Does God Exist?

“Does God exist?” — a question I’ve heard far too many times. Most often, it’s ignited by the fear fueled in humanity by the events unfolding around us. This question has grown even more prevalent during these trying times, as entire countries shut down and people are killed by a plague. Humanity is slowly losing the last bit of faith it held in itself. A plague that does not discriminate, claiming both the “righteous” and the “sinners.” Humanity is slowly crumbling as the individual parts that make it up fracture into isolation. More and more people are lost every day, and hope seems too far-fetched. This is where the question, “Does God exist?” comes from.

The existence of God is not something to be doubted anymore. Let’s remove all the labels and tags attached to the word “God.” Assume there was no religion, no idea of morality linked to the concept of “God,” no gender allocated to it. Now, write the word on a piece of paper: “GOD.” Do you feel the emptiness those three letters carry now that you’ve released the word from the cage our labels confined it in? Do you feel the utter simplicity of the word?

If you do, we can proceed. We have established three things: God is not associated with any religion whatsoever; God is neither a good nor a bad entity; and God is neither a man nor a woman. If we accept these, let’s dive a little deeper. Now that the word “God” is just a word, let’s bring it into reality. Let’s actualize the idea behind the word, not forgetting the three deductions we have established. Now, let’s map out our reality.

First of all, let’s start with the basics. We live on a planet; that planet is part of a much larger entity, the solar system; and that solar system exists within an even larger universe, about which we have only very little knowledge. This is fact number one.

Another fact is that we, and many other beings, are aware of the planet and the universe we exist in. This simply means we can see the sky, we can see the moon, we can feel the earth beneath our feet as we move, we can hear the sounds created around us, we perceive scents carried by breezes and winds, and we have a sense of taste. This is fact number two.

Another fact is that we (humans, animals, plants, and inanimate things included) are part of a system. This is what we call the ecosystem. The dead decomposing being is good for the soil; the soil, enriched by decomposition, is good for the plant; the plant, fed by nutrients from the decomposed soil and the sun’s energy, is good for the plant eater; the plant eater, after consuming lush greenery, is good for the meat eater, who then dies to feed the soil again. So, in a way, we exist for one another. This is fact number three.

Another fact is that what is good is good and what is bad is bad. There really isn’t any grey area if you follow reality for what it is. Taking the life of another person is bad. Living in peace and harmony is good. Our world, however, is lost without the final fact, which I will get to shortly. But let’s finish with this one: wars and other collective reasons to kill may seem to create grey areas between good and bad, but war itself is bad — so it is all bad. Meaning that if you kill someone, regardless of the reason, it is bad. Conversely, if you are doing or thinking anything that disrupts peace and harmony, either within yourself or with others, you are not doing good. This is fact number four.

This brings us to our final fact: our choice. We have the ability to choose; we have a decision-making process that pulls many other factors into reality’s consideration. Emotions, as we call them, play a large role in our decision-making. This significant interference gives rise to what we call a conscience: that inner persona that builds the walls of our moral standards; that spider sitting at the centre of our web of thoughts, continuously spinning new decisions. We have the ability to choose; we have freedom. This is fact number five.

Are you still with me? Let’s bring all these facts together: First, we live in a universe we know very little about; second, we are aware we live in this universe; third, we are not alone and exist with other creatures and entities as one; fourth, there is a clear distinction between what is good and what is bad; and fifth, we have the ability to choose what we want to do or be. These facts make up our reality. Now, let’s find a thread to link them all together.

We don’t know how the universe came to be, but it obviously came from something. Since we’ve named all the animals and plants on Earth, let’s give that something a name. I choose to call it God; you can call it whatever you want.

We have a sense of awareness of this universe we live in; this means we not only exist but are also alive and living. We don’t know how we came to be, but we are certain that we are. The fact that we have consciousness means we either originated from this world or came from somewhere completely different. We have no idea, but what is certain is that we are living in a world we were created from, or we are living in someone else’s world. Since we established that something built this universe, it would mean that the same something either built us or is allowing us to stay in its home. Either way, we owe that something a lot. I decided to call that something God, but you can call it whatever you want.

So far, we have established that God — or whatever you want to call it — built the universe and either built us or allowed us to stay here. This God didn’t leave us here alone; it also provided everything we need to survive. Meaning that to some extent, we can say it does not mean us any harm.

There is what is good for everyone and what is bad for everyone, and this God entity left us in its home with the freedom to choose who and what we want to do or be. This solidifies that this God entity doesn’t mean us any harm. Yet we have a conscience — that sense of discernment. It exists in us, just as it exists in animals, though we have a more complex understanding of it. There’s that voice inside guiding us based on our individual moral codes, and we can’t seem to place what it is either. So, I’m also going to call that God. You can, as usual, call it whatever you want.

As we have established, God is the thread that holds all the core facts about our reality together. Even if we may not know what it looks like or what it is exactly, the fact is that it simply has to exist. But these trying times have turned our attention away from the question we should be asking and blinded us to God’s existence within the reality of our different conditions.

So the real point is this: obsessing over “Does God exist?” is the wrong question. Answering it changes nothing. The vital question, the imperative one, is: “Who or what have I chosen to do or be?” — which is the deeper, more complex alternative to simply asking “Who are you?”.