Guy Hamilton gave a talk about 'God'.

Why God?

A talk about God is conceptually enormous and the process of researching and preparing this talk over several months has been fascinating. How to keep it interesting and engaging and still within 15 or 20 minutes? I didn’t want to offend people when I was uncertain of everyone’s beliefs.

I recognise that similar discussions in other environments may have started just as innocently as this but still descended into arguments and even violence. The wars fought in the name of God are innumerable. We may yet be struck down as a warning to others…

To be clear, this discussion is about God and not about religion. And when you think about it, if people are to talk about God or religion, its usually about a religion. Its almost as though the existence of God is taken for granted.

Before we get further into the discussion, I have a question for you that we will revisit later on:

What is only type of behaviour that will always be identical in both identical twins regardless of separation and upbringing?

My own view of God has changed enormously throughout my life. As a child I was sent to the local Presbyterian Sunday School; a weekly event which I resented as I’d rather have been out playing with my mates. Later on, newly married, I went along with my wife’s Anglican faith and yes, on at least one occasion, I felt ‘spoken to’. I would at that time have described myself as spiritual but definitely not ‘devout’. Although nominally Christian, I felt a lot of kinship with the fragments of Buddhism that I was familiar with. Now, those early family influences have waned, and I feel little draw towards, or sense of, the presence of God.

I’m sure many of you will have a similar brush with belief and heaven knows we invoke the name ‘God’ endlessly in different circumstances:

“Oh God’ of despair

‘Oh my God’ of amazement

‘Oh God’ of …

I have seen many that find peace and purpose in their lives from the certainty of the existence of God. The Anglican vicar I knew in the mid-1980’s was one such person. Australia’s new world champion high jumper Nicola Olyslagers is another good example. She often writes verse from scripture on her arms when she competes and talks of feeling like she is being lifted over the bar by her faith. You will have often seen the prayer circles of islander NRL players before or after a game.

For thousands of years, millions of people have found comfort praying to God in times of stress or need. I’ve prayed at various times yet there are many puzzling things for me about God. Those people praying to God during times of war may well have been praying to the same God but been on opposing sides or appealing to a different God.

Does God take sides? Does God A smite God B?

And then there are those that are no more or less happy without any consideration of any God.

The concept of who or what is God, is hugely diverse. This is not just a matter of Catholic versus Protestant or Islam vs Ra vs Animism. Oh no, the ancient Romans and Greeks worshipped hundreds of gods. Hinduism is estimated to have as many as 33 million gods.

Here is a very brief overview of the many views of God.

1. Religious Views

• Monotheistic Religions (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Judaism): God is seen as a singular, all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present being who created and governs the universe.

• Polytheistic Religions (e.g., Hinduism, Ancient Greek and Roman beliefs): There are multiple gods and goddesses, each representing different aspects of life and nature.

• Pantheism: God is seen as indivisible from the universe and part of everything.

• Deism: God is believed to have created the universe but does not interfere with it.

2. Philosophical Perspectives

• Some philosophers view God as a necessary being who explains the existence of the universe.

• Others, like existentialists, question the existence or relevance of God in human life.

3. Personal and Spiritual Beliefs

• For some, God represents love, morality, and purpose.

• For others, God is more of a mystery or a metaphor for the unknown.

But, what happens to all of these diverse believers after a life steadfastly devoted to God? Here is what Dave Allen had to say about it.

Dave Allen joke about Heaven

Regardless of what one might think of any God or the religion that may exist around that God, the one thing that does appear consistent is that humans, around the world and throughout time, have believed in God (be it the one or the many).

There are reasonable arguments that can be made that the specific God one might venerate is largely related to where you were born and the practices of your parents. I, for example, was born into a middle class, white Anglo-Saxon family in Australia to parents that already venerated Jesus Christ in the way of the Presbyterian faith. But if I had been born to a middle-class family in Delhi, I almost certainly would have been Hindu, in Tel Aviv- Jewish, in Djakarta- Muslim, in the Yaohnanen tribe on the island of Tanna, it would have been Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh.

Google Maps location of Tanna, Vanuatu

Does anyone have a different view?

Now, back to the question at the start of the talk. You will be aware that the study of separated twins is an important area of psychological research. Monozygotic (i.e., identical) twins have the same genetic makeup so if they are separated at any early age, any differences in their behaviour as adults can be attributed to learned behaviour (nurture) rather than genetics (nature).

What is only type of behaviour that will always be identical in both identical twins regardless of separation and upbringing?

Answers?

Thomas J. Bouchard Jr., University of Minnesota found that there it’s religiosity. Fascinating isn’t it?

The God gene hypothesis proposes that human spirituality is influenced by heredity and that a specific gene on the 9th chromosome, called vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences.[1] The idea has been proposed by geneticist Dean Hamer in the 2004 book called The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes.

Question: So, what do you think? Does the human belief in God derive from belief or a need to believe? Does it even matter?

I have seen many people struggle in their life due to the absence of a sense of meaning or purpose of their existence or a lack of self-worth. At an extreme level devotees may embark on arduous pilgrimages such as the Camino, the Haj or even undertake self-harm such as self-flagellation and crucifixion as a sign of their devotion. Other religions may demand financial sacrifice (tithing) not to mention some of the more bizarre practices of genital mutilation of children, human sacrifice, the crime of blasphemy and the attribution of various unsavoury traits to certain animals but were also created by God (e.g., snakes and pigs).

So, if we assume that God does exist- in whatever form- why do humans feel the need to venerate such an entity? What would an all-powerful God make of this adulation? The following clips provide some perspective on we humans in the universal scheme of things.

How far Voyager will travel in 1 million years

See images of Milky Way Galaxy

Google on the scale of the universe

So what do we think of the adulation of an entity capable of literally creating or destroying EVERYTHING? Would it not have about as much significance to that entity as a single grain of sand amongst is to every grain of sand on Earth?

Why would such a God feel that these grains of sand need a set of rules to guide their existence? Why would God care what that grain of sand ate, on what day it ate or the other grains of sand it associated with? And why would such an entity see fit to punish these grains of sand for transgressions?

But whose God is right anyway? Someone has to be right as my cousin once said to me. He had for some years been lecturing in theology at Sydney University. Are the animists and the worshippers of the Sun so wrong? Those like the Millerites that stood on a hill in rural New York just over 180 years ago waiting for the second coming of Jesus may appear foolish. But does any believer, of any God, have the right to mock rival deities or religious practices that they might describe as trivial or foolish. The ‘One True God’ seems to be very much in the eye of the beholder.

For me, the question of God comes down to whether you believe in science- based on factual evidence and logical argument- or your faith. Faith that God does indeed exist regardless of any of other consideration. This is a big leap for believers who also work in the field of science. But again, here are examples of the many paradoxes for believers. Famous scientists that are also devout believers include Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics and Isaac Newton, arguably one of the world’s greatest minds.

In many respects, science has been God’s enemy. As human understanding of the sciences has advanced, the so-called God Gap has narrowed. Where once thunder was once attributed to Odin’s hammer, we now know to be a product of explosive expansion of air heated by a lightning strike. Eclipses of the moon or sun are no longer regarded as a sign of God’s mood but are logical and predictable occurrences. Hence, as time passes and knowledge develops, one could argue that the belief in God will wane.

One God or many, there are many paradoxes about God and many intriguing questions. This chat between Ricky Gervais and Jerry Seinfeld shows one such paradox.

Ricky Gervais clip about the Holocaust

So, I’ve explored at a fairly superficial level, whether God exists. I asked friends and family about what they thought of the existence of God. And of course, I asked ChatGPT. As you have probably already worked out, I lean towards the view that God doesn’t exist. That said, the best parallel I can offer about the existence of God as I conclude this talk is to consider the Big Bang- when the universe as we know it was created in an instant. What was there before? You can’t create something out of nothing… Surely there was something. The answer from the astrophysicists is ‘no’. There was nothing. And God is… Well we don’t know and I doubt we will know for a long time to come.

Progress towards any clearer understanding is limited by our current inability to conceptualise, then prove new theories. Or is the answer simply, ‘God just is’?

Thank you.

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• If God created everything, who created God? According to Hindu belief, God was not created—God (in the form of Brahman or the divine essence) is eternal, without beginning or end. If you were a sceptic, this appears to be a very convenient way to skip over the dodgy bits of your story…

• What would you do if God was indisputably known to exist? How would your behaviour change?

• Why does it take the presence of God to only then make those changes?

• ‘It was meant to be’. Does this belief inherently imply the existence of God.

• ChatGPT was asked for evidence whether God did or didn’t exist. I came across this question, one which stripped away logic based on historical doctrine.

ChatGPT question on the existence of God