The concept of God is not in doubt, even in today’s world. Religion tells us that there is a God and that he is responsible for our actions. But the question that arises is: what would be the description of God given by someone other than religion? In this article, I will attempt to answer that question.
The whole idea of God can be described in one word: Love. All the greatest spiritual teachers, from Buddha to Mohammed, to Krishna to Moses, to Mother Theresa, to al Qaeda, to Jesus, to Muhammad, to numerous lesser teachers, all express the same message of love and compassion for the world and for each other. This is perhaps the most important lesson of all time: there is more to love than to possess.
Man is not responsible for his deeds and there is no God to punish him for those deeds. Man is responsible for his own actions. In order to love someone and be loved one way, it is necessary to be able to measure that person by his actions. One must be able to measure such things as love by his actions.
Religion provides us with a definition of God and an understanding of his attributes, but it does not provide a description of any of the essential characteristics of God. So long as we have religion, we will never come to understand God’s attributes. For if religion provides a description of God, it will only describe a particular type of God. If we have a universal God, we cannot say that he has certain attributes that we attribute to all men, because each of us has our own unique attributes. Thus, we have no way of knowing whether there is a divine being or beings at all.
Science has provided us with many other ways to understand God and the attributes that he possesses. We now know that God is omnipresent in all things (including man) and is omniscient in all things (including man’s actions). We also know that God created the universe out of nothing. We do not need a philosophy or religion to explain these facts. We just need to believe them.
If you want to believe in a divine creator, one that predates the universe and all that came into being through the actions of one finite creature, then you have the burden of proof. You must show that there is a divine being or beings existing today that have specific attributes that are identical to those of God. If you can prove that, through scientific methods, you are correct, then you have established that there is a divine being and beings existing today that are in a position to perform the same set of acts as God. These attributes must be able to be found in material objects. If you can’t find evidence for the existence of God, then it shows that the religious institutions of mankind are wrong!