God appears when one ‘o’ is omitted in the word “Good”

by Dr. M. Edward Perera

(September 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) God is the symbolic expression to the uncertainty prevailing in the world. We should not forget that the concept of personified God is a phenomenon born and nurtured in the human mind. It is my personal conviction that the abstract idea of God has roots in the perception of the cosmic nature of the universe by human beings in the process of their social and biological evolution. If anybody wants to call this “cosmic consciousness” as God, I would definitely agree with him.

In the pre-historic age, Neanderthal supposed to have believed in ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors in the cultural evolution of mankind. That was over 700,000 years ago. Starting from this primitive stage of identifying kind of supernatural beings, the idea of God too had parallel existence in the history of mankind mainly caused by fear and insecurity throughout evolution. Man didn’t struggle only for the stomach but also for the protection like almost every other animal on this planet did in the past and are doing in the present.

Metaphorically, one can compare the concept of God with light. Even the most ancient type of human individuals could perceive and feel how important is the sunlight for the very existence of flora and fauna. Thereby, they started worshipping sun as a God and personified the idea to respect and love this “God”. When night falls, they thought that “God” was absent, in other words they were deprived of protection during the darkness. Thus, evil, devil or Satan at a later stage came into being to identify the contrast between “protection” and “danger”.

Fear and insecurity are universal phenomena. As far as human beings were unable to perceive natural as well as man-made causes of fear and insecurity, the easiest way for them to find all these “positive” aspects in “God” was to incarnate these qualities in a personified figure. This removed the barrier of total abstractness in the idea of “supernatural being” enabling even small children to understand what the adults thought of “God” and in a similar manner the children were taught about the enemy of God, namely “Satan”. The fear of Satan is a phenomenon similar to the fear experienced by the primitive man in darkness and the danger confronted in the absence of protection. This abstract theory was inherited to the future generation until the Eastern philosophies came into being.

Buddhism as an ancient Asian philosophy deviated from this conventional idea of monotheism or polytheism as it clearly sees the cause of suffering as an intrinsic property of our dire existence and as an outcome of attachment to the uncontrolled desires. It taught people how to overcome fear and insecurity rooted deeply in the human unconsciousness mind through improper conduct and in natural causes. The Buddha preached his doctrine to clear the minds of people who lived in the darkness of eternal uncertainty. This learning has formulated the most essential pre-condition to understand the meaning of suffering.

It remains as the core of the Buddhist Methodology to investigate almost every aspect of life and teaches us the path for the cessation of suffering in our worldly existence.

Monotheism as well as Polytheism can get adjusted easily to changing socio-economic situations as the post-industrial model and the complex consumer behaviour would remain as the cause generating factor in the modern world inflicting damage to human society and to the natural environment. Growing industries and excessive consumption would contribute directly to income generating means almost in every country. The Church tax can be levied conveniently in a system of protected production and consumer mode. Mass unemployment would affect the smooth functioning of the Church. Ultimately, the hard labour of workers and the contribution of rural farmers would safeguard the “God” but not vice versa.

The general optimism for a peaceful and environment protected world is the growing interest of the intellectuals and academics of the Northern hemisphere to learn more on other faiths than believing in one God. The younger generations in the West are attracted by multifaceted Hinduism due to its splendid ritualism. Intellectual adult population is keen on returning to the tranquillity of life through self-realization. Great scholars and intellectuals all over the world are interested in understanding the salvation of self through Buddhist teachings and they have systematically realized that mankind has more responsibilities to protect their social and physical environment than leaving the problems and answers to an unknown God.

(This article is written with regard to the ongoing debate on co-authored book “The Grand Design” by Prof. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, UK and the U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow)