hare krishna
anyone kindly suggest a good, simple article or an informative story on the topic, " importance of God"...or "existence of God" etc..any topic related to God would do...
I have to present something tommorow in my school morning assembly..
please kindly help
HARE KRISHNA !
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Whether God exists or not is a fundamental question facing mankind today. What was accepted commonly as a fact in the bygone ages is now being increasingly questioned. Some of the common arguments put forward by the atheists are as follows:
a) What is the proof that He exists? If we can’t see Him, why believe that He exists?
(This is the typical “frog in the well” attitude. There was once a frog that was born in a well and had lived there all his life. Another frog, who lived near the sea, visited this frog. The frog in the well tried to estimate the size of the sea by comparing it to the well – “Is your house, the sea, twice the size of my well? Ten times? Hundred times? ”. The sea is actually far too vast for any such comparison to be made. Because the first frog had never been outside the well, he tried to see everything in the world in terms of his very limited experience of the well. Similarly, the atheists try to speculate in matters pertaining to God on the basis of their very insignificant experience of this world and then arrive at faulty conclusions.)
b) The idea of God was introduced to explain the phenomenon in nature. But science is now able to do that and one day science will fully explain everything. Thus, there will be no need for ‘God’.
c) If God exists, why is there so much suffering? Why is He so cruel that He allows His children to suffer thus?
d) The idea of God has been introduced simply to ensure morality and good behaviour in the society.
In the present day materialistic society, such atheistic ideas have become very widespread. Much havoc has been caused to the world as a result of this. There is a great need, therefore, to establish that God exists and that belief in God is very rational, logical and scientific.
LOGIC FOR BELIEF IN EXISTENCE OF GOD
a) Creation implies Creator
While atheistic views are gaining in numbers, an examination of the world around us gives us a different story. Every part of the creation is a testimony to the presence of God. Consider the following”
Every garden reveals its gardener; every clock its maker and every design its designer. Everyone will agree that design means that a designer is responsible for it. For example, let us take a watch on our wrist. It could not have come out of thin air but must have had a designer and an assembler behind it. Thus we cannot deny the existence of a personality behind the existence of the watch; similarly the creation reveals it Creator – God.
The universe and everything within it is superbly organized. This indicates the existence of a Superb Organizer. If we only look up at the stars and planets in the sky we will observe that their movements are so precise, that even watches can be set against these movements, day after day, year after year. How can we deny the existence of a designer and assembler behind the Universe?
Every organ of our body is very intricate and more complex than a computer. If a computer cannot come about itself, how can a body, which is a perfect working assembly of such complex organs, come by chance? There must be a Creator who has created all these wonderful things.
Sir Isaac Newton, though a scientist, was a believer in God. Once, an atheistic scientist visited him. Newton showed him a new model of the sun and all its planets. He cranked a handle and all the planets revolved around the sun like in the universe. The scientist was very impressed and congratulated Newton on his achievement. Newton said he had not built the model but it had just appeared on its own one morning in his living room, without any human intervention. When the scientist protested that this was not possible, Newton reprimanded him for believing otherwise in the case of the real universe. He said: “You refuse to believe that this tiny model has come about by chance, yet you so readily accept that the actual solar system, with all its vastness and complexity has no Creator! Is this not highly illogical?
Indeed, the universe is so amazingly ordered and precise in its working, it is like an enormous clock. What is more amazing than this amazing universe is that there are people who say it has no creator?
b) Law implies Law-maker
Atheists may explain the orderly movement of planets in terms of laws of nature. Yes, certainly the universe is functioning according to natural laws. These laws work perfectly and without exception. But, scientists can, at best, discover that such laws exist. The main point however is: Who has made these laws? And who implements them? Can the traffic signal on the road come about by itself? Isn’t it common sense that someone has laid down that red means ‘stop’ and green means ‘go’ and that someone (the police) is required to enforce these rules? Therefore, we can understand, there must be a super intelligent and powerful law-maker behind the ‘natural laws’ in the universe.
c) Unseen thread in Creation
In a pearl necklace, the pearls rest on a thread that ties them all together. Even though we cannot see the thread, we know that it exists, simply by seeing the pearls arranged in an orderly way, without being scattered. Similarly, God is the underlying support of this universe, because of whom, all the planets float and move in space in perfect orbits, without falling down or crashing into each other.
d) The idea of “Creation by Chance” violates Natural Laws
It is natural and empirically observed law that every system naturally moves from a state of order to a state of disorder. We have experience of this in our daily life. A great deal of effort is required to keep things in order in every sphere of life. Just how much effort we have put in simply to keep our house neat and tidy!
The universe is enormous and complex and is yet superbly ordered and harmonious. The very word COSMOS means an “orderly, harmonious, systematic universe”. From the atom, through the individual cells, organs, living entities right up to the gigantic universe – at every level there is incredible and stunning intricacy and beauty and exquisite order!
It is illogical to assume that such a state of order has come about (and is maintained) by chance, and without a background intelligence operating. This idea is against the natural law that in a system left to itself, order gives way to disorder, and that to create or maintain order, an intelligent direction is required.
We have absolutely no experience of any object or system coming about by chance. Why and how then can we assume that the entire universe with all its harmony, order and structured organization came about by chance?
Turning our attention now to the universe, we can see that it is meaningless to talk about the universe coming about by chance, as if chance were the cause of the universe. And in any case, where is the question of even talking about chance when one is not in position to observe the creation of the universe repeated a sufficient number of times in order to arrive at a pattern, like the tossing of the coins?
So the universe HAS A CAUSE, and that ultimate cause is GOD, the Supremely Intelligent Person.
e) Search for God is a fundamental urge
The existence of an urge indicates the existence of its fulfillment in nature, because nature is complete and perfect. For example, for the fulfillment of hunger and thirst, nature has provided food and water.
Similarly the fundamental urge for God in all of us means that such a Supreme Being exists.
f) Personal experience of God
God is not just some abstract, intangible entity simply to be argued about. He is actually to be realized by the process of love and service in the company of His devotees. This knowledge is the topmost knowledge by understanding which, full realization can be attained. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita:
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (B.G. Chapter 9 Verse 2)
Thus the direct experience and realization of God is the most clinching proof that God exists.
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(Excerpted from the Notes on "Journey of Self discovery" - By HH Bhaktirasamrita Swami )