Does God Exist?

The answer is somewhat tricky to get at. Hence the reason humanity has been at war with itself over the issue since before... well, since before Christ was a baby. Let’s look at some examples from the two sides of the debate, and draw a conclusion from them.

There can be no God

...because God would never allow evil to run rampant over the Earth. Instead, the planet would be a paradise where everyone and everything lives in perfect harmony. Perhaps predators would be vegetarians; though it could be suggested that ideally no one would eat anything at all, since plants have as much right to life as any other living thing. In that case, maybe all life would become dependent on scavenging. Frankly though, scavenging doesn’t sound very appealing; though it would save on funeral expenses. Regardless, while Earth may have begun as a paradise, its quickly become more like man’s trash heap. That may not be evil, per se, but it sure isn’t healthy, either. So, no God.

There must be a God

...because if you’ve read the Bible (or heard the Charlton Heston audio book version where the meek have inherited long guns from the NRA), then you know that Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden, aka Paradise. They’d eaten an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, which they were forbidden to do. That being the case, no Paradise for any of us, and evil gets a pass.

(Of course, that whole scenario begs the question: assuming the presence of the Tree meant they had no knowledge to begin with, were the first two people numbskulls? Why, then, put the Tree of Knowledge in the middle of the garden, knowing that until they ate from it neither Adam nor Eve would be able to tell an apple from an elephant? That, plus a couple of numbskulls would naturally head straight for it, because they’re numbskulls! Sounds like a rigged system, right? It also leads to another, somewhat unsettling question: if God created man in his own image, and Adam and Eve began as numbskulls, what does that make God, exactly? These important questions will likely never be satisfactorily explained; at least not rationally. Maybe that’s as well)

There can be no God

...because if there was, we’d all somehow know about it, and would stop wasting our time killing the very planet we need to keep ourselves alive.

There must be a God

...because the Bible states that the Earth was given to man by Him to do with as man pleased. Well, that was pretty dumb, because people don’t need much of an excuse to run wild; but there it is. Most people will also believe anything they’re told, so if they’re destroying the planet it must mean they’re following God’s will. Ergo, God must exist by reason of majority rule.

There must be a God

...because Jesus and the Bible say so.

There can be no God

...because as great a guy as he probably was, Jesus is dead. He isn’t here to prove to us just what he was trying to say, or to back up any of his claims. He didn’t write anything down, either. He did lots of interviews, but we know how reporters like to put their own spin on things, so those stories are about as trustworthy as Trump. They are - to coin a new term - distrumpful. As for the Bible, there is no bibliography in it. In other words, no way to verify if any of what it purports is true. Honestly, you’d think by that time in civilization writers would have known to publish their sources. Nine hundred and sixty nine year old men, indeed. Methuselah was probably someone’s pet tortoise.

Conclusion

...the jury is out. Whether He exists or not is beside the point, anyway. Even a numbskull knows that killing, raping, pillaging, war, littering and all the other bad stuff people like to indulge in is just morally wrong. Stop worrying about whether God exists and start living like He does, and that He’s watching you.

Albert Einstein

At first glance, his utter lack of fashion sense, untameable hair and walrus-inspired moustache don’t particularly inspire thoughts of genius. Yet with his remarkable vision and scientific acumen Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) changed the way we look at how the world and the universe work. From lowly patent clerk to world-renowned physicist, he remains a quintessential symbol of mankind’s progress through the last century and beyond. He even has his own bobble head, and it’s been sixty five years since he was alive. Now that’s famous!

Born in Germany, Einstein moved to the United States in 1933, where he lived the rest of his life. Since he was Jewish, going back to Germany after 1933 meant certain persecution, despite his fame at that time. It is without question that the Nazis - who were in power in Germany then - would have made him work on weapons of mass destruction for their war effort, and to watch while his fellow Jews were suffering death and displacement from their homes at the hands of those oppressors would have been overwhelming for anyone, even a guy like Einstein.

There’s no question he was a genius, though he would have humbly disputed the distinction. Which, given that he was awarded a Nobel prize for Physics, is some serious humility. Though he was (and still is) best known for his general and special theories of relativity - which accurately predict the motion of bodies in space and time - Einstein was a lot more than a visionary researcher. He was also a voice of reason in an unreasonable period of our history, a time of great unrest in many nations and of world war.

Einstein wasn’t against defeating enemies of freedom like Nazi Germany, but he was a humanist first and foremost. He was instrumental in pointing out to leaders in the west that using atomic energy to create weapons - never mind using them in wartime - was a mistake. He and other leading scientists of the 1940’s realized that development and use of the atomic bomb would result in an arms race. This suggestion was to be proven right during the Cold War, when the USA and USSR (Russia) built and stockpiled a great number of nuclear arms. For decades, the world was under threat of nuclear annihilation, and Einstein devoted the last years of his life attempting to derail the situation.

Einstein didn’t only communicate with heads of state. He answered letters from schoolchildren, from students at universities around the globe, and even from housewives. When people reached out to him, he responded to their curiosity about his work and about what made the universe tick. With his good nature, openness and respect for life, he gained a reputation as being honest and trustworthy.

Einstein once wrote that, “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self” (Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934). This can be interpreted to mean each person has the ability to reach beyond his or her own self-interests. Albert Einstein - a great man who did great things humbly - taught us that not only are black holes real and that gravity can curve space, but that each of us has the ability to be an amazing person in the service we perform for others. Thanks, Al!