How can we know whether God exists. Is there any way scientifically or logically to know that God exists. I used to believe in God but not with much thinking whether He exists or not. Whenever my friends and family go to temple I also used to go and pray. In my B.Tech once I read one small pamphlet, two page size, by some people. It explains that there are so many superstitions followed by many people and don't believe in them and God does not exist and all these are created by man. I got little convinced not thinking much. I thought there is no God but all religion is meant for society's good. But later when I started reading spiritual books I felt it is not that straight forward to say there is no God. I could not discredit the knowledge that is there. I attended a series of seminars in my first semester of IISc by a group called spiritual scientist. I referred the contents of these seminars again and again over the years. In that one of the topic is "Can I scientist believe in God". It is very thought giving seminar and it gave some concepts how I can believe in God. So some points which I pondered again, putting it here.
When we see a beautiful rose flower painted with water colors in paper, we will think somebody painted it. Similarly when we see a plastic rose flower, we know it was made by some body. But if we see real rose flower with its softy texture, beautiful color and aromatic fragrance we are sometimes in doubt that whether it was created by someone or came by chance.
When we see a analog watch with moving hands and if someone says all the parts of watch are kept together and by randomly mixing them watch came out, we will laugh. Or if we see a printed circuit board which we see in our electronics lab, we will not say it came automatically. We know that that board has some design and some purpose for its design. Similarly if we look within our body and look outside the world both of which have very complex designs. And again we may doubt these things are made/arranged by somebody or these came by automatically or chance without anyone's hand behind them.
So if we think about our body only it is very amazing and if doctors think in this direction they can write volumes. Similarly we can find so many amazing things in external world also.
i) Going to macroscopic world, if we look into sky there are lot of wonders and many unanswered questions. Sun and moon raises perfectly on time, planets rotate perfectly in their orbits. From where they came from. Even if they came from small space with infinite mass where did that came from. But wonderful thing is, in Universe many things are working nicely with precise laws. Those who studied engineering subject about satellites know how much engineering is required to keep and maintain one satellite in orbit. But in Universe these are all rotating precisely as if designed. I heard once one story of Newton. Newton made a small model of Universe in his room with planets and Sun rotating by some mechanical arrangement. When some friend asked how he made it, Newton said I kept all these items together and it came automatically. Then friend laughed and said don't joke. Newton replied will all seriousness if you think this small model requires some body's hand do you think such a large Universe came automatically without any design. So the point I got is wonderful creation implies a creator.
ii) If we see the atmosphere and working conditions of earth it is truly amazing."aa sandram ichina meghmlo oka chitikedaina uppanda vananeeru athisayame", one lyric from Telugu song meaning there is not even a drop of salt in cloud and rain water is amazing. Think how water is getting supplied in a big city. There is large body of water storage somewhere. Lot of effort for transportation from it is required. Lot of management and equipment is required to store water in apartments and houses in the form of tanks. See the design of rain supply in nature, large seas are present and a tank which will float in air is made as a water tank as well as transportation tubes and air is supplying energy to transport. Amazing, isn't it !
iii) There are lot of wonderful things of beauty around us. "Puvvullo dagunna kallento atisayam, aa sitakokachiluka vollento atisayam", again same song lyric meaning the beauty of flowers' eye is amazing and body of butterfly is amazing. If we see a peacock feather or peacock dancing with its feather open isn't it amazing. Are these things came automatically without any artist behind it. I heard it gave lot of hard time to explain the origin of peacock feather and still it is not reasonable argument.
iv) Coming to microscopic world, we have read in our chemistry about periodic laws. A law is something which is following some rules. When experimenting we see some things happening systematically and we form laws that it is working in this way. For example Newton discovered gravitation not that he created it. It is already there. So all laws are already there and we are discovering them. So that implies they are following some rules in some predictable way so we can form laws. If we see in big cities traffic is going nicely at junctions we conclude that there are some traffic laws that are being followed. Those laws are being implemented by some persons or devices with some induced intelligence. So laws also implies a lawmaker. So these all periodic laws or other things which happen in predictable ways implies a lawmaker. Of course there might be some things which are not predictable and somethings will not appear to be designed or appear to be poorly designed. That does not discredit creator or designer. For example if we see some set of rooms and in that some rooms are not arranged properly and some are very neat and nicely arranged, that implies definitely there is some one arranging those neatly arranged rooms. So in nature by seeing some amazing things which are impossible to come on its own implies there is someone's hand behind it.
v) There is so much order and design around the world even in animal life also. Whole geography channel is about understanding the order and design of animals. For example we know how honey bees organize their world. Each animal has specific special thing that is designed for them to survive. For example a camel can live without water for many days, has transparent lids as it lives in Desert. Eagle has very good eyesight. And a small seed of banyan tree can potentially produce large number of banyan trees. Trees which will give shade have small seeds and common big fruit bearing trees are small in size. One person got hit by a banyan seed in his head. He said, thank God pumpkins grow on ground :-)
Of course there are many things to mention about amazing things that we will get amazed. That is why it is said alochiste atisayame (if you think it is amazing).
Two ways to think of it. One is someone created or designed everything. Other way is they came automatically. That automatic can be, in the case of species, somehow small species came by chance and they are slowly changing over time and circumstances and only those species which are able to sustain due to their abilities or circumstances survived. But this requires a lot of faith to put into it. Species came by chance and changing their capabilities over time and such complex things and designs are evolving automatically is very difficult to believe. Only when we are fixed in heart or initially only eliminated the possibility of creation, then we have to explain in these terms as there is no other option. And then we have to speculate this may have happened like this.
Of course to put faith in creation also requires faith since we don't know the purpose of these things and who made these things, and also we could not directly perceive creator or designer. But if we understand some reasons behind it and understand creator we may get bigger picture. Knowing about all these creations, laws, order and design, I concluded some higher power is there. This analysis made one of the contributions for my belief in God.
When we see a beautiful rose flower painted with water colors in paper, we will think somebody painted it. Similarly when we see a plastic rose flower, we know it was made by some body. But if we see real rose flower with its softy texture, beautiful color and aromatic fragrance we are sometimes in doubt that whether it was created by someone or came by chance.
When we see a analog watch with moving hands and if someone says all the parts of watch are kept together and by randomly mixing them watch came out, we will laugh. Or if we see a printed circuit board which we see in our electronics lab, we will not say it came automatically. We know that that board has some design and some purpose for its design. Similarly if we look within our body and look outside the world both of which have very complex designs. And again we may doubt these things are made/arranged by somebody or these came by automatically or chance without anyone's hand behind them.
Consider the design and complexity of our body.
i) It took 40 years of modern world involving many brains around the world to build a sophisticated computer. But the brain of a person is more sophisticated than best computer. So if computer with its all complexity is designed does our brain will come on its own by some automatic process.
ii) We will eat and we will do our remaining work not caring about how energy is getting supplied to our body. All the work of digestion and supplying energy is being done by our body's different departments with wonderfully coordinating. I heard once some researchers thought they will design some artificial digestive machine to place it in stomach for some patients having problem with digestion. When they started project they found that the mechanism of digestion is so complex that a machine will not be enough but it require a factory in place of machine. Not just a factory but a chain of factories that extends two miles long. Point is that it has whole complex mechanism. The bigger problem they came up is they require a conveyor built to run across these factories. The amount of work that is done in elementary canal is so huge and complex. So again such a complex thing cannot come by chance.
iii) There is one theory called as irreducible complexity. That is for example in electronics design often two pcbs (printed circuit boards) are connected together for a functionality of a device. But in some designs these two modules are designed from scratch to operate with each other and not possible to develop them independently and connect to bring out the required functionality. So it is said that in our body each part of our body is designed in combination with other parts to work together. Means simply bringing two designed modules and combining will not work. From the design of modules itself functionality needs to be taken care. We can feel that our body has such a mechanism when we see heart and lung coordination to purify blood by supplying oxygen.
iv) If we observe our eyes how complexly it is working, we will feel it is a wonder. It will show far objects by automatically adjusting its lens and similarly nearby objects. Recognizes different colors. Interacts with mind to indicate what it is. Eyelid is such a wonderful creation designed to give moisture to eyes throughout the day without our notice. Interesting thing is all our hair grows in many other parts but the hair above our eye will not grow. Imagine how it looks and our troubles if it grows :-)
v) The most amazing thing is that body will come from another body and it will produce one more body. In a factory if we supply raw materials in one end and we will not get product automatically from the other end, lot of work goes inside. Similarly it is not sufficient to have initial ingredients for a wonderful cute looking baby to be born. I heard many people who are in some doubts regarding existence of God will believe him when their first child is born. A cute child with so many emotions and feelings with capabilities of doing so many things cannot come without somebody's design behind it. And to think that one's child who is having consciousness is only combination of matter like all atoms is not agreeable to the intellect and heart as well. Consciousness is another amazing thing and is an elaborate subject matter.
i) It took 40 years of modern world involving many brains around the world to build a sophisticated computer. But the brain of a person is more sophisticated than best computer. So if computer with its all complexity is designed does our brain will come on its own by some automatic process.
ii) We will eat and we will do our remaining work not caring about how energy is getting supplied to our body. All the work of digestion and supplying energy is being done by our body's different departments with wonderfully coordinating. I heard once some researchers thought they will design some artificial digestive machine to place it in stomach for some patients having problem with digestion. When they started project they found that the mechanism of digestion is so complex that a machine will not be enough but it require a factory in place of machine. Not just a factory but a chain of factories that extends two miles long. Point is that it has whole complex mechanism. The bigger problem they came up is they require a conveyor built to run across these factories. The amount of work that is done in elementary canal is so huge and complex. So again such a complex thing cannot come by chance.
iii) There is one theory called as irreducible complexity. That is for example in electronics design often two pcbs (printed circuit boards) are connected together for a functionality of a device. But in some designs these two modules are designed from scratch to operate with each other and not possible to develop them independently and connect to bring out the required functionality. So it is said that in our body each part of our body is designed in combination with other parts to work together. Means simply bringing two designed modules and combining will not work. From the design of modules itself functionality needs to be taken care. We can feel that our body has such a mechanism when we see heart and lung coordination to purify blood by supplying oxygen.
iv) If we observe our eyes how complexly it is working, we will feel it is a wonder. It will show far objects by automatically adjusting its lens and similarly nearby objects. Recognizes different colors. Interacts with mind to indicate what it is. Eyelid is such a wonderful creation designed to give moisture to eyes throughout the day without our notice. Interesting thing is all our hair grows in many other parts but the hair above our eye will not grow. Imagine how it looks and our troubles if it grows :-)
v) The most amazing thing is that body will come from another body and it will produce one more body. In a factory if we supply raw materials in one end and we will not get product automatically from the other end, lot of work goes inside. Similarly it is not sufficient to have initial ingredients for a wonderful cute looking baby to be born. I heard many people who are in some doubts regarding existence of God will believe him when their first child is born. A cute child with so many emotions and feelings with capabilities of doing so many things cannot come without somebody's design behind it. And to think that one's child who is having consciousness is only combination of matter like all atoms is not agreeable to the intellect and heart as well. Consciousness is another amazing thing and is an elaborate subject matter.
So if we think about our body only it is very amazing and if doctors think in this direction they can write volumes. Similarly we can find so many amazing things in external world also.
i) Going to macroscopic world, if we look into sky there are lot of wonders and many unanswered questions. Sun and moon raises perfectly on time, planets rotate perfectly in their orbits. From where they came from. Even if they came from small space with infinite mass where did that came from. But wonderful thing is, in Universe many things are working nicely with precise laws. Those who studied engineering subject about satellites know how much engineering is required to keep and maintain one satellite in orbit. But in Universe these are all rotating precisely as if designed. I heard once one story of Newton. Newton made a small model of Universe in his room with planets and Sun rotating by some mechanical arrangement. When some friend asked how he made it, Newton said I kept all these items together and it came automatically. Then friend laughed and said don't joke. Newton replied will all seriousness if you think this small model requires some body's hand do you think such a large Universe came automatically without any design. So the point I got is wonderful creation implies a creator.
ii) If we see the atmosphere and working conditions of earth it is truly amazing."aa sandram ichina meghmlo oka chitikedaina uppanda vananeeru athisayame", one lyric from Telugu song meaning there is not even a drop of salt in cloud and rain water is amazing. Think how water is getting supplied in a big city. There is large body of water storage somewhere. Lot of effort for transportation from it is required. Lot of management and equipment is required to store water in apartments and houses in the form of tanks. See the design of rain supply in nature, large seas are present and a tank which will float in air is made as a water tank as well as transportation tubes and air is supplying energy to transport. Amazing, isn't it !
iii) There are lot of wonderful things of beauty around us. "Puvvullo dagunna kallento atisayam, aa sitakokachiluka vollento atisayam", again same song lyric meaning the beauty of flowers' eye is amazing and body of butterfly is amazing. If we see a peacock feather or peacock dancing with its feather open isn't it amazing. Are these things came automatically without any artist behind it. I heard it gave lot of hard time to explain the origin of peacock feather and still it is not reasonable argument.
iv) Coming to microscopic world, we have read in our chemistry about periodic laws. A law is something which is following some rules. When experimenting we see some things happening systematically and we form laws that it is working in this way. For example Newton discovered gravitation not that he created it. It is already there. So all laws are already there and we are discovering them. So that implies they are following some rules in some predictable way so we can form laws. If we see in big cities traffic is going nicely at junctions we conclude that there are some traffic laws that are being followed. Those laws are being implemented by some persons or devices with some induced intelligence. So laws also implies a lawmaker. So these all periodic laws or other things which happen in predictable ways implies a lawmaker. Of course there might be some things which are not predictable and somethings will not appear to be designed or appear to be poorly designed. That does not discredit creator or designer. For example if we see some set of rooms and in that some rooms are not arranged properly and some are very neat and nicely arranged, that implies definitely there is some one arranging those neatly arranged rooms. So in nature by seeing some amazing things which are impossible to come on its own implies there is someone's hand behind it.
v) There is so much order and design around the world even in animal life also. Whole geography channel is about understanding the order and design of animals. For example we know how honey bees organize their world. Each animal has specific special thing that is designed for them to survive. For example a camel can live without water for many days, has transparent lids as it lives in Desert. Eagle has very good eyesight. And a small seed of banyan tree can potentially produce large number of banyan trees. Trees which will give shade have small seeds and common big fruit bearing trees are small in size. One person got hit by a banyan seed in his head. He said, thank God pumpkins grow on ground :-)
Of course there are many things to mention about amazing things that we will get amazed. That is why it is said alochiste atisayame (if you think it is amazing).
Two ways to think of it. One is someone created or designed everything. Other way is they came automatically. That automatic can be, in the case of species, somehow small species came by chance and they are slowly changing over time and circumstances and only those species which are able to sustain due to their abilities or circumstances survived. But this requires a lot of faith to put into it. Species came by chance and changing their capabilities over time and such complex things and designs are evolving automatically is very difficult to believe. Only when we are fixed in heart or initially only eliminated the possibility of creation, then we have to explain in these terms as there is no other option. And then we have to speculate this may have happened like this.
Of course to put faith in creation also requires faith since we don't know the purpose of these things and who made these things, and also we could not directly perceive creator or designer. But if we understand some reasons behind it and understand creator we may get bigger picture. Knowing about all these creations, laws, order and design, I concluded some higher power is there. This analysis made one of the contributions for my belief in God.
