Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Existence of God
From: ssbethal@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu
Date: 25 Jan 93 14:49:18 CST
Distribution: world
Organization: Wichita State University, Wichita, Ks

In article <1k12aaINN4p4@srvr1.engin.umich.edu>, belal@cochin.engin.umich.edu (Belal) writes:
> 
> Assalam-u-eleykum,
> 
> The existence of God looks like an obvious truth to the believers, but
> to nonbelievers it is, as if covered with seven veils. I have gathered
> some points from every day logic and some from historical prospective 
> to provide a base to prove existence of God to the nonbelievers. 
> I understand that each point that follows could be a topic for discussion, 
> but I have tried my best to squeeze as much as possible in a limited space. 
> 
> 
> 
>        		      ********************	
> 		      *	EXISTENCE OF GOD *
> 		      ********************
> 
> 1. All RELIGIONS BELIEVE IN GOD
> Its an undeniable fact that all the religions on this earth claim to be from 
> GOD. Muhammad (SAW), Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Budha, Baba Nanak  and every 
                             ^^^^^^^
> religous leader taught people to believe and worship GOD. Although all 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I appreciate your effort to explain the existence of GOD. But you have got to
keep in mind some facts which are important to some people belonging to a
particular religion. Jesus, we believe, is not a religious leader and we
certainly don't like his name among other so called religious leaders. Please
note this and keep it in mind for future use.

>religions have slight differences in the attributes they ascribe to God, but
>  all the religions hold the common view that there is a God who has created 
> this universe. History tells us that even those ancient religions that no 
> longer exist in this world, they also held the view of God, whether they 
> were in ancient America, or in jungles of Africa or in England, or in Jawa or
> Samatra, or in Japan and China or in Siberia or in India. It is an important 
> point that what's the reason for this thought provoking unity among so varied
>  religions? In the ancient times people were not linked together through any
>  means of communication or transport, then how is it possible that people 
> living in isolation thousands of mile away from each other, held the common 
> view about the existence of God? Many of the lands were even not discovered 
> at that time.Even now it is difficult for two persons to completely agree on 
> any issue, then how come this universal unanimity regarding existence of God? 
> All these facts lead us to the only possible conclusion that not only there 
> is a living God but also that God has always manifested Himself through some 
> means to his men to make them believe in Him. Historians agree that if there 
> is such universal unanimity about any issue then there is no reason to 
> disagree with it. Another fact worth noting is that there have been a small
> number of athiests all the times, this proves that the 'existence of God'
> is not related to any psychological need of human beings. In this world, one
> can lead ones life without acknowledging the existence of God, though he will 
> be attempting to close his eyes to the very obvious and clear truth.
> 
> 
> 2. WHO ARE THOSE WHO CALL PEOPLE TOWARDS GOD?
> If we look at the life of all those men, who have called other people towards 
> God, we find a surprising common thing about all of them, that they 
> were very pious and righteous men. They were the people who were respected 
> in their nations. They were true people, who spent their lives to guide people 
> to the right path. They pursuaded people to shun opressing others. They 
> taught to look after the poor and needy. They fought all their life against 
> the unjust rulers of the time. They were invariably opposed by the people in 
> power at that time, although They were highly honoured and valued for the 
> purity of their character, even by those who later, on the announcement of
> their claims, became their enemies. It is inconceivable that those who did 
> not lie about men, began suddenly to lie about God. They were the people 
> whose lives were exemplary for others. Whether it is Indian Krishna, or Irani 
> zoroster or Egyption Moses, or Israelite Christ or Punjabi Babananak, or 
> Leader of the righteous Muhammad (SAW) who was given the title of TRUTHWORTHY 
> by his nation from his very youth and who challenged his nation that he had 
> led all of his life among them and Could they point out to any single lie or 
> felony in his life? So all these righteous persons who came to this world at 
> different times and places, all of them say one thing in common... "There is 
> a GOD.... There is a GOD...." Not only they claimed that there is a God but 
> also they claimed that He talked to them. 
> 
> One may find great philosophers or scholors in the world who have done great 
> works, but their work cannot be compared to the work of those righteous 
> persons. Actually if we study the lives of those philosphers we find that 
> no great deeds compared to their lofty sayings. Why is it that
> these great philosphers were not able to exhibit that righteousness which was 
> shown by people from GOD? The people whose names I have mentioned above, all 
> of them faced great hardships in the life due to their teachings but nothing 
> could lead them astray from the true path. Their killings were planned, they 
> were exiled from their homes and they were bycotted, but they never gave 
> up their beliefs. Why did not they tell lie and relieve themselves from those 
> hardships that were imposed on them just because of their true belief in God. 
> Their lack of interest in material desires proves it that they were selfless 
> people. When such truthfull and trustworthy people are saying it in unisonon, 
> that they have met with God, they have listened His voice and they have 
> experienced his manifestations, then it really leaves us with no doubte. Even 
> in this material world the people whom we know that they are habitual liars, 
> when they go to a court and speak something under an oath, they are believed,
> then why don't we believe in those righteous persons? 
> 
> 3. EVEN DISBELIEVERS IN THEIR HEART ARE AFRAID OF GOD
> Human nature in itself provides us with a strong inclination towards a belief 
> in God. There are certain sins which human nature does'nt like to get 
> involved in. For instance, relationship with Mother, sister and daughters, 
> uncleanliness owing to certain discharges from body. These are certain things
> which even a athiest will not like to do. But if there is no fear of a 
> superbeing, Why not to lie all the times?, why not to steal and commit 
> adultery? What are the reasons that keep them away from these evils? If they 
> do not feel the power of some unseen, then they should do whatever pleases 
> them. Then truth and lie and justice and opression should be all the same for 
> them. Its only God's fear that is ruling on their hearts. Although their mind 
> does not acknowledge the existence of God but the human nature created by 
> God cannot defy it. So even an athiest at heart holds some view about God and 
> judgement day. While in distress, everybody pray to a super-Being for relief. 
> Why so, if they do'nt believe in that super-being, whom we call God?
>  
> 4. EVERY THING IN THIS UNIVERSE HAS A CREATOR
> If we deeply study this universe, we see that every thing culminates in a 
> Creator. He is the ultimate and every thing is working under his guidance. 
> If we look at different stages of human birth and growth, we see that as we 
> go backward, we find we are moving towards weaker and weaker stage. Eventually
> we shall find that the growth starts from a clot of clinging substance. So 
> human beings who themselves start from such a weak stage, how can they be 
> their own creator. So it proves without any doubt that human beings are not 
> their own creator. We see that if we start studying the birth process 
> minutely, ultimately we will find ourselves at the limit of human knowledge. 
> At that stage, all the worldly knowledges will reach their limit and will be 
> totally exhausted about what had actually happened? So that is a stage where 
> divine hand is working. Every scientist have to believe that all the processes
> of this universe ultimately reaches a point where their knowledge becomes 
> inadequate or insufficient to describe them. Once somebody asked a bedouin 
> that what proof does he has about the existence of God. He replied that if he 
> saw shit of a camel in the middle of a jungle, he could tell that a camel had 
> passed through that jungle. Then after seeing so many different creatures in 
> this universe, could'nt he tell that there is some creator of them?
> 
> 5. IS THIS UNIVERSE CREATED JUST BY CHANCE?
> Some of the people believe that this universe was created just by chance 
> and they also try to prove it through science. But God says that all those 
> things that happens just by chance, they don't have such an order in them. 
> Different colors are used together to make a picture. If we just throw the 
> paints on a paper, will they ever make a picture? Houses are made of bricks, 
> but if we just throw the bricks in a pile, will they form a house? It is true
> that sometimes some of the things are made by chance, but a close analysis of 
> the universe clearly refutes this 'by chance' theory. Alright, for a moment, 
> if we believe that matter was created by chance, and this world also came into 
> being by chance, I will ask the readers to study deeply the creation of human
> beings, Is it possible that such a perfect being was created by chance? See 
> the stars, the planets, sun etc. and then the creation of day and night. 
> Every thing just fits so nicely in a finely woven net, does'nt that 
> orderliness speaks of a powerful creator?
> 
> Even in this world we can easily judge the power and wisdom of a creator of 
> anything by closely examining his creation. A good picture is painted by an 
> excellent painter, a powerful computer is made by an intellegent team of 
> researchers. Looking at the orderliness of any things tells us that how 
> intellegent its creator is. God has given to every being an appropriate body 
> and shape, so that it can sustain itself. God kept the food for trees in 
> earth, therefore he gave roots to the trees, so that they can get their food. 
> God made flesh as food for tiger, therefore He gave strong nails and teeth to 
> the tiger, so that it can kill its prey and eat it. God made grass as food 
> for horses and camels, therefore He gave them long neck, so they can graze it.
> God created lungs for human beings, therefore He also created air, so that 
> they can breath. Human beings depend on water, so God created Clouds, so that 
> they can take water to them. Such an enormous and perfect order could never 
> have been created just by chance? Only a super-being could do it.
> 
> 6. TRUE BELIEVERS ARE ALWAYS EXALTED ON OTHERS
> God said that he would always exalt His true believers on others. True 
> believers are always triumphant on nonbelievers, they always overcome them. 
> If there is no God then how are they successful.All the founders of different
> religions were men of weak means. When Moses called Pharaoh towards 
> God, Pharaoh replied that which God was he talking about? "I am GOD" So
> God ruined Pharaoh, and made Moses as the King of that time. Incidence of 
> Pharaoh has become an example for this world and also for the next world. 
> Same happened with other prophets. Same happened with Muhammad(SAW). All of 
> his enemies were defeated. All those nations of that time, who opposed him were
> conquered by him or his followers. The founders of religions did not posses 
> those powers and means which ordinarily make for successful 
> leadership. Yet it is inconceivable that an innocent person of ordinary 
> accomplishments, as soon as he begins to lie about God, should come to have 
> such tremendous powers that his teachings dominate all other teachings 
> current in his time. Such a development is impossible without the help of 
> a powerful God. Why were their prophecies and their promises fulfilled? No 
> doubt there have been others, generals and dictators, who have attained to 
> apparently similar sucess. But it never lasts for long, but the sucess which 
> is foretold, which is attributed to God from the beginning, success on which 
> is staked the Prophet's whole moral reputation and which is achieved in spite 
> of the tough opposition endures for ever.
> 
> 7. GOD LISTENS TO THE PRAYERS
> God has always listened to the prayers of the righteous people of all the 
> times. A nonbeliever may say that it might have been by chance that those 
> incidents happened that were prayed for. But the accepted prayers are 
> different from the other ones. God not only listens to the prayers of 
> his chosen one, but also He informs them about their acceptance. Many 
> prophets have claimed about a number of things, and all those claims had been
> fulfilled, e.g their ultimate success is always foretold when apparantly 
> they were very weak and opressed, but all of them succeeded ultimately. 
> 
> 8. REVELATION
> It has always been God's practice to communicate to people of every age. Not 
> only He talks to the choosen ones (Prophets) but also to other righeous 
> people and sometime even to very mean and filthy people, just to show his 
> manifestations. Sometimes, God foretells people news about future and 
> sometimes also about next world. Many times He has revealed news about the 
> events, that are to happen hundreds of year later. God told in Quran 
> some fourteen hundred years ago about the great progress of Christians, which
>  was to occur sometimes later. It was fortold that a time will come when 
> camels would be no longer used. Even it was told that the transportation that 
> will be used in future would work with fire. It was foretold that a time 
> will come when people would die in large numbers by earthquackes, storms 
> and rains, and wars would also bring large number of fatalities. And such 
> large scale destruction would have never happened before on this earth. Islam 
> is a religion, about which God has said, that there will be people in every 
> century, with whom God would communicate, and this has come true. How it can 
> all happen by chance?
> 
> 9. UNIVERSE IS NOT FROM EVER
> Some athiests claim that this universe is in existence from ever and it will
> last for ever. If this universe is in existence from ever, then it must have 
> infinite source of power and energy, but we see that no material thing is 
> infinite in this universe. The temperature of Sun is falling down, even the 
> earth is cooling off. All the sources of energy in this universe are being 
> consumed up and exhausting. So the world is approaching to its end as was 
> prophecied by all the religions. It proves that the universe came into being 
> a finite time ago and it also has a definite end. We know from our whole
> life's experience, that if we consider any process, there are only two
> possibilites, that a process is either started by some human beings, or
> it might be a result of some other process. If we move back in this tree
> of processes which are a result of some other process, ultimately we shall
> come across a process, which could not be attributed to any other process.
> At that place, we are left with no other argument, except to believe
> that it was started by some Super being. We refer to that superbeing
> as 'GOD', some athiests  call this SuperBeing by the name of 'nature'.
> Actually just giving a different name to this SuperBeing really does not
> make much difference, they believe in GOD, and all they need is just a little
> fine tuning.
> 
> 
> 10. PRAYER FOR GOD's MANIFESTATION
> All the nonbelievers should think that if there is a God then they will be in
> deep trouble on the day of Reckoning and in the next world. So if anybody is 
> interested in geting the true knowlege about God, then he should pray 
> earnestly that if there is a God with infinite powers as the people claim 
> then may GOD manifest Himself on him. May God show him the right path. If 
> anybody does such prayes earnestly for 40 days, then we believe, whatever his
> origin, religion and country is, God will show him the true path and he will
> have no doubt about the existence of God.
> 
> I realize that it's been a bit lengthy article, and I appologize for that.
> I hope this will help some truth-seekers to find the right path to follow in
> this world.
> 
> 
> 
> Belal
> 
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