Question for a Lifetime!

Faith must have adequate evidence, else it is mere superstition.

- Alexander Hodge

The presence of God around and within us, the existence of divine power in the world, perhaps, is much better than just a theoretical concept. I know the reason but it is either bound to be hidden or is beyond my mere human brain's power. Some intellectually say, reasons can not prove the existence of God. Some other wise men say, sometimes, look at the facts, not the causes. My father says, either believe in yourself, or believe in the work given by God. Did I really realize something?

My belief may be a consequence of some inexplicable and unbelievable experiences. I am sure I am not the wrong person but maybe at the wrong age to understand this intellectual and controversial matter. I expect myself ever to be neither personally developed, intellectually improved, mentally modified, visually experienced, nor even be spiritually misled, demoralized about the existence of God, but something definitely interested me to observe the sources of human belief in God. So I added the following paragraph to this little article of mine, so the reader finds numerous questions that can probably be answered not by biggest portion of this world, but leaving the questions apart, someone can certainly give their point of view, not in order to make me believe something but to make me more capable of differentiating between right and wrong. The questions in the following paragraph are not mine, but the whole lot is just a collection that I accidentally came across. So finally, here is a small request from me; those who believe in God may not misunderstand this attempt to be a kiddish prank, those who do not believe in God may not ever try to impinge their ideology and force their believes straight into my weak brain.

My attempt is to know something, but certainly not to suspect something.


Here is my collected paragraph:

Some foolish men declare that creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before the creation? If you say he was transcendent then and needed no support, where is he now? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say that he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression. If you declare that this raw material arose naturally you fall into another fallacy, For the whole universe might thus have been its own creator, and have arisen quite naturally. If God created the world by an act of his own will, without any raw material, then it is just his will and nothing else — and who will believe this silly nonsense? If he is ever perfect and complete, how could the will to create have arisen in him? If, on the other hand, he is not perfect, he could no more create the universe than a potter could. If he is form-less, action-less and all-embracing, how could he have created the world? Such a soul, devoid of all morality, would have no desire to create anything. If he is perfect, he does not strive for the three aims of man, so what advantage would he gain by creating the universe? If you say that he created to no purpose because it was his nature to do so, then God is pointless. If he created in some kind of sport, it was the sport of a foolish child, leading to trouble. If he created because of the karma of embodied beings [acquired in a previous creation] He is not the Almighty Lord, but subordinate to something else. If out of love for living beings and need of them he made the world, why did he not take creation wholly blissful free from misfortune? If he were transcendent he would not create, for he would be free: Nor if involved in transmigration, for then he would not be almighty. Thus the doctrine that the world was created by God makes no sense at all, And God commits great sin in slaying the children whom he himself created. If you say that he slays only to destroy evil beings, why did he create such beings in the first place? Good men should combat the believer in divine creation, maddened by an evil doctrine. Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning or end, and is based on the principles, life and rest. Uncreated and indestructible, it endures under the compulsion of its own nature.

• Jinasena (9th Century) in the Mahapurana, as translated in Primal Myths (1979) by Barbara Sproul