GOD AND RELIGION - A "SCIENTIFIC" AND OBJECTIVE LOOK

by Prem Kamble

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PART I

COMPARING THE LAWS OF PHYSICAL SPACE WITH THE LAWS OF MENTAL/ SPIRITUAL SPACE - NEED FOR 'MENTOMATICS'

Chapter 1 Foreword

Chapter 2 Physical World and Mental/Spiritual World

Chapter 3 Physical Science and Mental/Spiritual Science

Chapter 1 Foreword

1.1 Introduction

We all wish to succeed and be happier in life. Most of us do not know what governs our lives, but we do have our own faiths, beliefs and philosophies concerning the secrets of success and happiness in life. Some believe in God, some in destiny, some in fortune and luck.

Some believe that God gives us the strength to face the challenges in our life. They think that He protects us from calamities and sees us through difficult times. Some have faith in Allah, some in Christ, some in Krishna and so on.

Some believe that it is all a game of fate and destiny.. They believe that everything is predestined. What is destined to happen will happen anyway and fate cannot be changed. For others it is the stars that decide their future.

There are yet others who believe that it all depends solely on your own self - you can make or mar your own future. You craft your own destiny.

What is it really that governs our life? What after all is destiny and luck? What is God and religion?

1.2. Our Familiar Physical World

What I have discussed in the book is not science, not religion, nor 'heavy' philosophy. It is plain and simple common sense

With modern science, man has been able to explain more and more precisely the physical nature of the world. He has mastered the laws of physical forces which govern the physical world. In spite of major advances in science, the questions we asked in the previous paragraph remain unanswered. These questions have no answers because they fall in a completely different domain which continues to remain in the dark. I call it the domain of mental or spiritual forces. While we have discovered the laws of physical forces operating in the physical world, somewhere out there lies another world - the spiritual world. And the laws of spiritual forces operating in the spiritual world still remain a mystery.

At one stage in the history of mankind, even physical phenomena were a mystery to man. Man was completely ignorant of the laws of nature. He was a stranger to the physical world too, just as he is a stranger in the spiritual world today.

History of physical science shows that several theories had been developed right from the stone age to explain the physical world. They were at that time regarded as gospel truth till new theories evolved and the old ones collapsed. To cite just a few, the earth was believed to be flat and the sun believed to be revolving around the earth. We believed in them so much that we were ready to kill someone who said otherwise or who opposed these theories.

The concept of God and religion, I believe is just one such theory or belief system of the spiritual space today. We have such deep faith in our theories that statements against the belief systems are considered blasphemous.

Since some very staunch beliefs in the past have crumbled and appear ridiculously funny today, we must be ready to accept that some of our current beliefs too may bite the dust some day. We must be mentally prepared to obliterate some of our strong beliefs today.

We look at our past and pamper our ego by saying that we have come a long way from the days of complete ignorance. We think we know much more now and that we were almost foolish in those days. But only if we take a leap forward in time and imagine a world of the next few centuries, we will realize that we could be equally foolish today with respect to some other beliefs which may be proved wrong in the future. Our ego does not allow us to think that we may also be erring today.

1.3. Is There Yet Another World?

We will see that we are endowed with phenomenal mental energy, and that it is entirely in our hands to tap this energy

In the discussions that follow, we will see that just as the physical world is governed by specific laws of physical forces, there may be laws of mental forces which we have not discovered yet. We will draw an analogy between the physical forces and the mental forces. In the world of physical science, mathematics brought us out of the Stone Age and took us through the machine age to the jet age and the information age. The language of Mathematics however failed to explain the spiritual world. While we reached the information age in the physical space, we are still in the stone age of the spiritual space. I believe that it is only a matter of time before we move from the Stone Age to the jet age of spiritual science. We need another miracle to pull us out of the stone age of spiritual space. I am confident that a new language like mathematics will be discovered that will pull us out of the stone age of spiritual science. As mathematics and science have ushered in the industrial and information revolutions, a new spiritual science will bring in the Spiritual Revolution.

In this book, we will look at the feasibility of this new miracle language which will unravel the mysteries of the spiritual world. We have already seen how physical sciences have transformed our world and enhanced our individual powers. We will take a peep into the future possibilities that will open up for the world with new discoveries in spiritual science. We will see that we are endowed with phenomenal mental energy, but we do not know how to access and use it. The new science will give us the tools to tap this energy. We will take a look at what is Fate and Chance, and try to trace the origin of religion.

This book also dwells on the power of the mind. It tries to analyze how the state of mind is related to mental powers and to our present beliefs of God and Religion. The book explores the possible future scientific developments which can allow us to tap the power of our mind. It compares how scientific explanation of the physical world has given us the tools or devices that increase our physical powers today, and how 'scientific' explanation of the spiritual world can help increase our mental powers in future. It peeps into the future possibilities that may open up when man discovers the laws of his own mental forces.

It makes an attempt to explore the mysteries of the Spiritual World, and to find an answer to the question "What is God?" I do not claim to have found an answer, as an answer may not be available so easily. This work is more exploratory than a proven answer to the question, "What is God and Religion?" It is more a hypothesis than a thesis. This book does not purport to be a research paper on the subject of God and religion, and no claim is made of any proof for the arguments presented. The purpose of this piece is not to explain what the concept of God and religion is, but to indicate what it is NOT. The primary objective is to open our eyes to the ill effects of our present misunderstanding of God and religion. The book attempts to do an immediate damage control by opening our eyes to what "GOD IS NOT" rather than searching for an answer to the question "WHAT IS GOD".

1.4. Our Belief System

I believe that the concept of God and religion has been grossly misunderstood by the common man. The primary reason for this misunderstanding is that the concept was explained to man by very learned saints ages ago when the common man was very ignorant. Hence it was communicated using very simple analogies in a language which man could understand then. Today the common man has a much better understanding of basic sciences. Whereas the common man then was aware only of physical objects, the common man today is comfortable with abstract things like energy, light waves, sound waves, electricity, laser beam, etc. This book tries to explain the same concept with the help of some basic concepts of science which the common man understands today. I believe that present day physical science may not explain the concept of God and religion. However, revisiting the history of evolution of physical science and exploring its relevance to the study of spiritual science opens up new avenues for thinking, and gives a new direction to our search for the laws of Spiritual World.

The mathematical graphs and diagrams may give an impression that this book is highly technical. Relax! This book is for the common man, not only for philosophers or scientists

I also believe that a great deal of wrong is being done in this world because of this misunderstanding, which can immediately be corrected if we all see what I can see. This discussion is intended to be an eye opener for us to wake up and ask ourselves a few questions - Where has our understanding or misunderstanding of God led us to today? Is it a blind faith? Where are we today in our search of God? What are our present methods? Where are we heading with our concept of God and religion? Are we heading in the right direction? Or do we need to wake up and correct ourselves? Are we pursuing some strange beliefs because of our ignorance - some beliefs which will crumble like a pack of cards with some imminent new discoveries in the field of spiritual science? The objective of this book is to help us see with wide eyes how, with our misunderstanding of God and religion, we have waylaid ourselves to a completely unexpected, unintended and undesirable path of religious hatred, violence and intolerance.

What I have discussed in the book is not science, not religion, nor 'heavy' philosophy. It is plain and simple common sense. The mathematical graphs and diagrams used in this book may give an impression of this piece being highly technical. But these diagrams are no more complicated than what you learnt in your school physics. The graph of three dimensional physical space with xyz co-ordinates is all that, I guess, you need to remember of your school physics to comprehend this work.

I have used the word "scientific" rather loosely when I used the term "scientific explanation of Spiritual World". It is possible that the present day science may not be able to explain the spiritual world and a new "science" may be required to do so. However, for simplicity, I will use the word "science" to refer to whatever field of study that may eventually explain the spiritual phenomenon.

1.5. Why this Book?

Why is this book important to you and every human being? Most would say "I am very open minded. I am not against other religions, so I do no harm to the world when I follow my faith and religion". Do you know that your very private beliefs too contribute to dividing the world? Do you know that YOU need to do something about this religious divide? If you love your children and want to make the world better for your children, YOU NEED TO WAKE UP AND ACT NOW.

This book does not present a proven theory for the existence or non existence of God. It only presents an alternate view for our current deep-rooted beliefs. This book will have achieved its purpose if it can help you look beyond some staunch beliefs today and say, "May be they are only beliefs of today to be broken tomorrow by more advanced alternate theories in Spiritual science." It will have achieved its purpose if it can make you realize that like the flat earth theory, we too may have some strange beliefs which we are so wedded to that we have closed our eyes to alternate possibilities.

If you are one of those trying to take an objective look at God and Religion, this book will certainly make you sit up and look at avenues you had never seen before, some avenues which you never thought existed before.

1.6. How to Read this Book

Today, man has come a long way from the ape-man era to the Stone Age to the jet age. For a moment, imagine yourself to be a Stone Age man, who by a stroke of miracle has landed up in today's world. The man-made world with all its scientific inventions that you see around you is something which you as a Stone Age man would not have thought of in your wildest of imaginations. As a stone age man, you have to "THINK OF THE UNTHINKABLE" to imagine today's world. As you read through this book, particularly about the possibilities of the future, the cynic in you will awaken from time to time. Whenever this happens to you, think of you as the Stone Age man and THINK OF THE UNTHINKABLE to imagine the possibilities of a future spiritual revolution. I call this method "The Time Swing Analysis", as it involves swinging back and forth in time into the past, present and the future. Chapter 3 describes this method in greater details.

I trust that you will read it with an open mind and be willing to question your basic beliefs, the beliefs which have for long been so dear to you. I hope, with an open mind, you will be able to say, "Hey, what I believed for years may not be true".

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