THE GOD ARGUMENT

Admit it. Most human beings in the world are a broken lot. It is the culmination of a long list of unfulfilled dreams and heartaches since we started being cognitive and could reason or feel.
Parental expectations to academic performance to peer pressure to conforming to societal norms, and the result is we often have people who are not reluctant to label themselves “social misfits” and some even declare it proudly because it elevates them to an altogether different realm from the usual “social butterflies” and “commons”.
Apart from these people who claim not to belong to the normal world order, we have others like atheists, apatheists, free thinkers, radicals, conservatives, fanatics, humanists, secularists, you name it. There is every category of people alive on the earth but the bottom line is – WHAT MATTERS?
Evolutionary biologists term people as just an aggregation of selfish cells and molecules which battle for survival as in Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection where the “fittest survives”.
It leaves no room for a human soul or the existence of the Divine.
And unfortunately, many people are broken just because they cannot connect to a source of external Supreme power which exists.
However, surprisingly, the theory of ultimate secularization, which most atheists and agnostics propound, with science making all its gigantic steps is not only nullified; it is being reversed.
In the 21st century, there is a global revival of religion. According to Dinesh D’ Souza, the author of the best selling “What’s so great about Christianity,” more than 90 percent of Americans believe in God, and 60 percent say their faith is important to them. America, thus supposed to be the most secular country in the world is the most religious country in the Western world.
He also states that despite the limitations imposed by the Chinese government, it is estimated that there are now 100 million Christians in China who worship in underground evangelical and Catholic churches.
“Thus, the thesis of inevitable secularization has lost its credibility.”
Ever wonder why this is happening?
Peter Berger argues that “modernization helps people triumph over necessity but it also produces a profound crisis of purpose in modern life. The greater the effects of modernization, the stronger the social anxiety and the striving for something more”.
“Secular culture itself produces a deep need for meaning in life and therefore also for religion," says Wolfhart Pannenberg
I always argue that people essentially are spiritual beings. They have something inside them which materialism and hedonism cannot fulfill. There is always a longing for something more meaningful and the sense of an everlasting.
I would like to believe that a human being is definitely not a robot-like creature which just thrives on survival, satiating its desires and passing on its genes. Living without reason, purpose or hope is one of the greatest tragedies mankind could ever face.
We hope because there is something intrinsic in us which makes us do so. In the same way, we believe in the Divine because there is a sense of the spiritual within us.
We may scoff at the idea of a monotheistic God or Creator but even Science cannot prove cent percent that there is no Divine Being that governs the world and its functions.
In fact, most modern scientists state that the latest findings of Science support religion.
Now, coming back to my lead. How many of us have been broken? Broken by inacceptance, guilt, hatred and shame? Why would we feel this way if we were unfeeling creatures? If we were simply machines made to consume resources, reproduce and die, why do so many find solace in the spiritual?
Every heartbreak has a life lesson to offer.
We often strive for the eternal when things in the limited world don’t go our way. In fact, that is a blessing.
Here I would like to quote from a devotional, “A Cup of Comfort”:
“Have you noticed how God uses broken things? A broken flower blossom gives off sweet perfume. Only broken soil can accept seeds to produce a ripe crop of wheat. And the bread must be broken if it must sustain our lives. So...what about a broken person? What about you?”
Ask yourself this question and think if it’s time you changed your perspective about life and existence.