Would the concept of God stay in the event of science conquering death?

By NS Venkataraman* 

During the last several centuries,  slowly and steadily, several spectacular achievements have been seen  in the science and technology front. Such advancements and discoveries have somewhat disproved or caused doubt  or diluted faith on several traditional beliefs,  ideas and postulates. 

Several religions evolved over  the past centuries have been essentially centred on the concept of God,  with various versions being stated as to whatever God may be and  wherever God may be. The belief of people in such religious doctrines have been overwhelming till date and have stood the test of time.

The concept of God has been virtually remaining unquestioned, though some murmurs have been heard from time to time doubting the existence of God.  The one reason why the concept of God has found emotional acceptance amongst people all over the world is due to lack of clarification on   what else could be the possibility   for the creation of the world,  humans,  creatures, and plants and so on, if there would not be a creator  (God).  As  per the rationale guiding the human mind, this logic of  existence of God appears to  be appropriate at least till  now, in the absence of any better explanation.

With the developments of science and technology it is no more that easy for discerning observers to accept the concept of God as such and as traditionally explained.  This would be so  since the  scientific discoveries and developments have created conditions,   where what is traditionally believed to be the act of God have now been proved that this can be done by humans themselves due to the development of technology.

For example, artificial rain is now possible to be created, which cause doubt on the concept of Rain God and Sun God traditionally believed al over the world.

It is no more a  situation  of God’s will about the humans or animals being  born   in the world.   Scientific research and development has created a scenario where the birth can take place at a time desirable by the humans and can be prevented by the humans if it would be so desired..  Further, artificial insemination, test tube babies are being created. In essence, this means that science has conquered the birth event as such. This development   has created sort of doubts as to whether prayer to God is necessary for giving birth to a child or not giving birth to a child. 

Traditionally, it is believed that the good or bad acts of humans   would lead them to hell or heaven after the death event.  However, scientific developments  are now made to such an extent that behaviour of humans can be tailored as per the requirement. Science can create a  calm human who does  good acts or a ferocious human  who  does  bad acts.

With the development  of science,   the technique of cloning  have enabled scientists to make exact genetic copies of living things. Genes, cells, tissues, and even whole animals can all be cloned. 

Additionally, medical science has progressed to such an extent that the life span of humans and animals have increased over the years and  perhaps, “even the death event are being postponed “ with several techniques such as use of ventilator and so on.  Even the dead bodies can now be preserved for any length of time.

In such conditions,  one may even  be  tempted to think that one day in future, science and technology efforts would conquer death event also,  just as it has already conquered the birth event.

In future, in the event of scientific efforts  successfully conquering the death event and enable humans and animals to live eternally, then serious doubts will happen in the minds of discerning observers about the validity of the concept of God  (Creator).

Of course, it is now extremely difficult to imagine such situation of science conquering death event. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that several centuries back,  it was difficult for people to imagine a situation where a football match being  played at Doha would be seen at Colombo at the same time through television.

There are still many unexplained matter by science and technology.  As yet, science cannot explain as to who or what could have created sun, moon, stars,  earth, and so on  if  there would not be a creator. Science cannot explain away such questions  until now.

While science uses the existing matter such as atoms,  enzymes etc. to achieve spectacular advancements like controlling birth event and so on, the question remains as to  from where  do the atoms and enzymes come or happen.

In this scenario, it   is most likely that whatever   be the developments in science and technology field,  people would continue to repose faith in God,  even though the faith in several  suggestions in religions such as fate, hell,  heaven and what is said in Hindu scripture such as Jeevatma and Paramatma may  get somewhat diluted.

Probably, one can be daring enough to say that in tune with the science and technology advancements,  religious concepts on God also need to be reformed or fine tuned  in the coming years.

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*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai