes it a must have for all societies and probably why religion thrived in earth too. Until we develop our mind to a level where we don’t need an external force to be civilised, God is a must have.

Limiting a belief system to be at individual level and allowing all faith to be practiced is the most respectful way of living life. Developing an intellect to take the positives out of religious practices, challenge, change or ignore the negatives and keeping an open mind to understand other faiths is a sign of a spiritual human. A religion can only stay relevant in this world, when it is updated to the current Geo-political scheme of things else they need to change or focus on keeping their followers blind and in fear. Before we start believing God want us to be talking his word or sword forward, let’s take a moment to digest God doesn’t need us and we need God. No amount of religions or Gods can make this world a better place but only better humans can.

Most of the readers knowledge on God would be related to what religion taught us, I am sharing some pointers to explore for those seekers among us who has a thirst to learn. If the below section seems Greek and Latin, remember even Greek was Greek and Latin before we first learned it.

To explore deeper:

Theism: God as a personal, omnipotent creator.

Pantheism: God and the universe are identical.

Deism: God as a non-intervening creator.

Panentheism: God extends beyond the universe but is not identical to it

Plato and Aristotle argued for a supreme being responsible for the universe-Plato’s demiurge and Aristotle’s “unmoved mover”-laying the groundwork for cosmological arguments

René Descartes used both ontological and “trademark” arguments, suggesting the idea of a perfect God is innate and proves God’s existence

Immanuel Kant critiqued the ontological argument, arguing that existence is not a predicate and that the argument equivocates between the idea of God and God’s reality.

Baruch Spinoza equated God with nature, arguing for a non-personal, non-anthropomorphic God

David Hume, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bertrand Russell have provided influential arguments against the existence of God, questioning the logical coherence or empirical basis for theism

Ontological: Aim to prove God’s existence through pure reason, appealing to logical coherence.

Moral: Connect God to human experience, arguing that morality loses meaning without a divine foundation