WHERE IS SCIENCE?

Hello,

When people were witnessing the devastation caused by the earthqauke in Haiti, I wondered where was science.

If Science was the all emcompassing, ever so powerful knowledge tool why did it fail to predict the quake? What were the satallites put up in the sky to sense the earthly disturbances doing?

I do not say that following nature could have saved the lives but when it is earthqaukes it is better to look at animals who have continued to benefit from their reliance on nature rather than human brains and machines that try to prove that they are smarter than God. A classic example of the superiority of 'knowledge of nature' over 'dependence on machines' was provided by the Onges, Jarawas and Sentinalese tribes, who survied the massacre of the Tsunami that hit the Indian coastal areas in 2004 and killed more than 150,000 people. The tribes survived because they read the natural signals correctly and did not have any scientific warning signals to rely on.

But we are once again discussing the mysterious ways of God and wondering as to why God took away so many lovely people from Haiti when there are mass murderes and terrorists roaming freely on earth. His logic is difficult to understand but I totally disagree with televangelist Rev. Pat Robertson, who on Wednesday linked the earthquake in Haiti to a "pact with the devil".

Every living man has made a pact with the devil and if the logic of Rev. Pat Robertson is correct, human life should have gone extinct by now.

So what is the explanation for this calamity? Why are so many children, old people, young energetic innocent people taken away so suddenly?

Does the Satan vs. God (Tree of Knowledge vs. Tree of Life Choices) really make sense?

Best regards,

Manoj

POSITIVE THINKING - REGAINING FAITH

Regaining Faith,

Further to my post 'Loosing faith' about loosing trust on God, I am happy to say that my friend has not lost faith as apprehended.

She took help from the Koran and her faith has strengthened. Yesterday I talked to her again and she told me that took help of two thoughts to get over her feeling of helplessness.

She mentioned the first one as a verse from Koran which says "Do not get Angry, Do not Get Angry, Do not get Angry."

She said that most of her feelings about her helplessness stemmed from her anger and when she started trying to get control over her anger, her helplessness started appearing surmountable.

The second help she got from some Islamic preaching that says that human life is like a circle made up of 24 parts. Some person may have the parts equally divided and some may have one bigger than the rest, but all in all the 24 parts will finally always add up to one complete circle.

So one person can have a bigger part for riches or for career success or for family happiness but then if these parts are bigger obviously some part has to compensate. If life is such a balance, then why crib.

She stopped cribbing and concentrated on her physiotherapy. She is now feeling better, her husband came back on the first day of Ramadan and they are spending time together and although her sister is still fighting her battle with Cancer, she is more peaceful now.

God, as usual, passed his test.

Best regards,

Manoj

Did you miss what God wanted to tell you

Hello,

I came across a wonderful story which illustrates how we can miss God's message because we are short sighted.

How anger can blind us and how sometimes we are too late in realizing our mistakes.

Read this short story to find out:

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car.

Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Holy Qur'an.

Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Holy Qur'an?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book. He never contacted his father again for long long time.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him.

He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Holy Qur'an, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Holy Qur'an and began to turn the pages. As he Read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Holy Qur'an. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss GOD blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? It does not matter what religion you belong to... the message is for everyone.

Best regards,

Manoj

Loosing Faith

Hello,

A friend of mine is loosing faith.

During the last few months she has been going from one tragedy to another.

It started with her father becoming seriously ill and then after creating a false hope of recovery he finally succumbed to Cancer.
She had just about recovered from the loss of a parent when her husband lost his job.
If this was not enough, she was once again shocked by the news that her younger sister is also suffering from Cancer.
Finally, she recently had a fall and has hurt her back so badly that it has affected her eyesight and concentration.
To top it all, her husband has found it an appropriate time to go on a vacation and calls her from there saying that he is enjoying the weather in a far away place.
This poor lady is handling her job, her two kids and the households chores all alone and although she is strong, attached to her husband, loving to her kids and devoted to Allah, she is loosing faith.

She is a dear friend and although she is getting some support at work from her colleagues, the absence of her husband at such a critical juncture is almost the last straw on the camel's back.

This is real test of faith and I want to see how God helps her.

My prayers are with her.

Manoj

lessons from Koran

Hello,

Lesson from Koran:
{Keep your covenant; and I will be true to My covenant with you...} [2:40].

The mention of “covenant” has a particular signification. There is a covenant between Allah, the most exalted, the creator and man, the created. This covenant states that Allah would give man whatever he needs in this life to be rewarded according to his deeds: {Those who say: “Our Lord is Allah” and take the right path to Him}. [Fussilat: 30].

{Keep your covenant, and I will be true to My covenant with you}.
Interpretors of the koran say that this shows that Allah doesn’t only elevate man to a high rank of humanity but most importantly it shows that Allah, the most exalted, considers man a mindful being with free will and free choice in spite of the absolute truth that Allah gives man his existence and that He has the power to terminate this existence. Allah, the most exalted, doesn’t ignore man but guides him and to practice his humanity properly. Thus, we are God’s creation of an absolute humanity.

Although God, the most exalted, has made us from nothing, and although he is the generator of our existence, he doesn’t consider us his slaves but His beings. Therefore, he made a covenant with man, with us, and gave us the freedom to choose our relation with Him and to choose or destiny as well.

{Say: This is the truth from your Lord. Let him who will believe in it and him who will deny it}. [The cave 29], and:
{whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it also}. [Al –Zulzula 7-8].

Allah, the most exalted, calls upon us to behave in this life as we wish, but at the same time He states that our behaviors and attitudes would determine our destiny. For this reason, when God, the most exalted, says that he made a covenant with us, He means that He profoundly respects us and assures us our humanity. God orders us to be free beings provided that our freedom should be controlled against any possible deviation.

Best wishes,
Manoj

DOES GOD ACTUALLY ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS

Hello,

Have you had an experience of something happening to you/ with you after you have left it on your trust in God?

Did someone ever come and extend a helping hand when every door seemed to have closed?

Did you get a message for helping someone is distress?

These are small events of God communicating with you.

It is not necessary for someone you love to be close to you always.
You continue loving some people even when they are no longer a part of your mortal existence.

This is the feeling that should envelope you when you think of God.

God is always around. You have to feel his presence, hear his voice.

Best wishes,
Manoj

THE GOD DELUSION - SAME OLD MISHMASH

Hello,

Richard Dawkins is the new Messiah of the Atheists. 'The God Delusion' his book published in 2006 is considered his masterpiece where he argues the Existence of God and then debates morality and religion.

Atheists gloat over the fact that the book sold over 1.5 million copies and was on several best seller lists. Amazon.com where the book was mostly sold registered a jump of 50% in sales of religious and non religious books after the publication of 'The God Delusion'. An astonishing aside is that the 'Bible' is said to have registered a growth of 120% during the same period.

Several responses have since been made to Richard Dawkins and I am attaching below two simple letters written by youngsters that appear in the thechristianworldview.com

The two main issues addressed is the 'existence of God' and 'Morality and Religion'. The replies in simple understandable English is impressive. Just go through it.

Dear Dr. Dawkins,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I have taken the time to write to you in order to question you on your stance regarding absolute truth and the origins/workings of the universe. I am fully aware of your worldview and your belief that God is non-existent, but I ask you to consider the following arguments for His existence. In my opinion, there are two basic categories that need to be addressed in order to discuss the existence of some kind of god: absolute, knowable truth and the origin, precision, and moral standards of creation.

It is impossible to prove the nonexistence of anything. All we are able to do is to look at the evidence and come to a logical conclusion. Even if all arguments for the nonexistence of God failed, that would still not prove the impossibility of a sound argument for the nonexistence of God. Since this is true, so is the reverse. If all the arguments for the existence of God failed, that would not prove the impossibility of a sound argument for the existence of God. Therefore, it is more productive for me to outline why I believe the following to be true.

Let us begin with an accepted universal constant: gravity. Imagine I didn’t believe in a gravitational force and I jumped off the Empire State building. Would my sincere unbelief keep me from falling to the unforgiving pavement? Of course not. This illustrates why scientific knowledge cannot be a collection of subjective opinions. Rather, it is a collection of explanations about objective reality that is based on observed or predicted phenomena. In addition, the explanation must be verified repeatedly to confirm that it correctly models reality. As we become more skilled at scientific observation, our scientific knowledge changes rapidly and the new theories that are formed are either verified or falsified. You’ll notice, however, that the absolute reality that is being modeled has never changed. The scientific method assumes an absolute reality, against which, theories can be verified. It is incomprehensible that these things could come about on their own because of their complex nature and mathematical order. Therefore, such precision would require nothing less than a sovereign Creator.

However, scientists, such as yourself, subscribe to a theory that claims the universe exploded into being out of nothing. Logically, nature itself could not have been responsible for the creation of the universe because by definition of the word “nothing,” natural law, or nature, didn’t exist before the creation of the universe! Continuing along this line of thought, if creation wasn’t by a “natural” cause, then it must have been a supernatural cause. This cause must be: immaterial, timeless, powerful and space-less because these things did not exist before the creation of the universe. Furthermore, this miraculous creation exploded into being in a precise, orderly state. For instance, if Earth’s position was slightly different from its current position or its axial tilt was off, or the Earth’s rotation wasn’t twenty-four hours, we wouldn’t exist. These are just a few samples of information which I am certain you are already aware of. In fact, in your own book “A Blind Watchmaker” you admit that in a simple amoeba there is enough DNA information to fill one-thousand sets of encyclopedias. In light of this information, I am reminded of a quote from Frank Turek: “To believe that the amoeba happened by accident is like saying the Library of Congress resulted from an explosion in a printing shop!”

It is also imperative that I address a common issue between atheists and theists called morality. Christopher Hitchens is famous for challenging theists to name a moral action that a theist would do that an atheist could not perform. This, however, is an irrelevant question. The question is not can you do something moral but are you justified in your “moral” action. In other words, because you don’t believe in absolute truth, morality is relative. This being the case, I could walk up to you, kick you, and walk away because it would be no different than shaking your hand. So why would you choose to do anything that wasn’t in your best interest? There is an obvious flaw in the atheist’s logic because no atheist lives this way!
It is because of the inconsistency of the atheist’s worldview that I chose two categories of arguments: absolute, knowable truth and the origin, precision, and moral standards of creation. When approaching the evidence from a logical, reasonable perspective, one cannot deny that this immaterial, timeless, powerful, space-less creating force whose universe is precisely suited for human life sounds an awful lot like the God of the Bible.

Your friend,
Kevin Bibelhausen

Open Letter: Professor Dawkins by Sally Nelson

Dear Professor Dawkins,

In both your book, The God Delusion, and in television interviews, you have repeatedly argued that there is no evidence supporting religion and, in turn, God. You have accused Christianity of being a “belief without evidence” or a “blind faith” that is not based upon reason. In actuality, manifold evidence and logically sound reasoning supports faith and the existence of God.

Creation points to the existence of God. As Psalms 19:1 says, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of His hands.” The world declares the existence of God, but many reject Him. The origin of the world and of life poses a difficult question for those who deny God. The world obviously had a beginning point. There is not enough energy for stars to exist for more than a quadrillion years.

Therefore, the world cannot have been around forever. Somehow, the world had to begin. Either the world created itself or there was a creator. For the world to have created itself, it would have had to immense have power before it actually existed. The world would have had to create a complex molecule, such as DNA or RNA, with perfect functionality, before the world even existed. The concept is equivocal to the idea of throwing random parts together and producing a supercomputer. It defies all rules of logic. How could a random process create life? Dr. Walter L. Bradly, Ph.D., who is currently serving as a Professor of Engineering at Baylor University, stated, “If we took all of the carbon in the universe, converted it into amino acids, and allowed it to chemically react at the maximum permissible rate of 1013 interactions per second for five billion years, the probability of making a single functioning protein increases to only 1/1060. For this reason, chance explanations for the origin of life have been rejected.” The second possibility, that the world had a creator, makes not only more logical sense but evidence also supports the possibility. The complex beauty and elegance of the natural world proclaims the existence of God.

Moral law points to a creator. In most societies, it is unacceptable to do certain things, such as lying, stealing, and infidelity in marriage. Even the earliest civilizations, from the Mesopotamians to the Minoans, had standards of right and wrong. How could mankind have such a foundational moral law without someone to instill that internal compass? As C.S. Lewis said, “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.” God has given us a standard of morality that transcends culture.

Darwinian supporters have responded to the argument of moral law stating that morality is a sort of Darwinian impulse, similar to sexual instinct. You and others like you have argued that mankind has a standard of morality as we have evolved into the knowledge that certain behaviors adversely affect mankind. Therefore, we feel moral instinct to avoid those behaviors. The distinction between right and wrong is not merely an instinct. If it was an instinct, it would not conflict with other desires that would benefit humankind. For example, a woman is unable to fulfill her husband’s sexual desires because of medical issues. Her husband feels the desire for sexual satisfaction and procreation outside of the boundaries of his marriage. Something inside him, though, tells him that such behavior is wrong.

This “moral instinct”, when looking through the lens of Darwinian Theory, conflicts with the impulse to procreate and further the species. Morality, if evolved to hinder behavior that could destroy the species, would not conflict with the instinct to procreate. Morality conflicts with the Darwinian instinct to advance the human species. For example, some have taken the “instinct” to further the human species to the extreme of removing humans viewed as “unfit” to live. If morality was evolved to aid the human species, there would be no moral qualms about removing “unfit” humans. We can conclude that some outer force instilled moral law in mankind. God has given us a conscience and a way to distinguish right from wrong. This is yet another arrow pointing towards God.

The impossibility of evolution, the elegance of creation, and moral law imprinted on man’s heart all point to the existence of God. Christianity is not a blind faith. It is a faith that is based upon profound evidence and logic. As you have said many times before, truth is wonderful and uplifting and I hope you will look for it. I do realize that it is impossible to prove God to those who refuse to believe or to those who refuse to listen with an open mind.

I can’t touch God, Professor Dawkins, but I can point you to Him.

God bless,
Sally Nelson

It is not surprising the Richard Dawkins debates the 'Existence of God', what is surprising that he has the same age old mishmash of arguments.

While Atheists say that God is lie that has entered our conscience because of the continuous hammering they try to do the same thing themselves. Trying to hammer in their idea without adequate proof.

Best wishes and may god bless you.
Manoj

GOD - EXISTENCE

Hello,

When I talk about the existence of God, I never focus on the existence of a god by name. It is never Jesus, Allah or Vishnu that I talk of.
I do not talk of compulsory rituals as the path to God.
I talk about an omnipresent, the supernatural, the divine power who guides us and leads us to become better humans.

For me God is not a form. For me God is a bundle of qualities that is difficult to find in one person. This powerful entity who shows compassion and empathy, this entity which has the power to correct wrongs and this entity which has the ability to lead you down the correct path is my God.

God is my faith and my belief on how life should be lived. My God is personal, formless, open to ideas and influences, and more pluralistic than the doctrinal faiths of religions.

In my effort to connect with God I know I have to travel several paths, answer doubts on his existence and find my answers.

I believe that God exists and I will willingly take every path that may lead to a connection with the Almighty. It may be a name as well if I feel that it is the path that will lead to the connection, but mainly it will be practice and prayers.

To get to God I feel you need to be good.
Only the pure has a chance of getting connected to the purest.
So I practice to be good.
Honest, helpful and hopeful.


Best wishes to my effort,
Manoj

MIRACLES - Existence of God

Hello,
Just now read about a miracle that I wanted to share.

Hannah Clark is a young girl of 16 who has started playing games, has a part time job and plans to go back to school in September.

All this had looked impossible 15 years ago when as a eight month old baby, Hannah had developed serious heart problems. As heart donations were rare she had to wait another year when a heart of a 5 month old was available.

Meanwhile, on medication, Hannah developed lung problems as well and when it was time for the transplant the doctors thought it prudent to graft the donor's heart directly into her heart.

The doctors then put little Hannah on medication to prevent her body from rejecting the new heart and this gave rise to Cancer and chemotherapy.

But the chemotherapy and the lowering of the drugs did not help and the cancer spread. Hannah's ravished little body finally rejected the donor heart and then a miracle happened.

Hannah original heart started functioning normally and in February 2006, ten years after the implant, the donor heart it was removed from her body.

There were days when Hannah was given just hours to live and science fails to explain how Hannah got her heart back.

Miguel Uva, Chairperson of the European Society of Cardiology's group on cardiovascular surgery called Hannah case a 'miracle'. He said that it is rare for patient's heart to get simply better on their own.

Another proof of the existence of the Almighty. A miracle.

You can read all about the case on Lancet. log on to http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)61201-0/fulltext

Best wishes,
Manoj

Uniformity of the Universe - Embarrassment for atheists

One of the remarkable features of the universe is that above a certain scale (about 10²⁴ metres) it is highly uniform in structure. This degree of uniformity is an embarrassment to cosmologists.
According to relativity theory, there should be no causal connection between points separated by distances greater than c multiplied by t (where c is the velocity of light and t is the age of the universe). Extrapolating this back to the Big Bang suggests that the primordial universe was partitioned into about 10⁸⁰ causally separate regions.
Nevertheless, all these disconnected regions had to expand at the same rate to maintain the observed degree of uniformity! Coincidence or co-operation?
Small wonder that Paul Davies (I hope the atheists know him) comments:“It is hard to resist the impression of something - some influence capable of transcending spacetime and the confinement of relativistic causality - possessing an overview of the entire cosmos at the instant of its creation, and manipulating all the causally disconnected parts to go bang with almost exactly the same vigour at the same time, and yet not so exactly co-ordinated as to preclude the small scale, slight irregularities that eventually formed the galaxies, and us.”

ARE ZEUS AND THOR FORGOTTEN GODS

I read somewhere the Atheists argument that if God was so omnipresent and forever how come no one worships Thor and Zeus, the Gods who were so powerful just a few centuries ago.

What Atheists forget is that the names of Gods like Zeus, Thor and others are just a way of making Gods look human.

Why? You will ask, of course. Why try to humanize God?

I tried to analyze it and my personal explanation is that the attempt to humanize God was made to make people aware of the various attributes and powers of God.
It is clear that appearances are important and even atheist are ready to convert if they can see God. If the educated class (that is what Atheist try to project themselves as) also believe only in the existence of objects that can be seen how can they not understand the needs of the less privileged.
Our ancestors understood this very well that it is easier to explain to people with form. The recognizable attributes were given form to make people connect directly with God.

Slowly, people forgot the purpose of the creation of form for Gods and started worshiping the idols. It is convenient for certain sections that people get attached to idols and forget that God is formless, omnipresent and most powerful.

Religion which starts as a way of life becomes a slave of rituals and diminishes the sanctity of the thought of God.

When people realize that the forms are not needed to worship the forms loose their importance . Zeus and Thor are forms which outlived their utility as people understood that the attributes that Thor and Zeus represent are actually part of the same God everyone wants to be close to.

Zeus and Thor and several other forms just represent the attributes of God who is formless, omnipresent and all powerful.

Manoj

WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

Most debates on the existence of the Almighty are based on the inability of theists to provide proof of the existence.

This I agree is difficult. Most of our beliefs are either based on what is always being considered as the acceptable truth or on personal experiences which point out to the existence.

Personal experiences are unique and although a small incident like getting cured of cancer when all hope is lost or unexpectedly meeting someone who helps you through a crisis may be a big event for you, for the non believer, it is just fluke/ chance or coincidence.

There are many events in everyday life which are difficult to explain through science. How events tie up to bring success where it is least expected and how worship alone makes things happen are easy to be pooh poohed and treated as a matter of probability but that may be for someone not involved. For the person involved it is God even when he does not appear in front of us.

If God did not exist why do atheist try so hard to prove it. It should be acceptable to all if there was proof.

Produce it my dear friends or let us live with our faith and belief.

Two Questions Test on God

An educated man also an atheist meets a pious man and they start discussing religion, god and faith.

The theist responds calmly to all his questions and seeing that he is heading nowhere the atheist decides to subject his debater to the two question test on the existence of God.

The questions were:

If god exists what is his form? and
What is fate?

The theist who had been calm till then rose from his seat, walked up to the questioner and slapped him hard.

Why? asked the questioner.

To give you an answer, replied the theist. Do you feel pain? he asked.

Yes.

What is the form? If you cannot give me the form of the pain how do you say that the pain exists. This is the answer to the first question.

Did you know that I would slap you? Did you dream yesterday that I would slap you? This is fate and this is the answer to your second question.

Too simplistic, my friends would say. But then I would answer "why should everything be defined by some complex formula."

Debate as the Test of Faith

“A debate would bring out the question of proof of God hence the taboo on discussing religious beliefs, that continues to be reinforced by all major and minor religions of the world.”

My friend Mohit writes in http://serialbus.wordpress.com ruing that Adi Shankaracharya lives no more and that there is no one to debate on the question “Does God really exist?”

Now because most ideas today are influenced by western thoughts and discussions, I would be considered out dated if I tell that in India the debate on the existence of God has been eternal. People in India continue to debate the existence of God in the same way as Quantum Physicist debate the cause of the Big Bang in the west.

But debates over God are not unique to India and Adi Shankaracharya.

William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith, qualified American academicians, debated on this issue as late as March 22, 1996 on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

It would be a personal judgment as to who won the debate but one thing that comes out clear is that if you do not accept that God is the cause of the Big Bang you do not have any other answer.
Just because God is not a formula does not by any means signify that he does not exist.

After all as science has all the answers let them come out with the mathematical formula that says “God does not exist”. Till then I would let common knowledge prevail.

DOES GOD ACTUALLY EXIST

Many people question the existence of God, forgetting conveniently that they question their own existence with their doubts.
They ask whether one has seen God and if not then how can one believe in his existence they say.

There are others who are great believers but say that they are yet to see God. These people also forget that when they say that have not seen God they question their own existence.

God is present in every human being. He is omnipresent, he is form and he is formless.

Questioning the presence of God is like questioning the presence of feelings, the joy of triumph, the sorrow on the departure of a loved one, the love for your child, the empathy for a fellow being. This is God. Being Human and feeling Human is part of God.

Man can say he has not seen God only if he can confirm that he has not seen his feelings and if he says he has seen his feelings then he can never dispute the existence of God.

Next time a person asks you if you have seen God ask him in return if he has seen joy, sadness, love and empathy. If his answer is yes then your answer is not required.