God in this Godless Universe

-Bertrand Russell

Summary:

The God was powerful in the pre-scientific world. It was difficult for man to exist in that age because they had been feared of divine displeasure. The evidence was earthquake, pestilences, famines and defeats in war. Humans were forced to believe since the incidents had been repeated. People believed that it happened due to the lack of humility when compared with the earthly monarchs. If they wanted to live happily, they should be meek, aware of defenselessness and confess mistakes. If you accepted the existence of the God, you would feel warm and cozy. Moreover, you would feel like the youngest child of a large family; you might feel pain, but not alien or uncomfortable.

In the scientific world, it was completely different. You believed on scientific rule rather than prayer or humility. This sort of power was much greater and reliable than the power that you got from humility or prayer. It was because your prayer couldn’t be listened from heaven. The power of prayer was not questionable; or it was thought to be impious if you questioned. The power of science had no limit like the prayer; or you could question as much as you liked. It was told that faith or prayer could remove mountains. It was false because, only the atomic bomb could remove mountains, which is now believable.

People might feel uncomfortable when they think about the world; the things like the cold or blown off sun and the stoppage of atmosphere could make us uncomfortable. Our life is small and transitory phenomena at an obscure corner so it is not better to think like that. These are monkish or foolish belief which the scientific man can’t/shouldn’t think at all. Rather we should think about fertilizing the desert, melting the Arctic ice and killing each other using improved technology. These things will do good for us except some failures. Rather we should take lessons from failures which have proved our power. So we are God ourselves in this Godless universe.

1.   Which of the following statements are consistent with what the passage says?

A.    In the pre-scientific world: man believed that only God had power over the forces of nature.

B.     In the scientific world: science has placed unlimited power in the hands of man.

2.   Drawing your information from the passage given above, answer the following questions in complete sentences (each within 25 words)

a.       To what cause did the pre-scientific man attribute natural calamities?

Answer: They attributed it due to divine displeasure.

b.      How do men in the scientific world acquire power over nature’s forces?

Answer: They acquire it by applying scientific laws or rules.

c.       In what ways is the power given by science superior to the power arising from faith and prayer?

Answer: It is superior because you can have various choices in science which you can’t get in prayer.

d.      Scientific knowledge has disclosed some uncomfortable facts about human life and the universe. What are these?

Answer: They are: the cold or blown off sun; uninhabitable earth and the limitation of our life.

-By Prem Prasad Sigdel