What is God?
Andre: I agree with Gabrielle Teare. God is whatever you want It to be. It is the controlling force of your life. Atheists believe God is their own mind.The religious people believe that God is as an external controlling entity that has control over their minds. Agnostics, well they are not sure. Religious people unfortunately each create their own God who is (most of the time) not compatible with another person’s god, even in the same religion. I myself subscribe to rationalism.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Andre: Well I don’t belief in creationism as it is too much a fairy story. The Big Bang is probable. There is another theory: the Flux Theory which postulates that the universe keeps getting created and destroyed over and over. Another interesting theory I recently read about in Calculating God by R J Sawyer is that God may have been created every time the universe gets created. So He first tries to sort himself out and then tries to put order into things but may also make mistakes. He might even have different choices each time; for example He can get something to change in the universe that does great good but it comes with side effects like a disease or environmental destruction. Interesting theory but it is as all the things mentioned in response to the question – just a theory. Also don’t forget the parallel universes theory. I do think as soon as we get to understand quantum physics we might get closer to the truth though.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Andre: Darwin seems more rational. We still need a lot more proof though. But I’d rather teach my kids something more rational than creationism.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Andre: Pain and injustice have been a reality with us from day one. Until man can stop his ignorance and self-righteousness we will have to be content to dwell in our own misery forever. Unfortunately the people who need to realize it won’t do so.

Who is God’s God?
Andre: It is a circular reference …. well for me there is no proven God. So if I can’t prove the first one I can’t even begin to theorize further. But interestingly enough I have observed too that most things in life follow a cycle including animals, plants, the planets etc. This makes me think that existence must be cyclical too. It is only human beings who see everything to have a beginning and an end; maybe we are  finite-focused and not able to understand anything else ?

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Andre: Again, I agree with Gabrielle. Even existing cults/religions keep splitting up. There is no proven God.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Andre: Interesting theory but once again just a theory, with no proof. One can theorize the same thing about aliens – and – it is not even so far fetched if you start reading the ancient Sumerian scripts as Zecharia Sitchin has done. The gods of the ancients may have been aliens, but still no proof except strange scriptures.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Andre: Nope we just don’t yet have the ability to understand our surroundings. If you look, for example, at the way animals and insects observe the world, you would know that they see the world completely different than humans. This changes how they react to things in life and how they understand it. I believe the same is true for us as humans, that is why science is so important – it is the only way we will be able to find out what we can’t see with our normal senses and begin to understand it.

Man is born with an inherent capability to distinguish between good and bad. No law can match the reasoning of an evolved being. Each of us has a clear understanding of where we stand, what we do and what should be done. But we all differ in our capacity to accept it, so we keep ignoring it to a much or less extent. These few great men were the ones who had the total capacity and courage to accept and change themselves for the better. And then they dared to ask humanity to do the same!

Jesus, Gandhi and King, were authentic men, as Man was meant to be. They were a yardstick for human existence; a challenge to the baseness of mankind; an Everest to hills. But, they reminded fellow men of their pettiness and shadow energies that hide inside undetected and unprocessed. There is a very ancient saying that if you want to make one stick look small, place a bigger stick adjacent to it.

Executing those like Jesus, Gandhi and King was an effort to re-establish our self-granted “superiority” in some way. But when one brutally murders someone utterly innocent, the collective guilt remains and stains the landscape of humanity forever. It can never be washed away with platitudes and conscience-prompted deification. Calling them “god” or “godlike” is a subtle way to cover up the guilt of all wrongs that we did to them.

It is also an excuse for us to stay the way we are as “ordinary” human beings. Our excuse is that only gods can aspire to greatness. We want to remain at the lowest rung of existence because being base needs no effort. It is an easy path. All good men are made into “gods” and “mahatmas” and all the bad ones remain as mere humans. Adolf Hitler was a human, so was Joseph Stalin and Mao-Tse Tung and every other brutal dictator and murderer who ever walked this earth.

Disturbing little insight into the human psyche isn’t it?

Now comes the news that there has been a derailment in the Delhi metro although the system is almost new. One can cite thousands of such examples at the end of which we are forced to ask the question — what is really happening here? Is there a fundamental issue here beyond what appears on the surface?

There can be several answers but I shall highlight a few here.

Incidents like collapsing bridges point to not just poor execution and maintenance but to total lack of respect for life. The company that built the metro bridge probably had to pay so much money under the table in getting the contract that in its effort to recoup this ‘investment’ the company compromised on quality even if it meant a human disaster in the future.

I make bold to say that such compromises occur in almost every project in India. For example, contractors are known to compromise on not only on the quality of road construction to ‘recover’ their under-the-table investment but also to get the contract to repair the road after the next monsoon. Such stories lead me to find the underlying cause…the greed to get money even if it means shoddy work costing human lives.

There is a total disrespect for life.

It is sometimes stated that Indians are poor at maintenance of assets. This is true but reduces the issue to a managerial failing. I suggest that this trivializes the issue and diverts attention from the larger more sinister issue of the pursuit of wealth at any cost including human lives.

To return to the more superficial issue — our poor maintenance record — I feel that this indicates the reversing of roles of the trinity of the Hindu pantheon. Thus Brahma the Creator seems to have a small role to play since we create few assets. Vishnu  The Preserver has a marginal role since we are poor at maintenance. It is Shiva the Destroyer who prevails as we destroy assets at will in a riot, or even in a morcha. Apart from this we have no compunction in destroying lives. India is a Shivaite country! The only intriguing issue here is that Shiva stands for creative destruction. We have imbibed ‘destruction’ and ignored the ‘creative’ aspect.

Here’s a joke I read in an Indian newspaper that shows how poor we are at maintenance and how we can be corrupted to ignore maintenance.

A man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country. He goes to the German hell and asks, “What do they do there?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day.”

The man doesn’t like it, so he moves on and checks out the American hell, the Russian hell and hells of other countries. He finds that they’re all more or less the same as the German hell.

Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a long queue of people waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day.” “But that is exactly the same as all the other hells; so why are so many people waiting to get in here?” wonders the man. He is told, “Because the maintenance here is so bad that the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails from the bed and the Indian devil is a former government servant, so he just comes in, signs the attendance register and then goes to the canteen.”

* Intelligence.
* Diligence
* Indulgence
* Negligence
* Indolence
* Tolerance

….and grow up as entrepreneurs as well, in times to come.

Eden was and is an example he set for us to enjoy and to emulate, as Life .
To: See, feel, sense, smell, jell, dwell, live, grow, pluck, share, care, cut, trim, hate, endure, propagate, replicate, and to fruition:
Love, Life, Death and Decay.
To live, eat, grow and to die for and out off, the fruition that happens in there, by default, as well.
Annually, bi-annually, perennially too!
As that is what Life is all about!
A not-so, vicious circle, if one emulates successfully, like successful entrepreneurs do, all the time, and have done so too, ever since!

How?

By seeing, observing, learning, and then finally duplicating and replicating the Almighty’s effort.
Thereby emerging as skillful entrepreneurs.
Through use of in-built inherent intelligence that loves soil, sweat, strife, toil, and competition.
Don’t we see nature’s efforts competing with one another all the time?
In various shapes and sizes and all kinds of hues of beautiful colors?
To attract, distract, to trap and be entrapped as well, to culminate in Fruition,
Splendidly to blend.
Thus emerging as observant gardeners first, and then as, successful entrepreneurs, next.

Life as such was built into that very garden.
Life happened out of that garden and other gardens too subsequently, that were later built, by people as such, as entrepreneurs morphed out of that example, well emulated down the ages.
Down the ages we have seen many a gardens happen and decay and die.
Like so, in these past few centuries, we have also seen many an entrepreneurs happen and then die, as well…
Very few have left a permanent mark on this earth.

Life happens in and out of gardens even today.
Unfortunately those types of splendid gardens are so few and far flung.
Both sung and unsung!
Like successful entrepreneurs are!
Gardens nurture, strive and are rife with life, which is invariably followed by death, time and again.
Within them.
As a wonderful meaningful learning experience.
As growth, sustenance and decay.
Life in there is: so dependent on seasons as such.
As the very reasons.
To live for.

Gardens are planned, sown, cloned and grown.
They are tilled and willed.
Roots, leaves, stems, limbs and flowers are groomed, treasured, measured and at times discarded and thrown, too.
So that fruition happens as it should…
Naturally.
In the bargain endure thorns and the pain they bring when pricked by them,
So that flowers convert to fruits and mellow sweetness in the end,
As they get consumed.
Post consumption discarding of stones/seeds happen naturally,
So that propagation endures itself,
Just like talent does too.

Through continuous propagation fruition continues to happen.
On time, in paucity or may be in plenty!
As nature is so mature that it can seldom be harnessed and nurtured as per human will,
Despite the best of toil and till and fill.
Fruition happens depending on the degree of nurture, it is subjected to by the caring/uncaring gardener!
Alas! if we only had those caring and devout types of gardeners by the dozens!
We would also have had plenty of entrepreneurs bearing the right fruition too.
As behind every successful businessman one that we get to see and live with, there are a hundred or more unsuccessful ones we don’t get to see and live with, too.

Fruition happens all the time, but it solidly depends on:

* The soil selected and tilled.
* The beds that are made and how they get to get made.
* The type of seeds selected and then sown.
* Seeds: When and how they get sown.
* Seeds: The zone they are selected to be sown in.
* Seeds: The season and the reason behind there sowing.

When one gets to observe and then compare these acts, one sees a remarkable similarity within a successful gardeners and talented entrepreneurs.

Here are a few of the commonalities…

* Both of them need to be acutely observant, committed for a life full of strife.
* Both of them need to be devoted with a love for labour and toil.
* Both of them need to be gentle and harsh (should know how to axe when called for).
* Both of them need to be good planners.
* Both of them need of be good selectors. (Business is all about location, location, location).
* Both of them need to be learners on the run.
* Both of them need of them to be depended on nature.
* Both of them need to master perseverance.
* Both of them need to learn from mistakes and not repeat it ever, if not often.
* Both of them need to learn to be dependent. (Business is all about people).
* Both of them need to know how save for a rainy day and also for dry spells.
* Both of them need to have an eye for details.
* Both of them need to know how to weed out and well in time.
* Both of them need to live, groom and bloom flowers and fruits among thorns.
* Both of them need to know how to package the produce to reduce decay.
* Both of them need to know how to learn, unlearn and re-learn.
* Both of them need to just-fully share the harvest and the produce.
* Both of them need to realize the importance of organic growth.
* Both of them need to know that money is like manure (In a mound it decays stenches and stinks, when spread and sown in fields it yields riches!).

Are you a potential entrepreneur?
Why don’t you let go of your gardening instincts at the same time?
So that you learn and mature early, as an entrepreneur par excellence!

Were you a successful entrepreneur?
I am sure you were one, and are now, a successful gardener once again, now that you have hung your gloves, as an entrepreneur, and are back on your knees, digging, sowing, weeding, growing life.

After all that strife as a successful entrepreneur.
As on date, our Earth needs more gardeners like you, and in large strengths and force too.

* Thanks to the man-made: global warming.
* Thanks to extreme axing over the years.

Come let us save our Eden, alias Earth, as entrepreneurs!
As we are not God,
We are observant emulators.
And we should emulate and replicate goodness, as we are very good emulators of both good and the evil.
Let’s emulate the good and be good gardeners to begin with,
Before it gets too late.
If we do not, we are bound to collectively decay and finally obliterate.
Sooner than later.
Entrepreneurship of the eternal kind will happen…naturally only then.

Man has a basic resistance to chaos. He likes life predictable and systematic. Want evidence? Look around you. See how good a man is at creating systems that are simple, identical and replicable. The quality, dimensions and features of the computer that you are looking at right now have been identically replicated under mass production by man and man-made machines. Also, look at the bricks that were used in building the room where you are sitting in — they are all the result of similar intentions and action.

I bet you will find this intent and effort towards synchronization, system, similarity and simplicity in almost everything that is man-made or conceptualized by humans. Take for instance our schools, where we mass – produce students of similar skills, knowledge and attitudes. What about our religious institutions where we cultivate faith and belief for mass acceptance. Man is continually seeking system and order. And anything that is not well-ordered is considered ‘chaotic’ by him.

However, God (Nature or Creator) likes complexity and chaos. Look at the living things that God has created like the trees, leaves, flowers, animals, birds, insects and microscopic organisms etc. And, the non-living things like rocks (God made version of bricks), mountains, seas, rivers, clouds, soil and air etc.

Ponder over it for a while and you will realize that none of the things mentioned in this list have an identical pair. No two trees look similar. Even the most similar looking leaves of a plant are different in some way or the other. Have you ever eaten two apples (or any other fruit) that look and taste same? Invariably the answer would be an emphatic “no”.

The human desperation for synchronization is also reflected in the concept called time. When man invented time, he might not have imagined that he was creating his own master. We have a fixed time for everything. The omnipresent master of the human race, called a clock, governs all offices, schools, railways, airplanes etc. On the other hand, try giving a fixed time for rains, earthquakes or even an everyday phenomenon like sunrise and sunset, and you will be wrong each time. That is how God governs his empire. He is enigmatic. God is not punctual.

So, why is Man like that? Is he that careful a person or is he is just trying to impress God or is it that he just cannot be anything but systematic, synchronized and simple? I don’t think any of these descriptions are accurate.

And, why is God like that? Is He careless or He is just experimenting or does He just want to have some fun? Maybe God just cannot be anything but chaotic, asynchronous and complex? I think all of these descriptions are accurate.

God, one might believe is very careful but I think He is not. Have a look at the way He has made human beings. He gave us almost similar bodies with congruently designed body parts even to the microscopic level of the body cells. Each body cell is the same in all of us. However he programmed them so differently that certain cells grow to become body parts while others grow to become a deadly disease called cancer. He installed a brain in all of us but with dissimilar qualities, capacities and intentions. Hence, you have a major difference between the two shrewdest brains of Albert Einstein and Adolf Hitler.

Maybe we can all agree that God loves experimenting. The proof for this line of thought is the constant flux that we are living in. The only thing constant is change.

One ancient Persian saying goes something like this “…there never has been, there never will be and there never is a moment repeated in the history of time”. To my very human imagination, God could either be a scientist at work or a playing child. So, either He is experimenting and still exploring or He is just aimlessly changing things to have some fun.

Still don’t agree? Then the last reason might satisfy you. GOD LOVES CHAOS. He likes the way we remember Him and seek Him whenever we are in midst of a chaotic situation (please read the first line of the passage again). He seeks your prayer, your attention. We remember God when we lose someone, when we lose something, or when we are lost. We can safely say that we remember God mostly when our lives are out of control. We as a breed have realized this that things work our way if we keep in touch with the Creator. Over the period of human evolution, He has realized that only chaos and complexity can prevent Him from being obsolete or forgotten.

Now, the next time you are late, in trouble, or surprised, just think that God is at work.

In my case I received a series of what might be called mild ‘attacks’ on my point of view (God is just a belief system), only one of which is posted on the site. The remainder were sent directly to me. Rather than be incensed as to why someone would dare to disagree with my point of view I began thinking and formulating a list of my own questions:

Did those commenting have the same viewpoint as myself regarding the questions? After all when we look at house property details we can all see different things when we look at a house from different directions.

Were comments coloured by beliefs themselves? Do readers and listeners filter what they want to see and hear according to their belief systems? Did readers see the set of questions simply as an argument for or against God?

Were those commenting actually aware of the context in which those in charge of the website formulated the questions or the context in which people answered them? Were the questions a starting point for debate or simply an excuse for a soapbox? Nobody knows.

As consultants, teachers, trainers or coaches we tend to base our approaches on sets of questions which provide a basis on which to work. How many people jump to conclusions based on these questions and how many use them to create a picture and then dig some more? A good listener does not let their own beliefs get in the way, nor do they jump to conclusions or pass judgement. We have all seen the consultant who is really just a man on a soapbox.

The point here is to look beyond the interview, read between the lines both when you are asking questions and when someone else is asking.

• Why are these questions being asked?
• What information/emotions are they designed to tease out?
• Am I biased in any way?
• Will I like the answers?
• What can I learn from this experience (will this change my point of view)?

There are others, but you get the idea. Don’t take everything at face value, be prepared to interpret and look beyond the obvious. Communication is based on message and meaning. Modern communication methods ensure that we usually get the message but they tend to help us to ignore meaning.

… and for the record, I answered the questions as if I were taking a psychometric test (read and answer in a short space of time) rather than using them as a springboard for an anti/pro God argument. This does mean that there could be one or two inconsistencies but knowing this, readers should be able to find out a bit about me and engage in a (friendly) debate down the pub.

To find out how other Ticklers and readers responded to these questions click here. If you would like to take this interview as well, mail us your answers at interview@tickledbylife.com. (we will publish only the best responses)

What is God?

Abhimanyu: God, the higher power, the Almighty, the grand wizard or any other name you want to use – is an unquantifiable, formless and nameless force that is beyond scientific explanation and yet is the most believable unseen, unproven phenomenon that has ever been or ever will be. No one, including me – will ever be able to answer this question conclusively and explain what, or who God is. In fact, the more we try to explain it, the more stupid we’d feel (maybe without admitting it) as we go on in our endeavor to construct a half decent response. We can do a lot of speculation and use probability but we’d stay just where we began.

As for my answer, I would say that God = Faith. God is what and whom you believe him to be. It’s something you believe in, beyond doubt and without conclusive evidence – a little like believing your wife (or husband) when she/he tells you that you are deeply loved. It’s something that you believe in because you want to believe in it – it gives you a purpose to live and to do things. Sure, your spouse does things like caring for you, worrying for you and making sacrifices for you and that confirms your faith in the professed love, but a doubter could say that all such acts are a well put on charade too, right?

God or the Big Bang (or both)?

Abhimanyu: Both. I’m no scientist and not for a minute would I even try to discredit the Big Bang theory which was derived after much research over many years. My reasoning is that each and everything in this world is scientifically explained – be it evolution, Big Bang, relativity, etc. However, what do you make of the fact that everything in the universe and more specifically in the space around us is designed just perfectly for life to survive? The composition of the atmosphere, the distance of the earth from the sun, the amount of water on Earth – make even a half percent of change in any of these factors and POOF! No more life! All this has to be pre-determined and put to effect by a smart, scientific force. So, what I’m saying is that the Big Bang was designed by God to happen in the precise way it did and the pieces scattered in the exact positions that were meant to make life on Earth possible millions of years in the future.

God or Darwin (or both)?

Abhimanyu: God designed it. Darwin realized, theorized and popularized it.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Abhimanyu: Darfur, Armenia, the world wars and all the genocides, cultural riots, can and will happen again again because there are always greedy people with a hunger for power. It has nothing to do with God and everything to do with Man.

Who is God’s God?

Abhimanyu: God himself, just like everyone of us, is his own man.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Abhimanyu: Let me make one thing very clear – Religion and God are two totally different things. Man was created by God, and religion was devised by Man as a way to worship, follow and find God. Putting a religion, any religion – over and above God is like saying that an expensive guitar is more important than the music it was meant to make. There’s only one God like there’s only one music; there are different genres depending on the difference in instruments and techniques used to play the sound; just like there are different names given to God in different religious books through different stories, but in the end, it’s all music, isn’t it?

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Abhimanyu: No. It’s a big garden where we are flowers and God is the nurturer.

Unexplained phenomena = God?

Abhimanyu: Absolutely! It was, is and will always be an eternally unexplained phenomenon. You, me and gazillion others after us will keep speculating and posting in Q & A threads till the end of time or whenever the next Big Bang happens. But the fact is, at the end of the day, the only ‘proven’ truth is the one we believe in when we say our nightly prayer.

Studying his profile from time to time, I saw he was about 54, a sparse, almost ordinary man, but there was in his voice that indefinable tone, a persuasive softness, a tone calculated at once to awaken and to soothe, and in his eyes a twinkle, reflecting the state of a man who has found a treasure.

We talked of spiritual things from various viewpoints. Midway, he asked me what exactly I did for a living and I told him, “I’m in advertising.”

In response to my question about how he earned his livelihood, he smiled enigmatically and said, “The taxi is just an excuse to enable me to do something else, something worthwhile.”

When I probed deeper, he turned and gave me long, hard look, as if sizing me up. “I think you are a good man; and a good man can always do more good,” he observed laconically and then lapsed into silence.
Then suddenly, he asked, “What is your name?”

“Idris.” I replied.

“AlHamdulillah!” he exclaimed, and then said, “My other business, Idris, is Sadaqa”.

“Sadaqa? What’s Sadaqa business?” I ventured, although I wasn’t unaware of what Sadaqa meant. But Sadaqa— an occupation?

He smiled again, a serene smile and said softly, “You know my friend, in the world of mathematics, you can add, subtract, divide and multiply in precise quantities. You cannot increase what you have, by dividing it or giving it away. But, in the spiritual world, things work differently.

“The more you give of what you value, the richer and more prosperous you become. Whether you give of your wealth, or your time, or your love, your care or wisdom, you can never impoverish yourself by giving generously. The Almighty will recompense our generosity in multiples of a thousand [alfan alfa].”

I took a deep breath, trying to digest what he’d said.

He looked at me sharply, “Sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. What do we really own? It is how we spend what is entrusted to us.

“I gave a man in need a thousand dirhams,” he continued, “The next day, my brother called me from back home to say that our old house has been sold for a good profit of ten thousand dirhams. I helped build an orphanage, and the divisional court quashed a long running dispute against our farm.

“Incidents like these keep happening to me, in cash and in kind. And I keep on giving, going out of my way to search for lost souls whom I can help with whatever I can.”

He then quoted from the Holy Quran, “Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan, which Allah will double unto his credit and multiply many times?”

He then looked at me with a radiant smile, “My brother Idris, ‘Fee Sabeelillaah’ (spend in the way of Alláh) belongs to the world of the heart and the spirit, not to the world of mathematics.”

When we reached Dubai, I realized that I had learned a lot about life from this man, and asked him for his mobile number. He said, “We’ll meet again if it’s Allah’s wish. Until then, keep on giving. And, yes, remember, He will open the tap for you, all you have to do is to extend the pipeline.”

I have followed his advice and today, I am part of the great invisible pipeline.

It was three months later, when I stopped a taxi near the Dubai Museum. The man at the wheel was wearing a peak cap, his back hunched, his collar turned up, and his face hidden, while I had a kafiyyeh (scarf) wrapped around my face, for there was a sandstorm blowing.

“How much for Jumeirah Corniche?” This was during the time when no meter taxis were around in Dubai.

“Ten dirhams!” answered the driver.

“That’s not fair,” I said.

“What will you pay, then?” he retorted.

“Thirty,” I muttered matter-of-factly.

Without a moment’s hesitation he said, “Yalla—faddal!” (come on, get in!)
At Jumeirah corniche, I promptly paid him the thirty dirhams I promised and opened the door to step out.

“In a great hurry, Idris?” he asked.

Why did God leave it to us? To create? To hate? Is there a grand plan of His, that is yet to unfold? For us to learn and grow beyond religion?

These thoughts have made me arrive at one conclusion: God created feelings but He never created religion. Yes, He created feelings and allowed them to instill love, joy, hate, anger, passion and compassion within us. With time however, feeling-driven humans clung together and formed what we love and cherish today – religion. Feelings gave birth to religions.

But why?

There I was, pondering again why would God plan it out like this? Back to square one. That thought lead me to my own feelings. I am, what my feelings make me, and what others close to me and around me, make me as well. So much is thrown at us, that feelings are birthed as responses. They seep, sap, and once in a while, zap too. As a result, we get to experience love, hate and hurt.

Hence, feelings led to religion, is my quick-shot, conclusion.

Our feelings not only affect us, they they affect people around us, too. Our feelings make us active, reactive, pro-active, inactive, selective, protective and destructive, too. Feelings make or mar us. We are affected as individuals and as groups every day. Afflicted and inflicted, feelings get compounded very quickly. They are shared very quickly, ensnaring us before we realise what is happening. None is spared here when feelings are shared and begin to spread like a wild fire, fanned primarily by greed and ignorance.

On the other hand what about positive feelings, of love and joy? Once they happen they ‘get to happen’ they are short lived. They are shared too, but very sparingly.

They are not as popular as the negative ones. Not as vehemently as the negative ones. Not as attractive as the destructive ones that invariably break into the open with a mighty blast called ‘hate.’
These man-created negative feelings grow exponentially to amass under a shelter called – religion – in the name of God.

Was this is how religion emerged? From negative, exponentially-compounded feelings, seeking shelter from hunger, natural calamities and lurking dangers in the ‘dark ages’, when man was illiterate and ignorant?
If so, then why does it still bind the minds of modern mankind? Why are we still blind today when the world is supposed to have matured and come of age as a global village?

We can probably lay the blame for this situation at the feet of the learned mullahs, priests, pastors and spiritual con men who continue to imprison us in religious cages.

Why can’t they get together and spread love and joy in the name of God?

Isn’t it ironic that we are now in the darkest age ever experienced by mankind thanks to the religious mindsets that bind unfortunate and illiterate minds without the buffer of feelings or a conscience?

But again, where did religion emerge from? God never created it because He always knew, the outcome would not be love and joy. God however, seems to have created everything from love. It is the act of love that gave birth to mankind. But through religion humans have learned to hate their brothers and sisters and shed blood in the name of God.

How sad God must be! The Creator who set us free on this lovely earth, with only one feeling – Love!

That feeling of love however, has mutated into dividing and deriding religions that also created physical borders and named them countries. Today, those very borders are like cages, locking religious zealots within by insularity and narrow beliefs.

Today men believe they are gods, passing judgment on all across villages, towns, cities and nations. Armed with guns they arrogantly claim to know the “only true God” while they kill in the name of religion.

Maybe we should re-spell the word Religions as Reli-guns, meaning the new found religion.
A sum total of Relish+Legions+Guns = “Religuns”

Man was never made to make feelings. God made feelings. Man was made to use them wisely. When humans got to creating they unfortunately made Religion alias Religun.

Now what we see is blood on their hands, on the ground, on the earth, and on the ceilings. Isn’t it time for all of this to end? Time for us to destroy all arms in arms? Enough is enough.

Under man-made religion we bled and will continue to bleed until we get rid of that seed that was never sown by God in the garden of Eden…. Religun alias Religion.

What is God?
Sanjiv: God is a creation of early human beings from a time when there were no explanations for natural phenomena. Many millennia ago, cave dwellers would have seen natural phenomena occurring around them ranging from childbirth, the sun rising and setting, the moon in its various phases, floods, rain, the constant appearance of strange animals, edible fruit growing at certain places, snow, the oceans, seeds becoming trees and a whole host of similar ‘magical’ things. When they could not explain why such things happened, some probably started attributing these phenomena to a superior being somewhere high up in the skies. This was probably the origin of God. As humankind started to become more social in their tribal behavior, some smarter ones took to calling these superior beings “gods” of various natural phenomena. They also hit upon a terrific business idea to keep themselves in food, comfort and awe by creating practices they claimed to have learnt directly from these so-called gods, to appease them and to ensure peace and happiness within the community. These smart people probably became the first priests who claimed that they could direct the rest of the tribe in performing rituals and sacrifices to ensure that the gods remained happy.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Sanjiv: Based on current scientific knowledge, obviously the Big Bang. If there were nothing before God created the universe, who created God?

God or Darwin (or both)?
Sanjiv: Based on current scientific knowledge, Darwin was probably closer to the truth than some imaginary “Creator”.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Sanjiv: This is a pointless question as we have already accepted that God does not exist!

Who is God’s God?
Sanjiv: Already responded this question in answer “2” above. So this is also a pointless question as we have already accepted that God does not exist!

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Sanjiv: Where there are different groups of people, there will be different customs and each group will have its own power centres. If one group’s power centre feels that another group is not following the same customs that their group has adopted, then they feel their power is threatened and declare that all those who do not follow these customs are outcasts and therefore enemies. That is why we have the different religions.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Sanjiv: This is an interesting question if we remove the term ‘God’ from it. Since we really know so little of what is out there in the vast universe, the probability that our planet is an experiment in the laboratory of some far superior race from somewhere in the universe is about as high or as low as the probability that God exists!

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Sanjiv: As far as prehistoric man was concerned, yes. That was the origin of the God delusion. But why human beings still cling to this delusion when almost all of mankind has now accepted scientifically predictable explanations for a whole load of previously unexplained phenomena is beyond me!

What is God?
Sundar: Are we asking – What is God or Who is God? Please read my answer to this question at the end of this questionnaire.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Sundar: When it comes to creation, then God is not the Creator in a sense, in that he is different from what is created. If we think that curd is created out of milk, then we will have to ask where does the milk come from and so on and so forth. But look at it like this, if both the milk and the curd are the same thing and only our perception makes this difference, then the concept of creation has disappeared. Our perceptions of different things come because of the concept of time. This takes us to the question, what is time? The facilitating “ability” which has made us see milk, and then curd is time. And, time could not exist if we could not have that consciousness. What then is that consciousness? It is our awareness…. so it is our awareness that has made us see curd as curd and milk as milk, and the mechanism inside us, which has prompted us to believe that curd has come out of milk, so creation is our mind’s manipulation.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Sundar: Evolution is also a phenomenon born of our of time and its perception.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Sundar: I think, we are too serious. We detest certain things, because we feel guilty about certain activities because of ego promptings. Humanitarianism seems like the offshoot of egoistic values, in the sense that it is rooted in man-made morals and judgment of ‘good or bad.’ If we are not going to be too serious about being alive, then the whole perspective on situations like Darfur will change.

Who is God’s God?
Sundar: God cannot have a beginning or an end, because time is an illusion.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Sundar: The world’s religions do not really focus on God. If you want to realize God, then philosophy is a better place to find inspiration. Religions are made for the purpose of moral policing and to bring in some discipline to society. Some of the religions introduce people to philosophy and to the real questions, but many are institutions.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Sundar: This is also a perception. If God is omniscient, then what will He learn from this experiment? No, this is not a lab and nobody is watching us.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Sundar: No, unexplained means that those “unexplored” facets of existence are simply unexplained and nothing more. Once you start explaining the unexplained, your knowledge base increases, and the increase in knowledge base will lead to further questions which cannot be unexplained. Therefore there will always be a set of things which will remain ‘unexplained’ and this could be used by religious leaders to exploit the masses. On the other hand, the ‘unexplained’ is the stimulant for us to investigate further and it keeps alive our interest in the world.

Now coming back to our original question: What is God, or Who is God? These religious ‘gods’ are created to discipline and control. They are man-made with a mundane purpose. If we could go a little further in our discussion we could find God as an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent phenomenon, in which case, there is nothing external to GOD, therefore the creator, creation and the act of creating is God; the seer, the seen and the process of seeing is also God and so on.

For many years, evolutionists have tried very hard, often resorting to imaginative concepts, conjecture and assumptions to prove their point.

Let us take a look at the basis of the evolution theory and let the logical thinking person decide if it is even remotely scientific! The theory postulates that billions of years ago, there was a Big Bang and non-living things over a long period of time became living things. Does that sound logical to you – that masses of unaccountable atoms of gases violently “kissed” each other in a Big Bang and non-living things turned into frogs, princes, princesses, kings and queens. It comes across more like a fairy tale than science!

Furthermore, the theory of evolution teaches this: Some 15 billion years ago (actually it ranges from 13.7 to 15 billion years), there was a Big Bang involving hydrogen and helium gases. After this Big Bang, for 400 million years or so, the agitated atoms of these gases expanded in all directions. Galaxies and planets began to form, and that was the beginning of the universe. The cooling period apparently took 200 million years. Then the earth was formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

At the beginning, there was no living thing on earth at all. Then some 3.8 billion years ago, a single living cell emerged and from that one cell, over a long period of time, millions of simple and complex species were generated. Antelopes evolved to become giraffes because of their constant stretching for leaves on tall trees. Bears became whales because they kept jumping into the water for food. Then some 56 million years ago, monkeys emerged and 21 million years later, apes evolved from monkeys and then humans came into the picture 1.64 million years ago.

Does that sound like science to you?

There are many unanswered questions for this theory:

Where did the gases come from?
How on earth do we know there was actually a Big Bang?
What scientific evidence is there to support this theory about a phenomenon which supposedly started billions of years ago?
If antelopes evolved into giraffes, bears into whales, monkeys to apes, apes to humans, why do we still have these animals in their own forms and none in the “intermediate” form? Do you see any half- ape, half- human walking around, apart from on the movie set?

Someone once illustrated it this way. He took a common ball point pen and started breaking it up into its parts – the body, the spring inside, the ink holder, etc. He then put all the parts into an empty box and started shaking the box. After some time, he asked the audience, “What do you think are the chances that, when I opened this box, you will see a perfectly assembled ball point pen?” You and I know the odds are almost nil; how much more unlikely that a perfectly formed human body or any other element of nature – a flower, tree or animal – came about from an accidental Big Bang?

To me, the theory of evolution is the greatest hoax in history and it’s time we stop teaching this fairy tale to our children as science.

Who is God?

If you ask me or any Christian about the origins of the universe, our answer will be, “God created it.” Then you may ask about the origins of God and the answer will be, “Nobody, because God is self-existing simply because He is God.”

Whether you agree with these answers or not is irrelevant, because the point is: the issue is now brought to a conclusion.

Let’s compare this to the evolution theory. If we ask, “How did the universe came into being?” the evolutionist may reply, “There was a Big Bang of the atoms from the hydrogen and helium gases.”

Then we ask, “Who created the hydrogen and helium?” and he may reply, “They were just there.”

But if we pursue the matter further and insist, “How could that be? You are supposed to get to the source or origin. Who created the gases?”

Then the evolutionist may have to say, “I guess they are also self-existing.”

Now we are all on the same level playing field. I believe that God is self-existing because he is God, but you believe that gases are self-existing. So really the choice presented to any seeker is whether it is more logical to believe that God is self-existing or gases are self-existing, whether God created all things or uncreated chemicals evolved into all beings.

The God that I believe in is the God of the Holy Bible. According to Genesis, the first book in the Bible, God spoke, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Now this light is not merely the sunlight which actually came about on the fourth day. This light is pure energy, the life force of God which came from His breath and spoken word. This is the fundamental creative force of all things and only the Bible gives this information. Without this energy force, nothing else can be created. And science supports this as it has been proven that every matter has energy.

The computer you are touching now is not what it appears to be. If you put it under the microscope, you will see numerous atoms rushing around at top speed, not visible to the naked eye. It is so filled with energy that if you can tap into its power, the energy that is locked in this piece of hardware in front of you, can drive a train for many miles. In fact, physicists have discovered that an atom is composed of more elementary subatomic particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, etc) and they are all impregnated with energy. Quantum physics has discovered that matter is 99.9999999% empty!

Our sight and hearing are made possible because of energy waves. These are light and sound waves that come into contact with our sensory faculties.

According to the Bible, it is in God that we move, and live, and have our being. All the energy comes from Him and even a strand of our hair contains energy.

Next, consider the logical process of creation. After light or pure energy was created, God created space. There is no other literature in the world where you can find the origin of space, except in the Bible.

I urge you to read the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis for yourself, and you will no doubt, concur that it is only logical to believe a personal God created everything. You will also conclude that it is indeed absurd to believe that this entire universe, in all its complexity, can come about by pure chance, all by itself and without a Designer!

Answered with help and permission from Pastor Rony Tan’s book on “Questions on Genesis.” www.lighthouse.org.sg

What is God?
Pallavi: God is my best friend. He is there with me in my solitude and also when I am out having fun. He gives me that little nudge in the right direction when I am confused. He is the one who ignores me when I am being difficult. He is always there with me whenever my kids fall sick and He’s up all night nursing them back to health with me. He was there when I lost faith and He is with me now when I am restoring that faith.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Pallavi: God! In the words of astronomer Hugh Ross: “If the universe arose out of a big bang, it must have had a beginning. If it had a beginning, it must have a beginner.”….Right?

God or Darwin (or both)?
Pallavi: God of course. Darwin has his theory about how life began but it’s just a thought. His theory makes no claim of explaining the creation of life, since evolutionary theory does not pretend to know how life began. Natural selection biology only seeks to explain how life that already exists evolves into new forms. Thus it is perfectly possible to believe in evolution as a principle of biology and simultaneously believe in a creator God. The birth of child for example, can be described either in purely scientific [biological] terms or as a miracle – two very different but noncontradictory explanations for the same thing.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Pallavi: One question that raises its head every time a disaster happens is “How can God let it happen?” Well, if He controlled everything then we wouldn’t have to make any choices. He gives us an option of making choices and it is up to us what we do with that choice. I strongly believe that there are two types of forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces. If there were no disasters, then we would have no compassion, empathy and love for others. All of these are part and parcel of being human and because of these challenges we become stronger and better persons.

Who is God’s God?
Pallavi: A child – I believe. Actually I know that a child is God’s GOD. All you have do is observe a child – all his emotions are so pure.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Pallavi: All religions are only different paths leading to same destination – GOD. It doesn’t matter which path you take but you must reach your destination and enjoy your journey. People who compare paths never reach anywhere.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Pallavi: No, we are just bunch of confused people who don’t realize that all we have to do is find our place in this puzzle and complete the picture.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Pallavi: Let me quote Fuller R Buckminster: “Here is God’s purpose — for God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.” I agree with him. I like to keep it very simple. For me being spiritual means I am close to God and trying understand him by knowing me, his creation. You don’t need to go far to look for God. It’s the choices we make that take us closer to Him. There are two kinds of dogs within us, good and bad, both demanding our attention whoever we feed more gets to rule us.

What is God?
Gopinath: God is a creation of man, born from the imagination and created when all other living mortals failed him. There had to be someone who could be the provider, so God was born out of hope, loneliness, despair, yearning, desires and the need for love. God was created for joy, pleasure, sharing, reaching out and trusting. Man’s God is of epic proportions, so that one would come along and create a larger Being!

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Gopinath: God, before the Big Bang.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Gopinath: Darwin and Darwin’s God (you may need to hand over these interview questions to him!)

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Gopinath: Darfur will create many more Gods!

Who is God’s God?
Gopinath: Probably a Mother, the life-giver on earth, the nurturer, the caretaker, a loving being on earth. God too has many Gods!

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Gopinath: Oh they are all standing up, respectively, in every creator’s mind. But each one of us can only see the God we have personally created and not the Gods whom others have produced from their imaginations. The trouble begins when we compare notes: “My God is….your God is….”

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Gopinath: Quite unlikely, since man felt the need and created God.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Gopinath: Unexplained phenomena = think hard, think, learn, browse, ask, discuss, probe, dwell, whatever. This is not God. Miracles happen because our mind is not ready to accept what was bound to happen anyway.

What is God?
Kaustav: This is God. You are God. I am God. We are all God. Everything around and in you and me is God. The infinite cycle of creation and destruction of innumerable ‘big bang’ universes, each with a subtle difference, where every single possibility is eventually “real” – is God. God is not an intelligent entity separate from you and me. We, You and I, are IN God and OF God, and therefore ARE God. It is impossible to separate a molecule of water from the other molecules of water around it, and study the behaviour of that molecule in isolation. There is no meaning to such an exercise. If the Universe were to cease to ‘exist’ in its current form, so would you and I, instantaneously. Therefore we have no separate identity from the Universe. Which means, we ARE the Universe. The Universe – GOD – expresses itself in many ways, including us.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Kaustav: Is there a difference? God exists for ever. It is theorized that each Big Bang eventually leads to the next one, in a virtually unending sequence. God has no beginning and no end. Neither does this Universe. God exists in everything, and in nothing. Which means, God is all the Matter, as well as the Space that contains the Matter, as well as the Time that defines the Matter. Perhaps the real question is, does the Big Bang have a purpose?

God or Darwin (or both)?
Kaustav: Think of God as the laws of the Universe (i.e. the Universe itself). Evolution is merely an expression of these laws, unfolding in a grand sequence. Thus evolution loses its meaning when ‘Matter’, ‘Space’ and ‘Time’ lose their meaning.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Kaustav: Darfur, though unfortunate, was inevitable. Conflicts are not the product of one man’s greed, or a few people’s selfishness. They are inevitable flash points that occur when much larger and deeper socio-political issues collide. Fear and greed are endemic to human nature, and we will unfortunately have many more Darfurs until we raise ourselves as a species beyond the petty considerations that create wars. And we are but a product of our value systems – which in turn are shaped by incidents early in our life as well as survival rules of the species – which again obey the laws of the universe.
Moreover, we must put Darfur in perspective. Darfur, though terrible and unfortunate by human values, is a conflict happening in one small region of a very small planet, that orbits a very small and relatively young star, which is situated on the edge of one of the outermost spirals of a galaxy that contains trillions of such stars, in a universe that contains probably quadrillions of such galaxies. Do you see the magnitude of GOD? From this perspective, Darfur will eventually play out according to the same laws that govern the rest of the universe. What will happen, will happen.

Who is God’s God?
Kaustav: In mathematics, when you remove Infinity from Infinity, the answer is … Infinity. God’s God is itself. God works as per the laws that it creates for itself. Why? To answer this question, ask yourself another: does a rock need a “purpose” to be a rock? No. It just ‘IS’. As also with God: God ‘Is’. There is no further purpose or meaning to God.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Kaustav: Just as all five fingers on a hand are different, so also each individual is different in his/her likes, dislikes, preferences, values, beliefs, perceptions and habits. And so, as it is said somewhere, “God created man in his image, and then man created God in his image.” What matters is not where we differ in our opinions, but where we can work together, with each other, to achieve our common goals.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Kaustav: Attributing intelligence and individual motive to God that is separate to the intelligence and motive of human beings, signifies a duality of existence – where the Human and the Divine are separate. This implies that God and Man might someday have a conflict of interest. This further means, that someone will win, and someone will lose – which means, that there are rules based on which this conflict will be resolved. Which then begs the question, who makes the rules when God is playing the game? This an absurd question.
Therefore the only plausible explanation is that there is no researcher, and we are not guinea pigs at the hands of a ‘separate’ God.
Does unexplained phenomena = God?
Kaustav: Precisely which phenomenon

What is God?
Abha: To me God is the epitome of ultimate truth, faith, light, knowledge, power and happiness. We refer to Him as the “Almighty” and that is what he is….All powerful and yet gentle and humble. Always there but invisible. Always leading and teaching but never with a book. Always showing but never felt. Always awake but never tired. Always giving but never demanding. God inspires but never expires. He is eternity.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Abha: God, for being the invisible force behind Big Bang and the Big Bang for being the evidence that God exists and need not be explained.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Abha: God, or the existence of life and the lack of it. Darwin because he explains evolution of species or living forms. Yet there are planets where life does not exist. Were those planets needed? Will they be used in the future?

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Abha: Darfur, could be the will of GOD as sometimes tough lessons have to be taught…. the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, fair and unfair, is not simple for many mortals. Sometimes these learning experiences unfold as horrifying ordeals we must confront.

Who is God’s God?
Abha: This is not for us to answer. We need a “higher one” when we are not “complete”. Does perfection need super-perfection and does completion need a super-completed effort? God is almighty and in his wisdom, knowledge, love and goodness lies his GOD.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Abha: God is not a captive of religious faiths and forces. The real God is for each one of us to seek within us. Some of us find our GOD in mortal humans or non living stones and yet others find Him/Her on the Himalayas or after fighting battles. GOD is the outcome of our own spiritual and emotional journey as we navigate the course of human existence. Sometimes we find others who like us, are in search of a near similar truth that they define as GOD. With this recognition comes the conviction that we are right and leads to the formation of religions. Religions are nothing but paths along the journey that help us in our search for GOD.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Abha: Life could be a big lab for many of us but that is because we want to search and research. We are not guinea pigs unless we choose to be helpless victims of life and blame it on destiny or GOD. Life is a lab where experiments can be repeated and desired outcomes achieved only if learning and observations become a part of our practical existence. Things happen with a reason – sometimes difficult and not very easy to understand. During those vulnerable moments we can attribute the unexplainable to God’s playful research. But all that is happening is a phenomenon which we will all have the courage and the wisdom to reason in due course. So yes, life is a lab, where the only people who research are those who want to lead a satisfied and meaningful life and grow themselves and those around them in the process. The others live as if the world is one big party that would never end, they exist on the periphery of the “elixir of life”.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Abha: Unexplained phenomenon is rare and when they do occur we call them “miracles”. Miracles are attributed to GOD because miracles come closest to that aspirational level of being which is called GOD. Many miracles of today become explanations of tomorrow so life goes on in search of that Ultimate Truth and point of self actualization that is called GOD. Many amongst us find this Nirvana in our 3D existence. Others transcend to the other world and never come back to answer if GOD exists on the other side of life as well.

What is God?
Samir: The GOD we know is a man-made concept defined on principles of suitability and convenience. The GOD we DON’T know is GOD.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Samir: Both. God made the Big Bang happen, but now sadly this explosion is out of God’s control.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Samir: Obviously God, because if it had been Darwin then Darwin would have become God and that is a cosmic impossibility.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Samir: God is not the undisputed ruler of the universe. The presence of God is negated by presence of Anti-God (Just like positive energy is negated by negative energy). Darfur was sanctioned by Anti-God.

Who is God’s God?
Samir: (Laughter) Godfather?

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Samir: (More laughter) No, because God is sleeping with the Goddess.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Samir: I really can’t say. Assuming God is a researcher then what is the purpose of this research? How long will we have to wait for some kind of conclusion to this research?

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Samir: No. Because GOD = unexplained phenomena + unknown phenomenon + other unknowns + all known.

What is God?
Chitra: God is ALL THAT IS. There is nothing but God. That means everything and everyone we see around us is ‘God’.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Chitra: God is a process – a verb and not a noun. So is the Big Bang. The Big Bang is an aspect of God.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Chitra: Both again. There is no exclusion. Darwin’s theory tells half the story, only God completes that story.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Chitra: There is no dichotomy here. God has nothing to do with what we ‘choose’, since we are co-creators of life. We choose our life dramas before we are born for our individual and collective growth. Darfur is a large human tragedy that has the potential to shake us all out of our complacency. So it is a collective karma being played out. We all ‘designed’ it, including you and me, who are so far from Darfur. The tragedy has already shaken up our collective conscious. It will bring in a wave of love and compassion. It will teach us about responsibility. All this learning is in the pipeline.

Who is God’s God?
Chitra: There is no hierarchy there. We are all gods.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Chitra: We have so many religions because of our ignorance, greed, fear, and love for power. There is only one God and this God is all inclusive.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Chitra: This is a playground. We are here to play in God’s Leela. We are part of this Leela.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Chitra: If we can’t explain God, we can explain nothing else. No wonder we are still running around in circles. It is essential to ‘know’ God, only then can we ‘know’ ourselves.

What is God?
Derek: Just a belief system, not a real entity. This is good in that each person can have their own individual perspective. If God were an entity then we could end up playing tug of war (as some religions do) like we do with possessions. It also means we can believe or not.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Derek: Being a scientist at heart I would say the Big Bang but if we go back in time to the advent of the Big Bang then I cannot comprehend what came before. At this point God may not be relevant either apart from comforting those who cannot cope with lack of certainty.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Derek: Definitely Darwin. Unless all of science is off track. Creationism cannot explain the age of the earth, evolution etc. Darwinism can.

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Derek: Depends on your view of God. I have not heard of any pro-God views that say God is a nasty piece of work. Most are along the lines of a strict but fair parent figure. If there is a God along these lines then Darfur and other tragedies cannot happen.

Who is God’s God?
Derek: There’s the rub. What happens if there is no God now but something or someone becomes God in the future. Could God have come into being at Big Bang time? In a way we should never answer these sort of questions although they provide plenty of food for thought and material for sensible debate.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Derek: Setting aside the fact that I believe there is no God, if God did exist and wished to reach out to everyone then God would adopt some sort of ‘disguise’ to do so. Also many religions do not deny God but are simply based on the teachings of prophets. Does this mean that those writing scriptures etc do not have an answer for ‘God’ but concentrate on what came after?

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Derek: There could just be some sort of being out there who is playing with us all, and we will never know. The only argument against the lab idea is that experiments can be re-run. The human race is a once only opportunity. If we mess up then we do it big time.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Derek: Unexplained phenomena= lack of knowledge or information about what is happening. Take ancient descriptions of natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or eclipses. Find out more and the need for attribution to a higher entity often goes away.

What is God?
Mita: God is….the warmest pair of hands that carry me through my toughest moments. God has the snuggliest, strongest shoulder I’ve ever known. God’s love is the cosiest and sweetest warmth of a fireplace on a chilly night. able. God is a feeling, a knowing, a calling, a crying, a laugh that echoes through space and time. God can be described by a million and one and still remain an indescribable God.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Mita: Both. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. My 2 bits is that the energy required for that extremely dense and hot source state emanated from none other than God the Source or Divine Intelligence.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Mita: Both. Darwin was a child of God. His purpose as a Soul in this lifetime was to add depth to our knowledge as human beings.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Mita: As I learn about Darfur, I learn that it is a test for humanity. Somewhere we learn
to be humbler, more compassionate and unified in our voices.

Who is God’s God?
Mita: All of our souls. We all contain sparks of God and God contains sparks of all of us.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Mita: God is a personal journey. What may be real to me may be totally unreal to another. And vice versa. Every path is different in terms of colour, rituals and accents. All religions speak the language of Love and Truth.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Mita: This is funny! Actually it is worse than your scenario. We’re all performing our parts on some cable channel and God and his Divine friends have the remote control to switch channels from all our soap operas/comedies/horror stories etc.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?
Mita: Yes. God cannot be defined perfectly by this mortal. God cannot be explained tangibly and completely cohesively by this mortal. To explain God, I have to understand God more. And for that I need more time to meditate and other such mortally unqualified excuses.

To find out how other Ticklers and readers responded to these questions click here. If you would like to take this interview as well, mail us your answers at interview@tickledbylife.com. (we will publish only the best responses)

What is God?
Kousik: God is a hypothesis (that there exists a super intelligence who created this universe, and controlling the fate of individuals by communicating with them). Apply all your scientific mind and you’ll realize there is very little chance of the hypothesis to hold true. The concept is wishful thinking for “most” of us.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Kousik: Big Bang – and God doesn’t have any role to play in that. The singularity of the Big Bang doesn’t let any information to pass through. So even if God instrumented the Big Bang, he would have no way to tune the fundamental physical constants.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Kousik: Darwin wins by a large margin. Complex life (which can even wonder whether there is a God) evolves via the process of gradual evolution. Post Big Bang, the universe has been on its own and life appeared where the condition was right. We (the Boltzmann’s brain) came as the end product (as of now, maybe in a few million years earth will be dominated by a newer species) of a slow and extended evolution
process.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Kousik: The Darfur conflict is a fight for limited resources in an overpopulated place. There might have been religious and ethnic unions on the conflicting sides, but at the end, it is a group of desperate genes
that are trying to survive at the cost of another group. The catastrophe is created because people can’t access basic resources for survival without violating someone else’s territory.

Who is God’s God?
Kousik: Whosoever he is, if he wants to exist, has a bigger problem. We are already challenging the idea of supernatural intelligence creating the universe. We say God himself is extremely improbable as a designer of
the universe, and the same question would be even harsher on him.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Kousik: Every leader wants his followers, and cashes in on human weakness. As I said most people find God’s existence as “desirable”, and hence each religious leader finds a way to “satisfy” people’s need. Just like evolution, I am sure there would be hundreds of theories floated to make people gratify their desire of God, and only the best 4/5 ones survived so far. And once they have achieved the critical mass, they
concentrated on crushing the competition to increase their own follower count, resulting violent human conflicts. I wonder if “real” God ever existed, whether he’d approve the behaviour of such fan
clubs.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Kousik: No, it is the dolphins (laugh). Humour apart, even if God existed, things wouldn’t have been any different. I said the singularity wouldn’t have allowed to set initial conditions of his experiment. No one can
research this way, where you set off an experiment without getting to set the laws, and even tweak them. The best he can do is to be a silent observer. Best to consider ourselves as Boltzmann’s brain who wonders of his own existence before second law of thermodynamics makes further information processing impossible.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Kousik: Nope; it is an opportunity for a scientist to work on a problem. Attributing gaps in knowledge to God is a glorified way of giving up. As someone else explains the mystery, we find that God is having
lesser and lesser space to hide in.

What is God?
Allison: Absolute and Unconditional Love

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Allison: Both, I am claiming scientific ignorance preventing any further elaboration.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Allison: Both

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Allison: God gave each human being “free will” but this free will often can produce great results and terribly tragic results. It is my belief that God gave us “free will” so human beings can learn from mistakes and grow spiritually. With that free will comes the right of each individual to choose which lessons they want to learn in their time upon earth. It is my opinion that we choose these circumstances before we incarnate on earth, in concert with our higher spiritual guides and/or God.

Who is God’s God?
Allison: It is my belief that we are all a part and parcel of God, which means that the relationship with God is circular. God sees his perfection, love and wholeness in each of us. In each act of love and spiritual growth God encounters God.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do w have so many religions?)
Allison: There are so many religions for a couple of reasons….One again is free will. People use free will to interpret and reinterpret what they believe God to be and want. Secondly, God couldn’t reach all diverse and unique individuals with one way of believing. So he gave inspiration to numerous beings who created all the worlds religions and spiritual belief systems. The problem comes in when human beings cannot remain open to the possibility that “their way” is not the “right way” or the “only way for everyone. If people would just search for what feels right in their heart and not look in judgment and condemnation at others the whole world would be a much better place. If you look at all the world’s religions they all really boil down to pretty much the same thing. God is love! The thing that saddens me the most is that so many wars and conflicts have begun and been fought in the name of God. It is clearly not a loving act and it is opposite of what I think any spiritual being would really want.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Allison: I prefer to think of life as a big school room and God and all other humans are the
teachers and students. When I look into the eyes of any other human being I see that at the core of that person lies a spark of God too. It helps me to remember that we are all part of one great spiritual being. We are all the same – spiritual beings having a human experience.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Allison: No, I think that unexplained phenomena may have many other possible origins than just God. I believe that spirits, angels, and other beings may exist and provide explanation for unexplained phenomena. Although I do believe that people whether in bodies or not are acting within their gift of “free will.” This is why I do not believe in evil forces such as “the devil.” I think that is just a clear way that people can avoid responsibility for their bad behavior and actions. I believe that every human being has the ability to choose unwisely or make “bad choices.” I believe in polarity for each human being. There is equal and polar opposites to provide balance to the world. If you didn’t have dark you would know to appreciate light. The key is to take responsibility and change one’s behavior going forward rather than blame it on a force that is presumably outside of one’s control.

What is God?
Caroline: God is beyond our imagination and yet comprehensible in each of our situations.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Caroline: God. Every creation has a creator, take a washing machine for example – it couldn’t have existed on its own with its fuzzy logic – so there must be somebody to code it! We cannot be the result of an explosion that is hard to calculate as almost everything about us has a pattern in terms of how we are formed! Water is a medium for all organisms with our biochemistry and water was one of the first creations as far as the Bible is considered.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Caroline: God – mostly in terms of how man came about but then Darwin’s idea could have had some hand in terms of us having a link with apes.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Caroline: Who is Darfur?

Who is God’s God?
Caroline: He wouldn’t be God if he had a God! But if we go by our understanding of demigods then I guess each one of us would ascribe to be God’s god…. say ascribe and not consider!

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Caroline: We have religions because society is dependent on a norm or way of behaving or
ascribing his or her potential. But that doesn’t mean that this norm becomes a religion. I see religion as a way out of man’s own usual web of complication. The only reason we complain is if religion weaves its own web around us. Each person has to understand what he or she is looking for to know who the real God is. I am confident that the God of my faith is the real God and that is only because He has made it a point to reach out to me in all my situations rather than be enthroned in a distant land by himself.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Caroline: Well if you don’t think God has a plan for you then this could be it….a guinea pig’s life. But I believe God has a plan and does give us choices. It is up to you to choose how to work it out. Yes, God could be a researcher to an extent of wanting to know how much of Him lies in His creation.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?
Caroline: Unexplained to the one who thinks being real is all about here and now! Unexplained is about not wanting to know any more than you already know and therefore this can equal be to God. You know exactly what the world would be like if we were all gods! You would have a Taliban or an RSS in each household!

What is God?
Drew: God is the ultimate source for all creation and all happiness and salvation.

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?
Drew: God is the creator of heaven and earth and of love for all.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Drew : God

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Drew: Darfur is created by evil and Satan. God does not allow Darfur – only evil does. However sometimes evil must exist to exemplify why we must love and not hate.

Who is God’s God?
Drew: God is the ultimate being and there is only the Father and the Son.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Drew: There is only one God but a myriad of ways in which to honor the Father, based
on multiple cultures and religions in society.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Drew: We are really in hell each day living, loving and learning. Once we depart we
reach our final destination of heaven. We learn here how to move onto our next life in the reincarnated body.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?
Drew: God is in all of us, he lives and breathes in us all. We are
all different so that we can understand the myriad of ways
in which God loves us.

What is God?
Nilankanta: I see God as residing in our mind. In fact He is our mind itself!

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Nilankanta: God is everything around us including the Big Bang, the universal forces of attraction & repulsion, time, space and all that has been convincingly explained by science. There is a theory for every phenomenon and if we don’t have one, then there are several hypotheses.
The reality is that none of us existed when Big Bang happened, so the theories which seem to explain the origin and other associated physical phenomenon such as gravitational forces, nuclear forces, etc originated from our Mind, in other words from God!

God or Darwin (or both) ?
Nilankanta: Evolution of mankind and all other living matter, is indeed a science like the study of the Big Bang. While the Big Bang is a macro phenomenon, evolution is micro. Things evolve constantly to suit and survive the new environment. We are programmed to do so. Who has programmed us? Believers in God would differ from the atheists in answering this question. But, it’s our mind (not brain) that drives us to evolve or change from our current state.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Nilankanta: I repeat, God is our mind and in our mind. Our mind creates thoughts, and thoughts translate to actions. Results from these actions may be perceived to be good or bad.
Bad thoughts too originate from our mind (God). It is unreasonable to demand that only good thoughts be created. Then there wouldn’t be much for us to do. This question assumes that God = Good, which is incorrect. In reality God = Good = Bad!
The very existence of something can be proved only by disproving its non-existence. That’s why duality exists in nature – good/bad, male/female, positive/negative, push/pull, attract/repel, bright/dark, rich/poor and so on. So if poverty, cruelty, injustice and genocide are all created by God (our mind), till such time God exists, these will exist too!

Who is God’s God?
Nilankanta: There are no super gods and demi-gods! Have you ever wanted to harm or hurt someone? You put your act together, but aborted it in the last moment like a film hero who secures control over the villain’s weapon, aims it back at him and in the last moment – drops it off and forgives him.
What do you think makes us do this? It’s our mind – our mind is its own governor. It checks itself!

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Nilankanta: As I explained, our mind is God. Like minded people created a religion, named it and gave it an identity through rituals, practices, deities, epics and so on and preached it to others. When things didn’t go the way they wanted, they split up and create another religion. Though I might make this sound like birth of political parties, the fact is that religion, political parties and everything else we see are created in the same mind. To be precise, the fundamentals of all religions are same and they just differ in practice. If one were to look for the real God, we all have to look inside. He will stand up wave hands at us.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Nilankanta: It is partially true. It is indeed a big lab and we are just guinea pigs. But there’s no researcher here. It’s all just the guinea pigs trying to research with each other and with themselves. What goes around, comes around. Our good actions will bring good things back to us and so will the bad. You find your friend a job and someone will find one for you! But, we are guinea pigs and not the researcher. It’s very rare for a guinea pig to realize what is the experiment and its results. The moment we realize this, we may only do good experiments with fellow guinea pigs!

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Nilankanta: It is very difficult to believe that if God impacts everyone’s life and destiny, such a God shouldn’t be so difficult to understand.
Here’s my theory of this phenomena called God:
Each of us is like a sealed earthen pot filled with saline water. So there are billions of pots and all of them are immersed deep in the sea. Saline water in the pot is our mind and sea water is the God.
Unlike a steel container, an earthen pot has permeable membrane (that’s why pot water cools!). In simple words, it’s not completely sealed, things move in and out of the pot through the small apertures in its walls. This movement is our experience and encounter with the unknown and creates a belief that God exists.
Due to permeable nature of the pot, the water in the pot only knows that something exists in the sea but doesn’t know what it is. So similarly we know the unknown exists, but don’t know what it is and so we are very eager.
Sometimes sealed lids give up and saline sea water enters the pot and in exchange the saline pot water exits. Some other times, the pots strike with each other and break (through our guru or coach) or under currents of the sea (the divine force) pushes the pot and it breaks. That’s when pots realize that the sea is filled with the same saline water!
That is when we too realize that God, our mind and other minds are no different from each other. When we realize this fact, not just know it, we are enlightened!
The permeable shell of the pot in the above hypothesis is our ‘maya’ – our ego, illusions, beliefs, likes, dislikes, desires, fears, physical possessions, wealth, worldly pleasures, perceptions, etc.
Like in a shell, it is just our maya that prevents us from knowing and experiencing God!
So knowing the unknown, is the simplest and easiest thing. Accepting and absorbing this truth in every action of our daily life is the most difficult thing. This is why God still remains a mystery!

To find out how other Ticklers and readers responded to these questions click here. If you would like to take this interview as well, mail us your answers at interview@tickledbylife.com. (we will publish only the best responses)

What is God?

Rajesh V: ME. Aham Bramhasmi. I believe and therefore I am! If everyone does that, the world would be a better place.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?

Rajesh V: God is reality. Big Bang happens when the trust goes away.

God or Darwin (or both)?

Rajesh V: God made Darwin and he has spread God’s word. We have misinterpreted Darwin. He only talks about evolution. Not creation!

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Rajesh V: Darfur can happen, because God is there. That’s the beauty of the karmic cycle. When we accept that, life becomes easy and simple.

Who is God’s God?

Rajesh V: Our children. God born again and not yet corrupted by conditioning. So, they are God’s God.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Rajesh V: Everyone has to stand up. Religion is only a label. God is absolute and supreme. Even the so called religions describe each of their creators in a similar manner.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Rajesh V: Lab and researcher is yet another label. It is all about experiences and learning. If we follow the karmic theory, we are responsible for our actions. So are we then the lab and the researcher? And until we understand the experiment, we keep taking birth again n again!!

Does unexplained phenomena = God?
Rajesh V: God and so many wise men have been explaining for so many years. Misunderstood is a better word!!

What is God?
Eric: Wow! What a place to start! They don’t come much bigger than this. This must be the one question that has teased philosophers for thousands of years, from Aristotle to Einstein to Richard Dawkins. And, since it is still being asked today, we obviously don’t have an answer we’re all agreed upon. It’s probably easier to start by saying what God isn’t.

By now, I think it’s pretty universally acknowledged that God isn’t an old man with a long flowing beard sitting on a cloud somewhere up in the sky. He is not even a “He.” What God is, is at once simple but incredibly profound.

God is the name we give to the Life Force of the Universe, a force that is not accessible through our ordinary five senses but accessible as an energy made up of pure consciousness. It is the reason why things exist in the sense that we experience them and have life. And it is the reason why we, as humans, can use our own consciousness to manifest anything in our lives. In short, God is the source energy that allows us to create our own individual lives in all their wonder, diversity and glory.

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Eric: The Big Bang is our current most up-to-date explanation of how the Universe began. According to this theory, the Big Bang happened some 13.7 billion years ago, when in a split second the universe became so hot that it literally exploded outwards like a rising loaf of bread in a hot oven. As a scientific explanation, some people see the Big Bang as a more plausible alternative to stories of how life started, such as those in religious accounts of the Creation.

However, the Big Bang does not make any claims about how the Universe came to be in existence before this explosion.

If we accept our earlier proposition that God is the Life Force of the Universe, then not even an event like the Big Bang could have happened without the Life Force already being present in some form. In reality, there is no start point or end point in life. Life, as pure consciousness, is infinite and eternal. And it is eternal because, despite our desire to explain things in the past and predict things in the future, all of life happens in the infinite and eternal moment of Now.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Eric: The question of where human beings come from is one of the most controversial around. Did God create Man as part of His Creation blueprint, as religious tradition has it, or did human beings evolve along with all other species as part of a process of natural selection?

This argument was fiercely debated some 150 years ago when Charles Darwin published his ‘Origin of Species’ based on his scientific research into the development of life forms. Just like the Big Bang theory of the physical Universe, Darwin argued that humans could not have been created ready-made at the start of Creation but evolved in a gradual process thereafter possibly from other life forms such as primates.

So which is right, holy texts or scientific theory? Well, perhaps there is no conflict and they are both right. After all, holy texts are often simply metaphors for ideas that are hard to understand in any other way. Even if God did not create Man in one day six days after the start of Creation, the act of creation was not a random chance happening but the result of source energy manifesting itself in life form. Darwin simply fills in the more interesting details in the timeline thereafter.

In short, we are both creatures of God as well as an evolving species.

God or Darfur? (How can a Darfur happen if there is a God?)
Eric: This question arises every time we hear of a natural or man-made disaster happening in the world: why does God allow “bad” things to happen to people? This question is the sort that arises when people see God as the old man with the flowing beard sitting on His cloud in the sky and having the power to determine what happens to people on Earth.

The reality is, that everything that happens in our experiences happens because of the power of individual and mass consciousness, the consciousness which in its pure form is the gift of God. In other words, we create our experiences from our thoughts and feelings and what follows is the result of law of attraction. We get what we think about and what we expect.

The problem is that, instead of simply accepting the experience and moving on, we analyse the experience and choose to label it “good” or “bad”. Thus, situations that we, as onlookers, believe to be bad, such as those in Darfur, are considered unacceptable. We immediately look for someone to blame, be it Man or God, and we do everything in our power to prevent it happening again.

In doing this, we fail to understand that all situations in life are created by people through their individual and mass consciousness, some actively wishing them to happen, others passively wishing them to happen to them. Either way, the experience is a manifestation of life force and not something that God chooses to have any say over.

Who is God’s God?
Eric: There is no division between God and ourselves, just as there is no division between all manifested forms of life, be they animals, plants, microbes, cells, or indeed, the space between them. What makes us One is the Pure Consciousness or Life Force that (a) breathes life into everything; and (b) allows us to become creators of our own experiences. Because we use life force and pure consciousness to create our own lives, we have the same power as God.

Some thinkers have explained our relationship with God as that between the individual droplets of water in the ocean and the ocean itself. We are one and the same. God is made up of all of us and our individual consciousnesses; while we are the stuff that God is made up of.
So, in a very real sense, we are God’s God and God is ours.

Will the real God please stand up? (or why do we have so many religions?)
Eric: There are countless religions in the world. One estimate suggests that there are 10,000 distinct faiths in the Christian church alone. The reason why there are so many is very similar to the reason why there are so many languages in the world. They are the result of culture, history, and the manifesting consciousness of different groups of people sharing similar beliefs.

The problem, of course, arises when a religion claims to be the one true faith. Then we have the potential for conflict with others who make the same claim. The history of the world is littered with such bitter conflicts. The answer, again, is very simple and very profound. If a group of people choose to believe they have found the answer to who or what God is, then to them on a personal and collective level it is real. There is no reason why this should be of concern to the rest of us, unless we are so unsure of ourselves and our relationship with what we perceive to be God that we need to destroy all other claims.

There are many routes to connecting with the life force that is God. And all are equally valid.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Eric: Yes, it sometimes feels that we are like guinea pigs in a vast laboratory being tested by God in some cosmic experiment. This may be especially so when we lose connection with our true selves (ie joyously connected to the life force of God) and give way to our feelings of fear and insignificance.

Spiritual teachers, Esther and Jerry Hicks, compare our earthly experiences not to a big lab but to a huge kitchen, stocked with all the most wonderful ingredients imaginable. In this kitchen, we get to choose whatever recipes we want. Some turn out to be favourites, others we’re not so sure about, and others are yuk and we won’t try again. But each time, we get to choose what we want. Either way, it’s great fun. And that’s what life is: an endlessly enjoyable choosing of life experiences, made possible by the creative energy of the Life Force.

God is not a watching researcher in all of this, but, as part of ourselves, an entity who gets as much thrill out of the experimenting, creative, and playful process as we do.

Unexplained phenomena = God
Eric: The reason why people fail to see the presence of God, or the universal life energy, is because our sense-based thinking gets in the way. In other words, we only believe what we can see, hear, feel or know.
That’s why we want to know the meaning of unexplained phenomena, from UFO’s to ghosts, Near-Death Experiences to the mysteries of outer space. The answer again is simple and profound.
Life is supposed to thrill and surprise us. There is supposed to be a succession of unexplained phenomena that we can marvel at. After all, how else should we appreciate the breathtaking beauty of a glorious sunset? Not by analysing it, but by just having our breath taken away.

Our job is not to take each unexplained phenomenon apart and find out if it hides God but to fully accept it as a wonderful part of the fabric of life that can only exist when we and God come together as One.

The report indicated that the golden tower of the goddess Sri Meenakshi was plated with 30 kilograms of gold. A Hundred and eight pots containing sacred waters from the holy rivers in were brought to the temple towers.

Now let me introduce you to some interesting statistics.

According to the Census of India there are 2.4 million places of worship in India as against only 1.5 million schools and 0.75 million hospitals and dispensaries!

Do you see something odd about our priorities ?

We as a nation have a tendency to blame our politicians for every ill in our society. When this explanation does not suffice we blame it on fate. Rarely have I heard anyone blaming the people for our crisis. As for taking personal responsibility, perish the thought. This is as close to blasphemy as an Indian can get.

There are some who would argue that more countries and people should adopt the much-discussed Protestant work ethic which is supposedly one of the factors responsible for driving the great and prosperous nations of the world. Protestants were taught that hard work and accepting personal responsibility were the secrets to success.

Some countries however like our own, tend to place too much responsibility for our future on other worldly forces like God.

In our beloved country, there is also an amazing ability to live with two contradictory thoughts without any sense of unease, guilt or discomfort. That may account for the proliferation of temples – for the huge sums spent on Kumbabhshekham and the acquisition of pots of gold even as orphans die of starvation, the poor do not get medical treatment and millions remain illiterate.

We say that children are like God but….maybe we feel that only our children are like God.

I am afraid we blame our politicians but we behave exactly the way they do – irresponsible and callous. Our leaders are a mirror image of ourselves. The current elections seem to have stirred up feelings of ‘enough is enough’ and middle class rage is evident. But I expect that once the elections are over the same class will ‘pai lagu’ to these netas asking for favours and inviting them to functions even if it is a housing colony pooja! Any slum kids trying to enter the pooja pandal will of course be shooed away while our kids partake of a sumptuous meal.

A caveat is in order; despite this obnoxious behavior a section of our country will prosper. This is the section that donates money and gold to temples and prostrates before politicians after criticizing them in drawing rooms and in the media. After all it is this class that influences policy. How else does one explain the proliferation of IIT’s, IIM’s malls and corporate hospitals rather than elementary schools, primary dispensaries and ITI’s?

The class that is debarred from entering temples will continue to suffer from lack of food, schools and medical aid. None of this makes any sense.

Let’s make a start to rearrange our priorities as educated and spiritually evolving people.

Here are some of my suggestions:
Each one us donates money and time periodically to an orphanage or geriatric home.
We reduce our scale of celebrating festivals and observance of rituals and donate the money saved to noble causes.
Ensure that our domestic help sends her kid to school and volunteer to pay the fees.
Encourage our domestic help to sit on a chair while we speak to her.
When we place some money in the ‘hundi’ of a temple, place the same amount in the hands of the leper or maimed beggar sitting outside the temple.
Resolve not to ever offer or accept bribes or illegitimate favours.

Resist the temptation to tell others:
That beggars are beggars by choice and work can be found if they tried hard enough.
That orphanages and geriatric homes are run by dishonest people.
That servants need to be treated as servants and their place is down on the floor.
That one cannot afford to reduce the scale of the rituals because God will be angry.

In conclusion, I agree that some of these faults are universal and not confined to India. That is perhaps why the anchorperson of a TV programme on NATGEO said that the hyena is the second most aggressive animal on earth – after man .

To find out how other Ticklers and readers responded to these questions click here. If you would like to take this interview as well, mail us your answers at interview@tickledbylife.com. (we will publish only the best responses)

What is God?

Pamposh: God not captured in a few words (or even in a lot of words). God is beyond definition.

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?

Pamposh: Both. Who created the Big Bang?

God or Darwin (or both)?

Pamposh: Again, both. Whose idea is evolution?

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Pamposh: How? By human folly.

Who is God’s God?

Pamposh: Hmm. If God means whatever we take it to mean, God is, in a sense, our creation. There we – you and I – must be God’s God.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Pamposh: Remember the story of the elephant and the four blind men who described him variously by the parts each one felt? God is in the eye of the beholder – each one pictures God according to their own understanding and imagination.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Pamposh: I’d say it’s a school and we’re students.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

Pamposh: Unexplained surely has more to do with our own lack of understanding than with God. I’d say no, not God. I’d say unexplained phenomena really equal un-understood phenomena.

What is God?

Gabrielle: God is a man-made phenomenon. There is no other accounting for the fact that 3 of the world’s major religions developed within about 300 years of each other in the same small town. It is also the cause of most suffering for women i.e. contraception, genital mutilation, prescribed dress etc and war.

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?

Gabrielle: Most likely the Big bang that is, an electrical phenomenon from the sun began life.

God or Darwin (or both)?

Gabrielle: Evolution.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Gabrielle: Darfur, Cambodia, Hitler, Zimbabwe…. these are always man-driven as well.

Who is God’s God?

Gabrielle: Buddha. Buddhism teaches meditation and pays attention to how we treat each other in the here and now.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Gabrielle: Because God is man made we will always have many religions and newer cults.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Gabrielle: I think that the big lab at the moment is again man made what we are seeing is the problems brought on by overpopulation = climate change=pollution = destruction of species etc.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

Gabrielle: I am clairvoyant so I know that the spirit lives on after death as I can talk to it! Some people do not want to pass over and they stay here. I cannot really explain clairvoyance for example but regularly I dream of events prior to their occurrence and will see the future for people as well. I think this is me connecting to the spirits and God has nothing to do with it.

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What is God?

Axee: A belief, and since S/he is a belief, S/he is omnipresent, omnipotent. Beliefs are based on facts. Facts are based on patterns and experiences. One good way of making the mind understand God is to think numerically.The number 2 comes before 3, 1 comes before 2, 0 comes before 1, God comes before 0. As simple as that.

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?

Axee: First God then the Big Bang.

God or Darwin (or both)?

Axee: Again, First God then Darwin for showing us one of the ways of God. He mapped it for us, the less intelligent ones.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Axee: Darfur is there as S/he is there too, and making it happen as well.

Who is God’s God?

Axee: None. As I explained, God comes before 0.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Axee: Yes why? Real God is within us as individuals…why do we cluster up? We don’t have to herd up but we do! There is no need to prove any numerical superiority here at all. All we need to do is Love one another as His/Her creation! Pray collectively if at all we have to at a spot called “Sarva Dharma Sthal” – a tall task. But that’s the ultimate goal to achieve universal salvation made possible through love. We need to destroy desires first, physical boundaries next, and finally mental ones too created by religion. Why were we not born into any religion with that religion’s tag in our hands? Is S/he not capable of delivering us with a tag?
Think!

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Axee: Nope…we are not. If we were guinea pigs why would we evolve? As a creator God does not need to research. We research to understand His/Her creativity and ways.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

Axee: Not all, but contextually – yes. If you accept the explanation the S/he comes before 0, alias ‘shunyaa.’ S/he stands explained.

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What is God?

Mario: God is everything and it is nothing. It is the whole and the emptiness. God it is inside you and surrounding you. God it is a state of mind and spirit. God is an untouchable definition and by itself indefinable.

God or the Big Bang?

Mario: I see it not as alternative “scenarios” but as sequential or simultaneous “scenarios.” The problem of the sequence approach is to define what time is.

God or Darwin?

Mario: Both. The “division” between science and religion in Christianity came with inquisition in the Middle Ages, when they burned alchemists, women – whom they called witches- books, and anyone or anything that could be a threat to their hegemony and dogmas.

God or Darfur (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Mario: Darfur was provoked by men’s greed. This has nothing to do with God’s or God’s will. Men have the free will to decide what they do.

Who is God’s God?

Mario: It is you and your conscience and your actions.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Mario: Actually, we have only one God. Religions were regional perspectives from the same wholeness, with local culture and costumes adaptations (or visions). With globalization (this actually began with the navigations and explorers from the old times), religions expanded globally. Also, religion had, and has, a political and economical component, which enforces its domination in some regions or groups. We also could see it as the story of the “Six Blind Men and the Elephant”. Each was totally convinced he discovered the “truth”, and actually they all did. Rooted on their individual experiences and restricted perception of reality. If they could have a chat and merge their understanding and perceptions maybe they could see the elephant as a whole, and also see that it is only one elephant and there exists only one truth.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Mario: That is an interesting perspective. As we know, by the quantum mechanics theory, when we observe a phenomenon, we change its reality and result. It is like the Schrödinger cat. So, if exists a greatest force that observe us, it could change or reality.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

Mario: If we could explain or define God we would be able to solve all problems of the Universe.

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What is God?

PK: Somebody out there.

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?

PK: Couldn’t care much for either; see the mess?

God or Darwin (or both)?

PK: Does it matter?

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

PK: Now look here seriously. Why bring God into everything? Are these humans washed in milk?

Who is God’s God?

PK: I did not know my father well with whom I spent 47 years and you ask me about this Guy I have nothing to do with?

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

PK: But I thought they were Creations of our imagination?

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

PK: I am more worried about what my wife will say about the pan that I just burned.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

PK: You can explain it or leave it, I have my daughter calling me to wash her after going to “potty.”

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What is God?

Nithya: The “Grand Overall Design” or inherent intelligence that animates all things. God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal and awakens in man. We are at the leading edge of this adventure of consciousness – Gods rediscovering Ourselves!

God or the Big Bang? (or both)?

Nithya: There is no difference between the two. God looking outwards is the Big Bang. Man looking inwards is God.

God or Darwin (or both)?

Nithya: Both win. All perspectives are true, yet limited.

God or Darfur? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)

Nithya: Darfur stirs anger and compassion in humanity. When what is stirred settles down, it can be seen that God is the harmony of opposites. Darfur is God.

Who is God’s God?

Nithya: The one who thought that thought.

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)

Nithya: He can’t, he’s rolling on the floor laughing.

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?

Niytha: God is the pig. God is the researcher. God is the discovery.

Does unexplained phenomena = God?

Nithya: That remains unexplained!

From this statement we can infer that even God, the Almighty Creator who is omnipotent and omnipresent craves appreciation (a kind of motivation).

Therefore….. when God our Creator is craving appreciation, it is no wonder after all that we as mere human beings would need appreciation and motivation in our real lives.

God created Man with knowledge to recognize His talent & appreciate Him.

Therefore…. With the knowledge endowed by God, we as human beings should want to put forth our talents to appreciate and enhance everything around us including ourselves.

To put the above in practice:

Let’s learn to start appreciating our Creator first while worshipping Him to fulfill our wishes.

As human beings are the only ones who can appreciate themselves, let us appreciate each other wholeheartedly without reservation, in our short span of life.