GOD-THE CREATOR?

Never before in history have science and religion been engaged in such a battle for supremacy over creation of Man itself. Atheism would have been too unorthodox a topic to be discussed and hence I am restraining my discussions to creation of this Universe, and not the existence of a God as a whole. Perhaps never before-not excluding the period of Inquisition and the persecution of Galileo for his blasphemous claim that the Earth revolves around the Sun have scientific claims being entirely antagonistic to the sole foundation of religion-the unique status of a Supreme Originator. Indeed, anti-religionism has itself become a dogmatic religion. Contrary to what many believe, India in Vedic times had a robust tradition of speculation, scepticism and rejection of dominant philosophies in favour of more liberal thought. It was only after the medieval ages that questioning was stifled by ritualism and canonical ideas. Rig Veda, the mainstay of Hindu philosophy, contains an astonishing brand of free speculation that rather unexpectedly seems to favour disapproving God as The Creator: Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen? Whence this creation has arisen-perhaps it has formed itself, or perhaps it did not Thats from the famous Creation Hymn (Nasadiya Sukta) in the tenth chapter of the Rig Veda. In fact, the sages are themselves speculating about the most fundamental question of philosophy-how did this universe originate? They are even willing to say that god came afterwards. And remember, this is roughly 1400 BCE. By medieval times, the great Indian tradition of philosophical speculation had died out and stifled by ritualism. It was only when sections of the Indian society were exposed to Western ideas in the 19th century that a revival of atheism took place. Such individuals came from varied backgrounds-from Bhagat Singh, who embraced Marxist ideas, E V Ramasami Naicker and Nobel laureate Subaramanium Chandrashekhar. Coming back to the modern-day controversies that have sprung up, the core of the issues being debated upon are to fundamental questions: the origin of the universe, and the evolution of species. The hypothesis according to science are the Big Bang theory(which the LHC seeks to validate), and Darwanian selection, respectively. Religion credits the origin of the universe to intelligent design and that attributing the creation of such a miraculously complex universe to molecular chance is as far-fetched as a cyclone passing through the junkyard and coming up with a functional 747 aircraft. And who created the Supreme Creator is what I ask.

Religion is primarily in the dock because of the irrational violence and suffering it has inflicted over the millennia. Talibanised Islam has a lot to answer for its brutal repression of women and its suppression to education. Most atheists are not against God, but against a church that claims to

represent God. The crusades, the burning of non-believers-is that how you represent a god, if one exists that is. Indeed, how to explain the suffering of over 6 million Jews because a man who flunked his architecture entrance exam though he did not have enough living space-lebensraum? Or the ten million killed or encouraged to go missing forever in the Great Purge by Stalin, who later said as only an honest mass-murderer could have, that the death of one man is tragedy, but the death of millions is statistics? Or, the hundreds of thousands of children in India or Africa living in appalling conditions, in a permanent state of war? Hindus rationalize it as karmic destiny. That we cannot fathom the infinitesimal gradations of divine justice distributed over the seven rebirths of a living organism so that it could expiate the accumulated sins. But, why create such complex models of fall and redemption in the first place? Why not create man happy, make him live happy, and why not let him die with a smile on his face? If there is a God, the Creator, clearly he seems not in control. Perhaps, he found the pressures of creation too much and went mad. A crowned and enthroned schizophrenic, half-god, half-devil. A sort of Jekyll and Hyde. On evidence, Jekyll seems to have taken over. Well, theist and anti-theist, god and anti-god, are nothing but the ghost of words in this wordless and never ending story!