The Concept of God, Our Brainand Dilemma of Determinism Part1 of the series

Prof Kuldip Sidhu

‘The concept of God is not innate albeit psychologically implanted someway along our cultural revolution for achieving putative societal reforms and it has perpetuated since and creating a social dilemma of determinism(lack of free will). Fear is also considered another cause of this concept evolved at the time of mediaeval hunters, who had no protection against beasts and waggeries of nature, and hence the trees, mountains, rivers, sun, moon,came as solace in the name of God.

The man-made concept of God, Soul, Heaven, Hell is a mental construct to get rid of emotional imbalances for psychological pacification and comfort, to deal with realities of life. This behaviour perpetuated and was then exploited and vulgarised by crafty men for personal gain who lured people of fulfilment of their wishes if they offer money and allegiance in the name of God to them. This increased human desires and increasing tendency towards slackness, creating an order-supplier, the God, with a brand name of religious consumerism/commercialism. Astrology/numerology is another outcome of this commercialism, strongly believed and relied upon by some sections of our society that believe God has created its own network and classification to oversee ours actions and then punish or reward usaccordingly (an extreme example of determinism and enslavement). These very people easily become imprisoned to the concept of hell and haven and indulge in unscrupulous ceremonies to get over it!

According to most religious beliefs, by default we all live under the ‘law of curse’ from the God (the fear), hence we are obligated to believe and worship God to relieve ourselves from this curse (salvation).  To implement this far sighted fear in human mind further, the concept of Satan, Demons and Vampires(and also fairies) was also introduced to demonise us so as to align towards the concept of the God. To jeopardise all those who are atheist or agnostic, a conflict or dilemma was purposely created in our mind that a mere righteousness behaviour will not relieve you from this curse. Those who advocated about human righteousness behaviour as salvation were severely penalised and eliminated like ‘Socrates’. This perpetuation of the law of curse, thus building a ‘cult’ supposedly to reform societies, is very demonising and barbarous leading to social dilemma of the ‘lack of free will’ or ‘determinism’(the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the willby an omniscient, omnipotent divinity-Godly. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no ‘free will’ and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions).Whereas free will is required for moral judgments and hence seems essential for human development. Most religion beliefs promote deterministic hypothesis.

If the concept of God is not scrupulously defined, the consequences may lead to uninterrupted religious fanatism, even imposing repressive means towards others, employing violent means, and willing to die, for the sake of protecting an idea. The God has not been proven so far and is only a hypothetical mystery that remains deeply embedded in human mind for centuries and will continue to live till ‘the universe’is defined logically and scientifically, if at all!

We all have heard the story about first experience of the existence of God(also known as ‘Yahweh/Elohim’ at that time) about four thousand years ago that came to a well-known preacher in the Middle East, Abraham who took his son, Isaac for a walk up a hill. This boy carried on his back some wood that his father had told him they would use at the top to make an altar, upon which they would then perform the ritual sacrifice of a burnt offering. Unknown to the son, however, the father had another sort of sacrifice in mind altogether. Abraham, the father, had been commanded, by the holy spirit (Yahweh), he worshipped as supreme above all others, to sacrifice the young boy, and the only legitimate son, Isaac. We also know what happened then, an angel appeared, together with a ram, letting Abraham know that God didn’t really want him to kill his son, that he should sacrifice the ram instead, and that the whole thing had merely been a test of faith that Abraham had in religious traditions that eventually turned out to be Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The modern’s day psychiatry and psychology will diagnose Abraham as an extreme case of psychosis having delusional thoughts, or schizophrenic who would have needed help.

‘I believe that any mean to reform societies over and above civility even creating the fear of unknown is acceptable but corrupting human mind with curse is primitive and medieval and redundant,creating a dilemma of determinism, helplessness and leading to frustration and extremism’. I once asked one of my relatives, who suffered a bout of cancer in a very young age in India but survived whether she believes in God now, to which she replied that ‘she is alive only due to the very existence of Godthat she prayed to’ – a very deterministic feeling as I know for sure how much efforts were put in for her proper scientific diagnosis and concrete treatment plan from medical fraternity here Downunder that saved her.

We are the only species on the planet known to practice religion and it is across the globe there is no nation on Earth that does not practice one or another form of spiritual belief.The key question is what makes our brain different so that we practice spirituality? Does religion serve any purpose in benefiting our survival and progress? Many thinkers believe that our unique religiosity has brought our species to dominate this planet. On the other hand, large numbers of critical thinkers also believe that ‘religion impedes progress and keeps our society in a barbaric state’.

To be continued…

About the author

Professor Kuldip Sidhu, is the co-founder and Director of CK Cell Technologies and he has been the Chair of Stem Cell Biology and the Director, Stem Cells Lab, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia, currently holding the conjoint position there. His research is focussed on developing stem cell-based human cosmeceuticals, diagnostics and therapeutics particularly for ageing, wound healing, neurodegenerative diseases and osteoarthritis.

Thus far he has produced at the international level 2 books, 21 book /review chapters, more than 200 research papers and articles and many intellectual properties/patents.  He has several accolades, the latest being ‘NRI of 2018’. His passion for science goes beyond also in travelling, viticulture,wine making and tennis.