GOD OR PHYSICS.

Nikola Tesla once said, what one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics. Most religious fanatics will read this statement and declare it blasphemous, an uncouth statement that means to deny the existence of a creator.

Before this blog goes any further, let me start by saying that I do believe there was/is a creative spirit that existed at the beginning of time, which put everything we see today into motion.

Let us call it the first programmer, that entered the first line of code, which would go on to determine how energy would move from chaos and entropy into order. Yes, I believe there is an ancient spirit that is trying to make sense of its existence, the very first entity faced with the formless reality. In that sense, I accept the idea of a God, because our reality at this moment is not so strange.

Now, with that being said, where do our delusions begin and end? Are you responsible for your own actions and thoughts, or is God? Is free will real or not? And if we are free to choose, then what is God’s role in our lives and what is Science’s?

When a child falls out of the tree they were climbing and injures his leg, is that the devil’s work or is it gravity?
When you create a beautiful child with a beautiful partner, is that God? Or is it biology and energy? There exists free energy in the universe, and this perhaps is more of a driving force than God is.

Let’s for a moment shift our attention over to the above painting called The creation of Adam by Michelangelo. In the painting, Angelo shows us an image of God touching Adam’s index finger with his. Side note, this image is not meant to claim that God is Caucasian, but rather the painter was. Which brings us to the next layer of interpretation for this work of art. For those of you who may not be aware, if you look close enough, you can see God reaching to Adam from within the mind. The strange shape that God is encapsulated in is the same shape of the brain, which tells us that God is in the mind or God is experienced in the mind of man; I cannot speak for the other creatures we share this beautiful blue bubble with. This nonetheless begs the question, what is God?

Why ask? Because some of the oldest questions that still exist are, where do we come from? And what are we really?
Some people say we just popped into existence, which sounds outlandish to me. I like this explanation as much as anyone would enjoy spending time with someone who is not only dull but is also the cause of dullness in others. Some people say we were created by alien beings that came after the universe, which sounds slightly more plausible than the former narrative. While others have given us the story of evolution, which I feel sits well with the idea of a creative spirit if you know what you’re talking about.

Why does it matter who or what God is? Because once we have a clear understanding of the nature of God, we may be able to identify where the natural laws discussed in physics end, and where God’s Will begins. And because our minds allow us to contemplate such things, we need to know where the delusions begin, and where our understanding ends.

Finally, we come to the heart of the matter, which is the topic of religion, and its ability to put us at odds with science, which involves the study of things that can be measured.
I can already see the fanatics boiling up as they yell at their screens “GOD CANNOT BE MEASURED!!!!”. Does that mean we allow ourselves to be deluded by misinformation or misunderstanding? Which leads to all kinds of conflict?

Religion is for us humans. it helps us confront our anxieties around death while allowing us to have a sense of everlasting life, by creating cultures that we can pass down to our children when we are no longer around. How much does religion really have to do with the true creator? The first one faced with the formless reality, probably very little.

That is not to say religion is a bad thing, in fact, I welcome anything that helps man cope with his existence, however, because God is experienced in the minds of men, and minds of men are like machines that sometimes get damaged or lack in processing power, would it be safe to say that our perceptions of God are still as unclear to us, as a diamond at the bottom of a muddy lake. So why not just focus on those things that can be measured, and on being decent human beings to one another? Because your fanatic beliefs may just be beliefs about yourself, for yourself, and not necessarily about God.

By –Simon D.M. Karanja