Who Doubts God Exists?

[Tarun]

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Guess Who Doesn't Believe in God?

 

Eleven percent of U.S. adults admit they don't believe in God. Surprisingly, while 73 percent profess a belief in God, they are riddled with doubt, not certain God actually exists.

Specifically, 42 percent admit they are not "absolutely certain" there is a God, while 15 percent are only "somewhat certain." Eleven percent think there is probably no God and 16 percent aren't sure, according to this Harris Poll of 2,010 U.S. adults conducted in 2006. There is no consensus on God's gender, form or degree of control over events on earth.

Not all who describe themselves as Christian or Jewish believe in God. Indeed, only 76 percent of Protestants, 64 percent of Catholics and 30 percent of Jews say they are "absolutely certain" there is a God. However, 93 percent of Christians who describe themselves as "born again" are absolutely certain there is a God.

Who is absolutely certain there is a God?

• 
  
• People in all age groups 40 and over (63 percent of those ages 40 to 49, 65 percent of those ages 50 to 64 and 65 percent of those ages 65 and over) compared to people in age groups under 40 (45 percent of those ages 18 to 24, 43 percent of those ages 25 to 29 and 54 percent of those ages 30 to 39);
  
• Women (62 percent) slightly more than men (54 percent);
  
• African Americans (71 percent) compared to Hispanics (61 percent) and Whites (57 percent);
  
• Republicans (73 percent) more than Democrats (54 percent) or Independents (51 percent);
  
• People with no college education (62 percent) or who have some college education (57 percent), compared to college graduates (50 percent) and those with post-graduate degrees (53 percent).

How often do we attend religious services?

• 
  
• 35 percent attend once a month or more, including 26 percent of these who attend once a week or more.
  
• 46 percent say they attend services just a few times a year or less.
  
• 18 percent never attend.

Is God male or female?

The public is almost equally divided between those who think of God as male (36 percent) and "neither male nor female" (37 percent), with 10 percent saying "both male and female." Only one percent thinks of God as female.

Does God have a human form?

• 
  
• A substantial plurality of the public (41 percent) thinks of God as "a spirit or power that can take on human form but is not inherently human."
  
• 27 percent think of God as a "spirit or power that does not take on human form."
  
• Only 9 percent of adults think of God as being "like a human being with a face, body, arms, legs, eyes, etc."

How much control does God have over events on earth?

• 
  
• Less than one-third of all adults (29 percent) believe that God "controls what happens on Earth, including 57 percent of born-again Christians.
  
• A plurality (44 percent) believes that God "observes but does not control what happens on Earth."

Do Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

• 
  
• About half (51 percent) of all adults, including a majority of Catholics (63 percent), believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same God.
  
• 32 percent believe they do not.
  
• 16 percent are not sure.
  
• Among born-again Christians, 54 percent say they do not worship the same God, while 34 percent say they do.

Are believers declining?

Three years ago, in an identical survey, 79 percent of adults said they believed in God and 66 percent said they were absolutely certain that there is a God. In this new survey, those numbers have declined to 73 percent and 58 percent respectively.

--From the Editors at Netscape

[suchandra]

Carol: Your Divine Grace, is the intellect helpful in knowing God?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Unless you have got the necessary intellect, then you are no better than the animals. The animals have no intellect for understanding God, but the human being has got that intellect. That is the distinction between animal and human being.

Otherwise, as for material necessities such as eating, sleeping, mating, and defending: Both the human beings and also the animals sleep. Both the human beings and also the animals enjoy sex. And both the human beings and also the animals become fearful and arrange for defense. So, as for access to the material necessities of life, that is equal in the animal and the human being.

But the human being has a special intellect, more developed than the animals'. He can understand what he is, what God is, what this cosmic manifestation is, and what the aim of life is--how we should conduct our lives. These things are prerogatives for the human being. The animals have no such prerogative.

Now, if we do not utilize these special intellectual facilities, then we remain animals. We do not make any spiritual advancement. So at the present moment, we are simply trying to improve our access to the material necessities of life--eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. We are thinking, "The dog is eating on the floor. If we can eat on a table, using chairs and nice dishes, that is advancement of civilization."

We are thinking like that. The dog is sleeping outdoors, but if we sleep in a very nice apartment, lavishly decorated, that is advancement of civilization. The dog is having sexual intercourse on the street, without any shame--and we are also coming to that point--but for the time being, if we have sexual intercourse in an apartment, in the name of love and so on, that is advancement. The dog is defending with his jaws and nails and teeth; we are defending with nuclear bombs; therefore, we are advanced.

But we have forgotten that the human being has got this special intellect to understand God. That understanding we are not pursuing. For example, you are going to be a doctor in anthropology. Is it not?

Carol: Yes.

Srila Prabhupada: Where is the sense of God there?

Carol: I do it only for a living. The other side of me is something else.

Srila Prabhupada: No, I mean to say that anthropology is a big scientific department. Where is the understanding of God there?

Carol: Right. I find it difficult to reconcile the love of God with actually doing something like this study of anthropology.

Srila Prabhupada: Then why are you wasting your time speculating on anthropology?

Carol: Hmm.

Srila Prabhupada: If you cannot adjust yourself to this anthropology business, why are you wasting your time? Anthropology is a false science. There is no meaning.

Carol: I'm waiting to be led into something which is good.

Srila Prabhupada: The whole Darwinian theory is false. It has no sound basis. Darwin himself admits it is just a theory. Theory is not science.

I can propose some theory--"It is like that." But that is not science. Science means observation plus experimental proof. That is science. You observe how the rules are working, and when you practically bring them to bear in your experiment, then it is science. If you simply theorize, that is not science. Mental speculation. It has no benefit.

You can speculate, constructing a castle in the air. That is not a very good thing. You should present something which will benefit the people, something practical. That is science.

Carol: Do you think it is possible for people to live in, say, an educational framework?

Srila Prabhupada: Education--if it is not for the benefit of the people--then what is the use of such education? That is not a good education. Education means something which will benefit the mass of people. That is education. To enlighten them to do something better--that is education.

Now, this whole Darwinian theory is false. But people are giving it so much stress. First of all, no one--not even Darwin--can be independent. For instance, Darwin died. So he was under the control of something higher. No man wants to die, but he is forced to die. Is it not? Then where is his independence?

Carol: That is the illusion.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. So if you simply live in illusion, then where is your education? If you remain in darkness, then where is your education? Illusion means darkness. So if you are in darkness, now, where is your education? And where is your philosophy?

Carol: The only way to remove this darkness is through love. Is this what you are saying?

Srila Prabhupada: Love is far away. First of all, you become educated.

Carol: How? In what way?

Srila Prabhupada: Education means right knowledge. Right knowledge. For instance, everyone wants to live. Nobody wants to die. So the inquiry should be, "I do not wish to die. Why is death forced upon me? What is that force--what is the nature of that force?"

On the other hand, if I simply resign myself--"Yes, some kind of force is there"--then whereis my knowledge?

Again, I do not wish to die. So education means finding out, "Why is death forced upon me?" Nobody wants miserable conditions of life, but miserable conditions of life are forced upon me. So first of all, I should inquire, "I do not want these things. Who is forcing these things upon me?" This is life's first philosophical inquiry.

Carol: I tend to approach from the other side and ask, "Who am I?" and "What is this thing that I call myself?"

Srila Prabhupada: But first, everyone has this basic problem. "I don't want these miserable conditions, but they are forced upon me." For instance, you are now a young girl. You do not like the idea of becoming an old woman. But you will have to become an old woman.

Carol: Oh, yes. Hmm.

Srila Prabhupada: Nature will force you. After forty years of age, you must become old, and you cannot remain so beautiful. This is forced. No one wants this. No woman wants that "I shall not look so beautiful, and my flesh shall be flabby, with no more luster." I don't want all these things. Why are they forced?

Carol: Suffering and pain lead people to God, don't they?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. That is the law. But we are so dull-headed that we do not inquire. That is my statement--that you should inquire, "Who has made this law? Who is forcing these things upon me?" After you make this inquiry, then you can inquire about God's actual identity and your actual identity. But first of all, you must be aware of your situation--that these miserable conditions are being forced upon you.

For instance, a dog cannot understand that he's on a chain. He's leading a life most dependent, most miserable. And yet he is jolly. He is jumping here and there. That is a dog's life. If the master wants to kill him, he cannot do anything. But he is very jolly. Sometimes he even jumps.

 

 

That is a dog's life--not human life. Human life means realizing, "I am dependent at every step, and still I am declaring myself independent. What is this nonsense?" This inquiry should be there. "I am dependent at every step, exactly like the cats and dogs, but still I am claiming, 'I am independent.' Why?"

Carol: Your Divine Grace, is it possible to carry out this inquiry while you're engaged in ordinary daily activities?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, certainly. You can become spiritually realized in any walk of life, regardless of your daily activities.

The thing is, this is the real inquiry: "Why I am put into these conditions which I do not like? Who is forcing them upon me? Wherefrom has my life begun? What is the ultimate goal of my life?" These things should be asked. That is the proper inquiry of the human being.

Without getting answers to these questions, we cannot solve the very real problems of birth, death, old age, and disease. Instead, like Darwin, we are forced to theorize something utopian. What is the use of such so-called knowledge?

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Perth, Australia, on May 9, 1975, between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Carol Cameron, then a doctoral candidate in anthropology.

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[gHari]

These so many limited misconceptions that surround us are most disappointing, but are they so different from the various levels of religious understanding that progress through the Vedic path? Perhaps they only represent the awakening of the soul, all that will eventually blossom into pure love of God at some point down the road. To think that Sri Krsna has abandoned anyone is just not reasonable given our own vision of His kindness in our lives.

[Guest guest]

I must have been about 15 wnen I run first time into someone who said they did not believe in God - I was genuinely shocked that such people do indeed exist, as to me His presence was unquestionably obvious.

 

But even more shocking to me was a discovery later on in life that there are people out there who seriously abuse others while pretending to be religious leaders. I still cant get over the disgust I feel towards such cheaters.

[Guest guest]

If I am asked whether I believe in God or not, I ask back: "what do you mean by the word God?"

[Guest guest]

Darwinism is not a mere theory without any substantiation. It's not mindless speculation, it's a logical deduction borne from observation by Darwin himself, of the Galapogos islands. Fossil records also lead us to believe in the Darwinian evolutionary theory. So why is it that Prabhupada calls Darwinism mindless speculation? It's anything but.

 

Has anyone seen an organism evolve? Well, we do see viruses mutate, bateria become resistant to antibiotics, etc. Isn't that a case for evolution? We cannot possibly observe an entire species evolve into another, because the time scale is too huge and the organisms in question are too complex. But for simpler organisms, we find that evolutionary theory seems to be very accurate, since we can observe these simple organisms mutate over much shorter time periods.

[Guest guest]

 

If I am asked whether I believe in God or not, I ask back: "what do you mean by the word God?"

 

For me, the answer would be an entity that transcends material existence, who is the generator, operator and destroyer of the realm of reality we inhabit.

 

An entity that isn't bound by the laws of physics, because that entity CREATED the laws, it was that entity who defined the laws of physics, it was that entity who defined reality, and yet is not bound by the laws that the entity has made.

[gHari]

The fossil record documents the transmigration of the soul through 8,400,000 species of forms. The mundane Darwinists mistakenly think that they are the form. Let's face it, most folks identify the material form as their self, the skin bag filled with mucus, blood, bones and stool. That's why the world is so damn messed up: animal consciousness.

[theist]

 

Darwinism is not a mere theory without any substantiation. It's not mindless speculation, it's a logical deduction borne from observation by Darwin himself, of the Galapogos islands. Fossil records also lead us to believe in the Darwinian evolutionary theory. So why is it that Prabhupada calls Darwinism mindless speculation? It's anything but.

 

Has anyone seen an organism evolve? Well, we do see viruses mutate, bateria become resistant to antibiotics, etc. Isn't that a case for evolution? We cannot possibly observe an entire species evolve into another, because the time scale is too huge and the organisms in question are too complex. But for simpler organisms, we find that evolutionary theory seems to be very accurate, since we can observe these simple organisms mutate over much shorter time periods.

 

 

Major mistake here is that you claim fossil records support Darwinism but they actually disprove him. Darwin himself wrote that in the future transitional forms would be found in the fossil record and if they weren't then his THEORY was wrong. Guess what no transitional forms are there. Even Darwin would reject Darwinian eveolution today according to his own words.

 

"We cannot possibly observe an entire species evolve into another, because the time scale is too huge and the organisms in question are too complex."

 

But considering how many billions of transitional forms they must have left it would be obvious from the fossil record that such an evolution took place.

 

But again, NO SUCH TRANSTIONAL FORMS EXIST. Continuing to accept Darwinian evolution in spite of this fact is willfull self deception on your part and only you can correct that.