A recent survey of Indian scientists jointly conducted by The Institute for Study of Secularism in Society and Culture of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut and India’s Centre for Inquiry, Hyderabad shows that a simple majority of them believe in God. Most of them (30% of total) accept Him as a high power but not a personal God. And only 12% denied categorically while 13% are not sure.
Eminent US psychologist James H. Leuba in his landmark survey of 1914 found that 58% of 1,000 randomly selected US scientists expressed disbelief when asked about the respondent’s belief in “a God in intellectual and affective communication with humankind” and in “personal immortality”.
In another much-discussed survey reported in the journal Nature in 1997, 40 per cent of biologists, physicists and mathematicians said they believed in God – to whom one may pray “in expectation of receiving an answer”. According to Francis S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, most scientists he knows who do believe in God believe in “a God who is behind the laws of nature but who is not intervening.” The title of survey seems to be a more crucial parameter in judging the results of such surveys. One of the reasons for the confusing results of such surveys could also be the definition of “HE” itself or the title of the survey. Survey on a well defined HE among scientists could be more conclusive.
DEFINING GOD
The concept of God is best dealt in religious scriptures.TheBhagavad Gita (9:25)says: “Those who worship Devas (deity) with self interest, goes to Devas after death, those who worship the manes reach manes, those who adore the evil spirit, reach evil spirit. But those who worship Me, attain Me alone.” One can worship anything or anybody and that will be his/her god.
It may also be one’s own wish and will, as the Qur’an (45:23) points it out “Then seest thou such a one as takes as his God his own vain desire?” But in the above quote from the Gita, there is someone “Me”, to whom the Gita (10:12-13)subscribes for worship and identifies Him as “You are the supreme Brahma (the creator), the, supreme abode the unborn, the omnipresent, likewise all the sages have acclaimed you, and you yourself have proclaimed it to me” and the Qur’an also defines (6:102): “That is Allah, your Lord! there is no God but He, the Creator of all things: then worship ye Him: and He hath power to dispose of all affairs” declaring that the creator should be worshipped. Svetâsvatara Upanishad (6:2/11) elaborates Him: “It is at His command that this work (creation) unfolds itself, which is called earth, water, fire, air, and ether; He is the one God.”
Should He be worshipped only because He is the creator? For wise people, according to Bhagavad Gita (10:8), “Yes” – “I am the origin of whole creation, from Me all things move. The wise knowing this, full of devotion, worship Me.” But, including the wise, no one is free from needs and is fully secured. Therefore the Gita (9:22) says, “To those who worship Me alone, thinking of no one else, who are ever devout, I provide gain and security.”
And also the Qur’an (35:3), “O mankind! Remember Allah’s grace toward you! Is there any creator other than Allah who provideth for you from the sky and the earth?”, reminding us that entire sustenance comes from the earth when it rains from sky which is completely governed by the creator alone. It means the creator is sustainer and ruler as well. The Qur’an (7:54) elaborates it: “He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all) governed by laws under His command. Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds.”
Svetâsvatara Upanishad (6:12) makes it more clear when it declares: “He is the one ruler of many. He makes the one seed manifold.” Meaning the creator rules from sun to seed, governing over entire business of sustenance on earth. Bhagavad Gita (8:9) also calls the creator as ruler and sustainer at the same time: “He is Omniscient, Ruler, and sustainer of all, form inconceivable and beyond all darkness of ignorance.” So the creator is the one who addresses your needs and provide you security and in return you worship (praise and obey) Him by following His commands.
Moreover, Upanishads saw dharma as the universal principle of law, order and harmony. Therefore, compliance with the laws and commands of the creator with praise and submissiveness is worship, which assures gains and peace (internal and external) by setting the worldly affairs right for human beings.
SCIENCE ACCEDES?
Georges Politzer opposed the idea of creation in his book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie when he wrote: “The universe was not a created object, if it were, then it would have to be created instantaneously by God and brought into existence from nothing.”
Hubble’s discovery that the universe was expanding led to the emergence of another model. If the universe was getting bigger as time advanced, going back in time meant that it was getting smaller; and if one went back far enough, everything would shrink and converge at a single point. The conclusion to be derived from this model was that at some time, all the matter in the universe was compacted in a single point-mass that had “zero volume” because of its immense gravitational force. Our universe came into being as a result of the explosion of this point-mass that had zero volume. This explosion has come to be called the “the Big Bang” and its existence has repeatedly been confirmed by observational evidence.
Confronted by such evidence, the Big Bang gained the near-complete approval of the scientific world. In fact this has been there in the scriptures for 1400 years, the Qur’an (21:30): “Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder.”
Moreover, Professor of Cosmology, Andre Linde asks:“But how could all the different parts of the universe synchronise the beginning of their expansion? Who gave the command? Interestingly, the Qur’an (51:47) says: “And it is We who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it.” This indicates that HE has been informing us about the creation through scriptures since ages.
Defending the steady-state theory alongside Fred Hoyle for years, Dennis Sciama described the final position they had reached after all the evidence for the Big Bang theory was revealed: “When hostile observational evidence became to come in Fred Hoyle took a leading part in trying to counter this evidence, and I played a small part at the side, also making suggestions as to how the hostile evidence could be answered. But as that evidence piled up, it became more and more evident that the game was up, and that one had to abandon the steady state theory.”
AnAmerican astrophysicist Hugh Ross proposes a Creator of universe, Who is above all physical dimensions as “If time’s beginning is concurrent with the beginning of the universe, as the space-time theorem says, then the cause of the universe must be some entity operating in a time dimension completely independent of and pre-existent to the time dimension of the cosmos. …It tells us that the Creator is transcendent, operating beyond the dimensional limits of the universe”.
Also His authority over all the creatures, as a ruler, can be seen by observing the order that prevails in this waste universe. The Nobel prize winner German physicist Max Planck explains the order in the universe as: “At all events, we should say, in summing up, that, according to everything taught by the exact sciences about the immense realm of nature in which our tiny planet plays an insignificant role, a certain order prevails – one independent of the human mind.”
Patterns found in the study of matter are formulated as physical laws. Matter from electron to super-cluster of galaxies and DNA to entire biological system is found in complete surrender to the laws prescribed for them. In fact, it is their obedience which made science possible for us. This order also prevails in living creatures as pointed out by Michael J. Behe: “The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell – to investigate life at the molecular level – is a loud, clear, piercing cry of “design!” The result is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science.”
It has come such a pass that today, disbelief in the creator is taken as an unscientific system of belief. The American geneticist Robert Griffith’s jokingly remarked: “If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the philosophy department. The physics department isn’t much use.”
(Max Miller’s translation of Upanishads, S.C. Vaishya’s translation of Srimad Bhagavad-Gita, and Abdullah Yousuf Ali’s translation of the Qur’an have been used.)
[MOHAMMAD ATIQUR REHMAN is associated with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai]