Standard questions of atheists/non-believers/doubters

[Guest guest]

Namaste

 

Recently there has been some discussion about atheism vis-a-vis advaita in both

the lists. The questions that atheists or non-believers or doubters raise are

very standard and I have tried to list a few of them below. The problem with

them mostly is that they always seek an Yes-or-No answer to their questions and

that is what starts an unending discussion. If only they could tolerate, for a

time, the hypothesis that there could be a spectrum of possibilities between the

two extremes of 'yes' and 'no' to their questions, a headway could be made. And

such questions also arise when one gets into the intellectualism of advaita

without the necessary background or yearning for a spiritual quest.

I am sure veteran teachers of Vedanta like Sadaji would have met with many more

of such questions. I list below a few which have come my way. I do not intend to

provoke a discussion. I am only letting ourselves remember that it is easy to

raise such questions and expect a binary answer as if that would be the end of

it all!

 

1.If God exists but cannot remove our suffering then he is not God.

2. If God exists and would not remove our suffering then he is not kind.

3. If God exists and should not remove our suffering then he is not the boss.

4. If God exists and suffering also has to exist then he is not the only Truth.

5. If God exists and cannot allow himself to be recognised by sense-perception

then he is not all-mighty.

6. If God needs prayers and flattery then he is worse than man.

7. If Faith is the bottom line of Religion, why all this posture of logic,

philosophy and rationale?

8. How can Fate and Freewill be both true in the same system?

9. Who is responsible for the inequalities of life, - Man, God or Fate?

10.If God created the universe, what was his purpose? Did he have to attain

something which he did not have? Then he cannot be God.

11. Is not the entire logic of pUrva-karma in Hinduism an escapist one, that

throws the blame always on something which can never be known?

12. If God ever manifested on earth, did he ever leave it with all problems of

poverty and disease solved?

............ and so on !!!

 

With PraNAms to all advaitins

profvk

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.