You believe in God
and you may worship him in order to arrive in heaven after you die, and if you
do, when in heaven please ask him why he created this world. Since I don’t
believe in God, I will go to hell and will be in the company of Lucifer.
However, God will be sitting on his throne in the heaven and would never check
to see what is happening in hell, as he loves those who worship him, and sends
the rest to the lower department managed by Satan. In fact, no one expects the
head of a secret service to walk into its torture chamber. But the question
that has been perplexing me is why God would create this world, and what
purpose he originally had behind it. As a matter of curiosity, the more thought-provoking
question is what he was doing before he created the world. Of course the usual
answer to such questions has been “God works in mysterious ways and no one can
and should try to delve into his mysteries.” However, whoever came up with such
notion, also came up with Genesis and several such stories describing how it was
at the beginning and how God created man. None of these stories go further back
to disclose what was before the beginning, and how God kept himself busy, since
there was no man on earth, and heaven and hell had no purpose to be built, and
there was nothing. What were God doing then, and who and how He Himself, was
created? We know there are wonders in the world, with the vast and almost
unlimited universe and black holes and other mysteries our scientists have
discovered. But these are mysteries as long as we have not solved them. Human
beings have been puzzled by what we take for granted, such as day and night and
flood and tornado and other natural elements. Some who were curious about all
of these and other mysteries of the world used their imagination and created fairytales.
But some investigated and found answers to many of these puzzles. More mysteries
will be discovered as well, and the weaknesses of the society will be
alleviated someday. However, if God is perfect, why did He make such a creation
full of holes!
We know that our
universe is 13.772 billion years old. How do we know it? It was calculated in a
reverse order. Our universe is expanding. As soon as the rate of expansion was
figured out, it was calculated in reverse. Our globe is 4.543 billion years
old. This was discovered by studying birth of other worlds, in addition to
geological discoveries. We have been on this planet for 3.7 billion years,
discovered by geologists through meta-sedimentary rocks. It is estimated that
there have been over five billion species on earth, 99% of which is extinct, and
there is currently an estimation of 10 to 14 million species living, 1.9
million of which are categorized and named. With the extinction of dinosaurs,
who feasted on mammals, human being was able to separate from other mammals
about 200,000 year ago. Therefore, the advent of humans roaming the earth is an
extremely recent event in comparison to the age of universe. Considering that
God created everything for us, it seems to have taken Him a very long time
after He designed the world, to create us and create a special place for us
only, where we go after we die. Let us start with creation of the world. God
created the world in six days and rested the 7th day. When you go to
heaven, please ask God what he was doing before He created the world. And then,
how He decided to create the world and for what purpose. And finally, why He
needed to rest, as if creating the world was a tiring task and He needed to
rest after His labor. God should be able to respond to these simple questions,
which would provide everyone with a basic knowledge about God’s preoccupations
and undertakings. If we are to obey God, we should have some knowledge of His
thought process, and for what purpose He is expecting us to do what He is asking
us to do. For instance; why is he male and not female, as in religious books of
every gender base language, He is referred to as a man. When He responds to
these basic questions, then we can inquire more of him:
· Storms, tornadoes,
earthquakes, natural disasters; what is the use of them? We perfectly know the
scientific reasons behind each one of them, and some day we will be able to
control them as well, but why did He create a world where we can live, but
added all these obstacles hindering life? What is the purpose of all the
viruses and bacteria and all those very little microscopic critters feeding on
us and consuming us? As soon as human being is able to conquer an epidemic and
mass killing disease, He sends a new one. Scientists spend years to find a cure
for yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, malaria, typhus, polio, and then He creates
cancer, aids, chikungunya, and many more diseases. Does He enjoy watching us
suffer?! Why didn’t He create a life of joy? What are pains, sufferings, sorrows,
anguishes, griefs, agony, torment, and torture for? Why not a life of mere happiness?
We have seasonal flood, tornado, hurricane, cyclone, earthquake, and other
natural disasters that threaten our existence. Since God created us and He
created universe in order to serve us, why did he put us in such a shaky
grounds? Literally?
· Chemicals in the air and axis of the earth and
sun and other planets provide us with life, a small change in any of which would
wipe out life on earth. We know that there are millions of asteroids and comets
and meteors passing by our globe, some threateningly close. Although extinction
of dinosaurs is a mystery, some blame it on an asteroid hitting the earth and
creating such impact that it wiped out all the large animals, such as dinosaurs,
from the face of our planet. Is there a possibility of another one of those
huge rocks to hit our planet and to bring about our extinction? Even if we do
not die off instantly, it may be such a colossal impact that it would tilt and
change the present axis of earth, resulting a slow death. We have created
weapons with such destructive capacities that can wipe out the whole earth in a
blink of an eye. If the world was designed and our creation was planned, why are
we allowed to develop something that can destroy all God’s creations overnight?
Why God does not interfere with us killing each other and undoing what he
designed and engineered, destroying our environment and plundering His
beautiful enterprise? We are imaginative. We look at the sky, the moon and the
stars, and we write poetry about them. We compare green valleys and pastures
and colorful flowers with our emotions. We feel sympathy for others’ injuries
and get excited for others’ joys and happiness. We are sociable and we need
others to be around us and care for us, and we care for them. Then, and
suddenly by an order from our leaders, we destroy lands in wars and kill each
other to increase someone else’s wealth, while the same nature we were so
sympathetic about is crushed under our heavy arms. Why has God created such a
dichotomy and irreconcilable differences?
· In order to survive, living things are required
to consume other living things. We grow and eat vegetables, so do some
vegetarian animals. We raise those vegetarian animals to eat them too. When
dinosaurs roamed the earth, they used to eat mammals, and if we were around we
would have been someone’s feast. Even now, if we appear near a lion or a tiger
den, we may have the same destiny. It is so painful just to imagine that some
animal puts a human head between his jaws and breaks the prey’s neck with his
teeth. I am sure many of our ancestors had such endings. What is the purpose of
the circle of life? There is such an array of universes out there with such a
beauty that if we had enough time, we could enjoy discovering and visiting all
of them. Intelligent animals are discovered to have the same curiosity about
the world around them as we humans do. As the most intelligent being, we could
be leading all other interested animals while discovering other worlds. We are
making more efficient machines which would enable us to travel far from our
earth. Someday the technology would enable us to travel any place outside of
our Milky Way that we desire to, although our physical body is not built for
that. By that time, we may be able to get through this impediment as well, but
for the time being it seems impossible. We may find other universes with other
living things, may be in a different form or shape. Would those living things
eat each other in order to survive too? If God created this world for us, why
don’t we have enough time and resources to visit all of it? In addition, the
idea of continued existence by ending another being’s life seems to be a gross
and a sick idea. Hopefully God can explain the purpose behind it.
· Receiving the most out of his or her life is a
human pursuit. Receiving more than one’s share, and not sharing what one has
with others, and trying to get what belongs to others is the mission of a
minority group. However, such minority groups, because of the accumulation of
wealth, become leaders, dictators, so-called elected officials and as a result,
they force themselves to the top of the pyramid in their society. It does not
even stop there since they extend their reach to other communities and
societies as well. Sometimes a different ideology, color of skin, belief system,
or way of life becomes an appropriate device in overreach and encroachment into
other territories. Slavery, which was openly exploiting others until a century
ago, has continued although in different shapes and forms. The rich minerals of
Congo are necessary for our advanced equipment such as cell phones and laptops,
and by installing a corrupt leader and furnishing him arms to the teeth,
Congolese people are enslaved in mines in order to supply Apple, Microsoft,
Tesla, Toyota, and other companies with much needed cheap raw materials for
their products. Doesn’t God mind that all countries which are rich in minerals
live in poverty, such as African and Middle Eastern countries, while Western
countries not only steal their raw materials, but also steal their most
educated and sharp individuals?
· Why so many prophets and holly men with
different messages? It is true that religions were born in the East, where countries
were more progressed at the time, while they experienced nomadic lives in the
West. Therefore, it needed a more advanced society to develop such an idea as a
systematic religion, while other societies worshipped idle or some sort of natural
phenomena as Gods. Why is religion such a striking instrument for exploiting others?
If God oversees everything, why doesn’t he interfere with people’s worshipping
wrong Gods and in fact, introduces himself to everyone? Isn’t that a better way
to encourage faith?
· Why are religious stories and God’s guidance in
religious books so elementary? I will not go through them, some of which look
like fairy tales with sad endings! Let us review the beginning and story of
Adam and Eve in Genesis. The first creations with Eve coming out of Adam’ rib,
while females are the source of multiplication, sounds deliberately male
chauvinist. This is just the beginning of all rudimentary creation stories,
which is the base of all Abrahamic religions. The same illogical stories appear
in other religions as well. Take for instance Buddha, who was born into a royal
family, but considers life unsatisfactory and it has to be repeated in
continuous rebirth until Nirvana is attained. Therefore, the only life that we
are sure of becomes useless, and it is supposed to be spent on religious
practices the whole life long. That is the base in all South Asian religions,
with rebirth or reincarnation tales in variation. Looking at other Islamic,
Biblical, and stories in other major religions, it is clear that none was
written by someone with a scientific or a well-informed mind. It becomes in
fact curious that religion in its most advanced form was created in the most
advanced societies. There could have been some skeptics in those periods as
well, but their ideas never materialized, or were destroyed by those in power
who benefited from religions. The oldest persons who questioned institutionalized
religions whom also we know, was Democritus. If this life is not valuable and
some other lives are important, what is the purpose of this and why are we not
informed of the plans in its entirety.
· Life span of human being and other living things
is limited and they all come to life one day, and die the other. Why is that?
Instead of giving birth to new ones and then dying, why didn’t He create a world
full of young people to live forever and stay the same age? Doesn’t that sound
more logical? It sounds from the scriptures that Adam and Eve were created as
mature people who roamed the heaven for several centuries. Of course not
obeying God’s rules and eating what He had forbidden, no matter how childish
the cause sounds, should banish them from heaven. It seems like sending His
creations to earth was a punishment for not obeying the orders, meaning that
the life that we have is a punishment for the deeds of our forefathers. Perhaps
that is the reason that life is so harsh at times. First of all, human babies
would not survive if they are not tended to and cared for by adults. Then,
throughout our lives we have to fight with all the diseases mentioned earlier.
By the time we are adults, we have survived more than hundred epidemics and
sicknesses and diseases. Then, we confront all the living problems and obstacles
(job, family, society) that we have to overcome. The funny thing is that after
all of these, and in order to be able to go to heaven after life, we have to
pray to God, thanking him for all of that, ask his forgiveness for something
that our forefathers did supposedly thousands of years ago, and be glad that the
creator is humble, compassionate, and merciful. No reasonable person would be
able to reconcile with this contradiction. When we die young, everyone wails
and cries and weeps for us. When we get very old and still living and act like
a child and people around us have to take care of us, they wish us dead. What
is the reason for aging and metamorphism? We keep changing shapes and looks and
features as we grow up. As a child, one does not think properly due to lack of
knowledge and experience. When we are teenagers or youngsters, our libido
controls us. The age of maturity and knowledge is very short, because soon
after, old age makes us act like children again and dependent on others. Why
doesn’t knowledge and experience transfer genetically? Why isn’t life
continuous?
When in heaven, ask God that it seems to
everyone that He works in mysterious ways. But it sounds illogical and those
mysteries don’t add up. It seems that human being has made two fatal
inventions; God and government. Otherwise, humanity would have been extended
much longer than what it is now, livable nature for living things would have
lasted longer, and scientific discoveries would have been achieved earlier. While
asking all the above questions, don’t forget to ask God this simple question
about his adversary, the devil, a question that was asked thousands of years
ago by Epicurus. The question he raised was whether God was not able to prevent
the devil from deceiving man. The idea does not sound right since the mighty
God who created the devil Himself would be unable to undo the devil. Not only
that, but why the devil was the devil created in the first place! After you
arrive in heaven, and after rendering all religious practices before God, please
ask Him these questions. And so help you God.
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