The question of whether there is a God up there looking over us is a question that humanity has asked themselves since the dawn of time.
The short answer is that we will never know (or at least not until we find ourselves in heaven/hell).
By its very definition, faith in religion requires us to believe in something that we can never be 100% sure of.
Does God exist?
Every civilization under the sun has had a God or two that they worshiped. In fact, in many cases, God was the sun itself.
People that are skeptical about religion (atheists, agnostics, heathens, communists, New Labour etc...) often describe religion as a 'theological pacifier' that is used to comfort mankind. Faced with a daunting and incomprehensible world, it can indeed be comforting to subscribe to a religion that has the whole world neatly explained.
Why the sun comes up every morning, what causes lightning, why volcanoes explode... All these questions mystified ancient civilizations like the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
To make more sense of the world, ancient people created Gods and myths that explained everything from why the rain came in seasons to why wine gets you wasted.
The comfort of religion
To this day, it could be argued that religion does much the same thing. It could be argued that religion helps us deal with the tough questions that we simply can't answer. This includes classic conundrums such as:
For example, the theory of evolution and our understanding of genetics makes it possible to explain our existence on earth in a way other than that suggested by religious 'creationist' beliefs.
However, the more we discover about the world around us, the more questions we unearth. Perhaps religions will adapt to provide and answer to these questions, too.
This leaves me with the idea that the future of religion might be in the form of a space-age theology that provides answers to all the mysteries of the universe (Scientology anyone?)
Is God real?
On the other hand, it can be easy to be skeptical about religion these days. Looking at the world today, it does seem like everything is spinning out of control with all the violence, corruption and problems which inflict this planet.
Is it just a coincidence that the world's problems seem to go hand in hand with people 'losing faith' in religion?
And looking at the complexities and beauty that surround us, are we really to believe that all this was created by some coincidental explosion of matter billions of years ago?
Everything from the symmetry of a spider web to the complexity of the human mind suggest that there is something bigger at play.
The short answer is that we will never know (or at least not until we find ourselves in heaven/hell).
By its very definition, faith in religion requires us to believe in something that we can never be 100% sure of.
Does God exist?
Every civilization under the sun has had a God or two that they worshiped. In fact, in many cases, God was the sun itself.
People that are skeptical about religion (atheists, agnostics, heathens, communists, New Labour etc...) often describe religion as a 'theological pacifier' that is used to comfort mankind. Faced with a daunting and incomprehensible world, it can indeed be comforting to subscribe to a religion that has the whole world neatly explained.
Why the sun comes up every morning, what causes lightning, why volcanoes explode... All these questions mystified ancient civilizations like the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
To make more sense of the world, ancient people created Gods and myths that explained everything from why the rain came in seasons to why wine gets you wasted.
The comfort of religion
To this day, it could be argued that religion does much the same thing. It could be argued that religion helps us deal with the tough questions that we simply can't answer. This includes classic conundrums such as:
- What happens after you die?
- How did the world start?
- Does anything exist outside of the physical universe that we know about?
- Why shouldn't we covet our neighbors wife?
For example, the theory of evolution and our understanding of genetics makes it possible to explain our existence on earth in a way other than that suggested by religious 'creationist' beliefs.
However, the more we discover about the world around us, the more questions we unearth. Perhaps religions will adapt to provide and answer to these questions, too.
This leaves me with the idea that the future of religion might be in the form of a space-age theology that provides answers to all the mysteries of the universe (Scientology anyone?)
Is God real?
On the other hand, it can be easy to be skeptical about religion these days. Looking at the world today, it does seem like everything is spinning out of control with all the violence, corruption and problems which inflict this planet.
Is it just a coincidence that the world's problems seem to go hand in hand with people 'losing faith' in religion?
And looking at the complexities and beauty that surround us, are we really to believe that all this was created by some coincidental explosion of matter billions of years ago?
Everything from the symmetry of a spider web to the complexity of the human mind suggest that there is something bigger at play.