The bug that proved nothing!
It all started in 2019. Initially it confused people. Then there was a sense of fear which transcended to a new discovery of sorts. I am neither referring to a bug in code nor a bug that lives. I am indulging myself about the bug called “COVID” that has disrupted lives, caused chaos across the world, and also initiated the sleuths of this world and made them akin to war ravaging factions on social media. The war of “Atheists” and “Theists”.
Social media was flooded with lines like “Where is your god and why is he doing this?”, “Why can’t god stop all this is if he is so powerful?”. At the other end of the spectrum, people said “God has not created this, it is we humans. What have we done to avoid this” some were borderline funny “He has many things to manage”, probably said by an MBA grad! Here is my take and let us make a peace deal for these factions.
So, did he create it (both the Virus and the Universe)? Does he exist?. Well to opine on this somewhat lends oneself to being arrogant I would say. Everything in this world we have seen or experienced has mostly been through our five senses. This makes us vulnerable when we try and explore something that could exist as no one used their cliched sixth sense. If you argue that God exists, have you seen him and did he look very different from us? Did he make enough of an impression to make you believe is powerful enough to have created all the universe? Has he spoken to you? Well at least with me the answers to all the above are a resounding NO. So, he does not exist right? These same set of questions become answers when it comes from an atheist to prove that the almighty does not even have a right to exist, forget about if he is real or not.
Taking this as a premise, I feel both the groups are equally misinformed and misled. Are they asking the right questions and do the naysayers provide the right answers? In my humble opinion, I feel no. May be some of the questions should be “How are we capable to doing so much more than a chimp with almost the same DNA?”; the difference is a miniscule 1.2%. “How do birds know to migrate thousands of miles and still not get lost without Google Maps?”. “How can we dream?”. “How did the Oxygen percentage remain and continues to remain the same in air even after polluting the atmosphere so much?”. “How does a small piece of flesh we call the liver perform more than 2000 different things in our body? Even the most advanced equipment cannot do that. “How and more importantly why are organisms like diatoms helping the world by producing 50% of the Oxygen on Mother Earth without which we cannot live?”. These are mostly not thought about. I am neither saying god exists nor he doesn’t . Just the fact that one microorganism sustains life, and a small bug has wiped out life at large scale in the last 2 years and yet many of us maintain absolute condescension towards most other forms of life; pretty intriguing and baffling.
We the “Humans” might be most evolved and intelligent species on Earth. But there is a whole eco-system at a cosmic level that manages the balance. Everyone loves a good mild warm sunny day. Is the Sun our best friend? May be not, if not the chemical elements in the core of the earth that produces a magnetic field that soars thousands of miles into space we would die of solar winds and radiation.
Put all into perspective, humility is the best path to take and accept the fact that for all of us there are lot of unknows. Ask the Hubble telescope if we are even worth a grain of sand when it looks at galaxies and beyond. One should seek and experience things with utmost perception. Perception is the deepest form of intelligence. Hopefully, there is another faction that is driven by perception and not ending the pursuit to seek and pass judgements on the existence of God. We wish to see everything in so much detail through microscopes, actual and the ones in our mind, and pour years and years of effort to grasp many things. Why not treat this issue as well that way and refrain from actions and posts that substantiate your stance on God’s existence? This is a question for which there no punishment or no report card if you do not have an answer yet. To conclude, experiencing and appreciating the sheer magnitude of the universe and tuning the mind to a level where perceiving becomes second nature is more important than the word “God”. For me it good to believe in God, at least because of this notion we tend of have many a festival and enjoy holidays! So which faction is right? Neither!