by Star 
“In the beginning, there was Man
who created Santa in his own image.”
Santa Claus
Do you still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy? If you
don't, why not?
It was last week, over a beer talking, when I was challenged by
a friend who says that I must believe in the existence of God because
I have no evidence that God does not exist. At the time, the power
of alcohol was in the favour of God and left me defeated in our so-called
intellectual debate. However, the beer kept me in heaven as a slave
for a short time before I was back on Earth, back to my freedom of
mind and thought. It was in this state of my mind when I was able
to rationalize why I cannot believe in the existence of God.
Rationally, we must assume that things do not exist unless we have
evidence that they do. Most of the people who believe in God follow
this rule as well; for instance, they don't believe in unicorns,
even though they cannot definitively prove that no unicorns exist
anywhere. So, you don't have to provide evidence for something which
does not exist. However, if you claim that something exists then
you must bring objective and compelling supporting evidence for its
existence. For me to believe that you have twenty billion dollars
in your bank account, you must show me a statement of your account.
And even if I truly believe (based on my own feelings) that you have
twenty billion dollars; my belief does not make you rich when in
fact you don't actually have this amount of money.
After thousands of years of effort, no one has come up with an impenetrable
logical proof of the existence of God. Nevertheless, some people
feel that they can logically prove that God exists. But, how much
can you rely on your logic? The answer is, unfortunately, not much.
Reality is not decided by logic because logical rules do not always
preserve truth. This could be due to the presence of a flaw in the
system of your logic such as wrong premises. Therefore, reality is
not necessarily logically consistent.
Some people argue logically that since God is well-defined, then
he or she must by definition exist. For example, God is omnipotent,
omniscient, and the creator of the universe; therefore, God exists.
Well, you know quite enough about the definition of Santa Claus such
as his look, outfit, reindeer, and many other things related to him.
But, does this really mean that Santa Claus exists?
In the grand finale of mind, what I am left to find out what is
really going on in this universe is observation. And of course, when
logic and reality disagree, reality always wins. Therefore, after
I come up with a clear definition of God, the only thing which can
definitely convince me of the existence of God is to find an objective
and imperious piece of evidence.
If there is a God who is omnipresent and in touch with our universe,
the effects of his or her presence must be measurable and detectable.
And if God is not objectively detectable, then I can conclude that
God does not interact with our universe in any way. In this case,
it makes no difference whether or not God exists.
Kids tend to believe whatever they are told, because they are gullible
and naïve. The brain of a child is shaped by evolution to
absorb anything, good thing, bad thing, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy,
unicorns, God, gods, and so on. It takes time before a child is grown
up to realize that there is no such a thing as Santa Claus.
The question still remains: why is it easy for most people to rule
out Santa Claus but not God from their life equation? I leave it
up to you to answer this question.
by Star |