Musings of a wandering soul
By Rishabh Daga
I read in an article that God is perfect and that he created humans in his image. I condensed these two statements and then analysed them.
Axiom: God is perfect and human.
Let’s take a sample(hypothetical) human who is perfect in a sample space that does not change. This human will remain perfect as long as he is in this space. As God is human, our sample human can be our sample God. So now we have our sample God who is human as well as perfect. Now let’s assume that this sample space is earth. Now we have our god in the same space as humans and our sample space is no longer unchanging. Humans in this space need to be imperfect because they need to adapt to their changing surroundings. If God is in a space that changes then the change will have some effect on it. This implies that God cannot be perfect in a space that affects it. If God is in a changing space and still remains perfect then the changes happening around it are so minuscule in comparison that we cannot even comprehend the scale of it’s existence. Even implying that a being of this scale can be human would be foolishness.
Now the Axiom remains
Axiom: God is perfect.
‘perfect’ comes from a Latin word ‘perfectus’ meaning completed. A thing for which no change is possible. God, a perfect being, created the universe, let’s take this as a fact. As concluded above God is not human, so anything I write next will be from a human perspective and is bound to be different and flawed when compared to a God’s perspective. Why would a perfect being create something imperfect, something that keeps on changing? (I think) because when you are complete, perfect and never changing all you want to see is change. And because, by definition, perfect cannot be changed something imperfect has to be created to showcase that change. I am digressing here. Let’s start again, ‘perfect’ comes from a Latin word ‘perfectus’ meaning completed. We are using a human word with a human meaning to define a being that we concluded was not human. I think it is hubris to define another human by a single word let alone define God by a single word and that too with something as encompassing and binding as ‘perfect’.
Now the Axiom remains
Axiom: God is.
It sometimes seems that Books and half-forgotten memories and our faith in them are the only things sustaining the idea of God. But Who am I to question someone’s faith. I think Voltaire summed up my views on this topic a couple of hundred years ago:
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him”
About the Author:
The Author lives in the intersection of Words, People, Philosophy, Chess and Chaos. Rishabh Daga was born in Gujarat and brought up in Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra. He is 22 years old, pursuing his MBA from IIFT Delhi. His favorite book is The Name of the wind, favorite opening is Sicilian and favorite quote is by Anais Nin — ‘We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.’
