Deity Theory

Many people believe in God, but most of them have no idea why. I realize that this is a controversial subject but I think it's important to discuss it in the aspect of the understanding the universe.

Religions have been created to help people worship God and appreciate why God is necessary in their lives. In most cases Religion is more concerned with morality than theology. In the case of morality the idea is that if you behave and do good you'll be rewarded, but if you don't behave and do evil you'll be punished. This is similar to the 'Carrot and Stick' idea. My take on this is that instead of fearing God one should be good because it's the right thing to do, not because of the fear of punishment. Frankly, I think this aspect of religion needs help. However, the Bible has many instances of this Reward-Punishment system, and that makes sense because it's the typical way that people look at human behavior. The reason why laws exist is to create a system to control human behavior. Otherwise there would be chaos. It's therefore easy to understand why religion adopted a reward-punishment concept and associated it with God, especially when it's a large portion of scriptures.

Theology is more like philosophy, which tries to explain things by using logic. Most of Christian theology is based on Thomas Aquinas and his famous document 'Summa Theologica'. I was required to read this in the English translation version and understand it when I was in college. Aquinas was of the belief that Theology is certain because it's based on divine knowledge. This premise is flawed because there is no way to prove divine knowledge. So, it's not a science but rather a philosophy.

There are many other faults with the Summa, as it's called. Basically, Aquinas created a belief system and called it science. He attempts to make sense of the Trinity, the basic Christian belief that there are three personas in one God. The only reason why this idea exists in the first place is because of the Biblical references to God the Father, Jesus being the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit being the physical operator of God, essentially the power that gave the apostles the ability to persist and spread the faith. Most of this sounds like a form of Greek mythology. It sounds good but doesn't make any sense. The three persons of God are basically three manifestations of God in the Bible. There were other ones, such as the burning bush that conversed with Moses. My take is that there is no reason to create some complicated theology in order to believe in God. No one really understands what God is or how God thinks. The God that created this immense universe is way beyond our comprehension. Of course, that didn't stop people from trying to create a theology to explain God.

However, that doesn't mean that God is a myth or a fabrication of human understanding. If one looks at the complexity of nature and why we exist, one should begin to realize that none of this is pure accident. Keep in mind that I'm talking as a scientist here, not as a religious expert. To me God is a reality that's not very well understood.

I've discussed the complicated nature of how the universe evolved after the Big Bang and also how we evolved on the Earth. The complexity of these processes is still not fully understood well. Many little details had to be just right in order for us to exist. As far as I'm concerned this represents a recipe, and if you think about it, a chef is needed to bring a recipe to life. In the case of the recipe that resulted in the universe, this chef is God. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Only a superior intelligence could possibly come up with the precise recipe to create us.

If you strip religion of all the fluff, one comes to the conclusion that God wanted us to exist, and in order to make it happen, God came up with the precise recipe for a universe that would ultimately evolve us from pure energy. Obviously, God wanted us to exist in peace otherwise God's plan to create us would not work. This is the simplest idea of what religion is about. The details differ from one religion to the other.

The reason why I like this simplistic view is because it removes religion from science, politics and law. It makes religion a personal choice that doesn't conflict with other people's choices. Most all religions propose a belief in a God that's the ultimate creator of everything and as such deserves our love and worship. How this worship should be done is subject to opinion. God never made the rules for it. It's up to man to determine how to do it. That's the job of Religion.

Science on the other hand wants to know how things work, including the ultimate knowledge of how the universe came to be. I don't think that there will ever be a comprehensive and unequivocal theory that would prove God exists. God is beyond science and human understanding despite what religion tries to tell us. It all comes down in the end to belief in something that can't be proven, and that's the way it will remain.

Thanks for reading.