Do Gods & Godesses exist ! The Enduring Utility of Belief !

Do Gods and Godesses exist -Utility of Belief?

Everyone comes across this question at some juncture of life.

This write-up is an effort to think about the origin of gods & goddesses in a rational way !

Warning :

If you’re a believer , it may give you one more reason to believe that gods and godesses exist.

But if you’re a non-believer  , it might give you a reason to believe or it may give you one more point to make a counter-argument.

Hope = Oxygen

Key Reason for existence of Gods and Godessess !

To understand the origin of gods and goddesses, we need to first agree to the fact that hope is a life-line of every life.

Life is all about hope – a life without hope is not a life-worth-living.

Our all actions are directed towards the hope of a better future for ourselves or for the better of the society as a whole.

That’s why it is said that hope sustains life.

Hope in human life  happens to be as important as oxygen and water.

( ask a hopeless man or think about the situations when you were hopeless ) .

Origin of gods and goddesses :

Before we get into thinking about the origin of gods/goddesses ,would request you to get out of the present context.

Many a times we fail to understand certain things deeply because we are unable to get out of present ,recent and personal set of events or circumstances.

Hence they always say that to get someone else’s point of view ,you need to get into his shoes and try to look at the things from his/hers perspective.

Do gods and goddesses exist?

This inquiry has been debated by theologians, philosophers, and scientists for millennia.

A Different Prespective

But before getting deep into the ‘existence question’,let’s we shift our perspective a little bit?

Rather than trying to prove or disprove the existence of a higher power, let us explore a different, more rational question: Why has humanity, across every civilization and era, needed to believe in them?

This shift in prespective is a journey back in time, not to some promised land, but to the ancient world of profound uncertainty and primal fear. It reveals that the origin of gods and goddesses is not a cosmic accident, but a remarkable testament to the enduring power of human hope and imagination

Hope: The Essential Fuel of Humanity in Early Days 

Let’s go 5000-10000 years back when the humans used to be  wanderers and the whole world was a forest  or when humans started settling down near rivers after the advent of agriculture .

There was no marriage institution -humans used to live in a group – no – one exactly knew who their father was ( just like a group of animals )

There were diseases , floods , droughts , fear of other animals etc – life was uncertain – even getting next food was uncertain!

A life full of uncertainty and lack of predictive- tools can make you desperate!

As humans we want some certainty, some direction , some hope ( that’s why , in uncertain periods , we increase our  visits to astrologers or places or worship.

In these uncertain eras when we don’t even know about our own real father, we wanted to look-up to someone who can provide us some hope , some certainty .

In the earliest days of human history, hope was not a luxury; it was a survival tool. Imagine a world with no scientific knowledge, no predictable seasons, and no safety nets.As wanderers, our ancestors lives were dominated by the uncertainty of the next meal, the next flood, or the next encounter with a dangerous predator. In a life full of despair, where would a person find the courage to go on? The answer came from deep within the human psyche.

Imagination: The Superpower That Gave Us Gods

The answer came from one of unique features of humans – the  feature that no other animal has except humans .

Every animal has a purpose, a drive to survive. But humans possess a unique cognitive ability that no other species has: imagination.

Like hope sustains life, imagination drives it forward. It is the singular superpower that allows us to envision a better tomorrow and to build upon that vision.

It was this feature of imagination that enabled early humans to see beyond the brute reality of their existence. When faced with forces beyond their control—a violent storm, a scorching sun, a raging fire—they did not see random, meaningless events.

They imagined that these forces were controlled by unseen “super-powers.”

And because it is difficult to rely on an invisible force, humanity began to give these forces form and shape, creating the first deities.

Like hope sustains life, imagination drives the life.

Most of our actions are result of our imagined story about the future.

We go school to study to have a better job and better life. We start or join a company, we invent new products, services  on the basis of our imagination of a better tomorrow for us and the ones we love.

Due to our imagination, a piece of paper becomes a currency of value, a building of brick and mortar becomes an organization, and humans on the other side of boundary become our enemies.

That’s why they say that imagination is a super-power given to humans.

With imagination , few humans imagined about some super- powers – powers that control the things that are beyond our control .

And these super-powers , some invisible forces are known as gods and goddesses. And because it is difficult to believe and trust some unseen power, humans started giving them some shapes and these became deities.

Worries,Fears & Hopes of Early Days!

We were worried about rains , we created rain god . We were concerned about extreme winters , we made sun as our god . And in those days, we had constant fears  of forest fire , and we required fire to cook food , we created fire – god ! And on and on .

Remember those were uncertain times – no tool to predict any weather , no science to give you any direction !

No doctors  to know and cure your diseases  , no family to assure you ( marriage as an institution came very late in human-civilization) .

But as humans , we needed hope , we wanted someone to hold our hands , some power who can help us !

So few of the evolved humans started worshiping those things that were unpredictable!

They imagined that if you give respect or pray or worship something more powerful than you , they would be kind to you.

When our ancestors were worried about the rains needed for crops, they created a rain god.

When they were concerned about extreme cold and the life-giving warmth of the sun, they deified the sun.

Different Geographies,same challenges and same beliefs.

This pattern is evident across ancient civilizations.

In Hindu tradition( Vedas and Indus Valley civilization),rain god is known as Indra and Sun is worshiped till date as Surya Devta and is considered to be source of life on this earth along with air and water who were also worshiped as Vaya and Jal Devtas (gods)

The ancient Greeks, for example, personified natural forces and human emotions into a pantheon of gods who were flawed, powerful, and deeply involved in human affairs. Their stories of Zeus, the god of weather, and Poseidon, the god of the sea, provided an explanation for the unpredictable and often violent world they inhabited. This anthropological evidence confirms that the creation of gods was a rational, albeit pre-scientific, method of making sense of a chaotic universe.

And then came the stories and myths.

Few other imaginative humans started making stories about these gods/ goddesses !

Role of Stories  And Our Love For Entertainment:

And we all love stories , we all yearn for entertainment ! Every day look forward to our evenings to relax and to entertain ourselves after a hard-day work (although it is nowhere hard as compared to early-humans) !

And in an age of no other entertainment-source , these stories became folklore !

When we would sit as group in the evenings or when we would explore the forest together in those early days , stories kept us entertained. These stories became part of daily routine, and then they became rituals .

And after the advent of agriculture when humans started to settle down as a small township. They stated making small statues of these deities and rituals/stories were told in the presence of these deities.

These rituals became traditions and were passed on from generation to generations.

In this way, these gods/ goddesses became popular .

And because we wanted something to hang- on , something to look forward in uncertain times , we also started believing in these stories .

We’ve have gods/goddesses across all old civilizations- Greek , Egyptians , Japanese , Indians – because all humans across civilizations were and are looking for same thing i.e. hope !

And there’s nothing wrong in it ! 

Science & logic can give you reason , but many a times it can’t give you hope . 

That’s  why even in the modern times ,at times of a disease , we go to hospitals but we also pray .

That’s why before every important  of exam/interview of our life , we not only study and prepare but at the same time we pray .

In summary – gods/goddesses help us steer through our lives with optimism !

To have a hope , something to look forward to ,someone you can rely upon in your uncertain times .

Why You Should Be Thankful To These Gods/Goddesses?

Imagine your ancestor in a dark rainy night ,hungry and having severe fever ,sitting in forest full  of dangerous animals who’re more powerful than him -what can give him a hope for a better tomorrow ?

Who would cure his fever, what would make sure that rain would stop and he can go for a hunt, what would give him confidence that he would not be killed by other animals ?

May be this belief in these gods/goddesses made him hopeful !

And this  hope helped the human race to surmount all the challenges in those uncertain and difficult times .

Who knows, may be this expectaion was one of the key reasons that human-race did not become extinct while many more powerful species are not longer present on this planet.

And try imagine a world full of non-hopefuls, pessimistic people! Can it progress or even survive ?

Right Question?

Question here is not whether these gods and goddesses are real or fictional, do gods and godesses exist or not ?

The bigger question is whether they helped human-race to survive ! Is their existence (or belief of existence)  making humanity hopeful and optimistic and steered it during its darkest hours i

And if this is true even a to very small extent, if  humans got some hope from their belief in gods and goddesses and they ended up becoming the most powerful species among all animals.

And they survived through various turmoils due to their belief in gods/goddesses then there’s no denying to the fact they are the fundamental reason for yours and mine existence .

If that is true, we need to agree that we owe a lot to these gods and goddesses and we should be thankful to them .

Whether gods and godesses exist or not , whether they’re for real or result of humans’ imagination , in every case we  owe them a lot.

And all these rituals are a way of saying thanks to them .

At the same time , these rituals provide hope , make people optimistic .

And  hope and optimism are the key ingredient to have a happy and better society.

Do Gods and Godesses exist ?Choice is yours !

Have gods/goddesses in your life  and live a hopeful life or reject them if you’ve a will-power to surmount the uncertain times alone !

Even if you don’t believe them at least don’t make fun of those who believe them  as for them they provide a hope for better life, they make them optimistic.

Hope you have got some answers wrt existence of gods and godesses – here is one more suggestion for you . Click here !

Cautions:

i) This article is result of my own imagination of the world, so i have a right to be wrong.

ii) Don’t be too over dependent on gods/ goddesses to solve all your problems or to get everything you desire .You also need to work hard as gods only help those who help themselves .

iii) This article is no way an effort to support any superstitions that have been propagated by few to benefit themselves.

If you want to read more about existence of God , you can read this interesting book named ‘The Existence Of God’ ! No other work has made a more powerful case for the probability of the existence of God.

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