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Thursday, July 9, 2009

God must have been a manufacturer

God must have been a manufacturer (and his quality control needs a major overhaul - aptly stated in Abhijeet's blog). No, I'm not saying this because humans seem to be churned out of assembly lines these days, but simply because of a curious parallel I've noticed in these two entities.

The manufacturing sector in India, ones that especially draw their tenets from the old school of thought (about 95% of them comprise of this sector) display a peculiar masochistic feature that is particularly difficult to explain. If a work can be done in an easy way, they will necessarily adopt the alternate route. Almost as if, a person who has not been done to death hasn't done his job. One has to only look at the triumphant smile of the supervisor as he watches his subordinates trudge of weary and haggled after a day's worth of mindless drudgery to know what I'm talking of. And no, he'll never put in his two cents worth of mind to increase the efficiency of the process and reduce the burden of his people.

Ditto for God. A perplexing query struck me yesterday. Just why on earth, did he/she go through the entire trouble of creating us, that too with varied degree of (im)perfection? What's the point of creating us and then supposedly looking down and shedding tears on the degradation of his children? What was the purpose? Simply to give us an experience? Why? Doesn't make sense. One could obviously agree that maybe he didn't create us at all. Maybe, we are a biological accident, but that is so difficult to believe. There must be a billion nucleotides in our body interacting with a cohesion, even the most advanced supercomputer couldn't dream of achieving and that can't be an accident of nature. Somebody designed this to happen. Now, why on hell's name would that person want to do this? What was the business plan?

To start off with, what was the point of the life and death cycle if at the end of it, we were meant to get out of it (please terminate us towards Salvation)? That effectively means, that this life is not a gift. Its a vehicle, which we must drive as per the rules and voila, we get to alight...for good (much like the US vehicle license test). Trouble is, that the rules are hardly clear.

One remembers Al Pacino's iconic dialogue in The Devil's Advocate. "See, but don't touch; Touch, but don't..."; Hang the chap who invented the concept of free will. Its the most confusing piece of thought, I've ever come across. If everything that happens in the world, is but a reflection of our choices, then surely destiny must be a scurrilous and insignificant term. And yet, there exists around 6 billion people in this planet with as many different lines of thinking coupled with an intransigence that can safely account for over 90% of the current problems our planet is facing. So much for free will.

If god didn't exist, this all makes sense. But if he/she did exist, then I sure would love to know, what was the purpose of creating this human race, especially so with their innumberable infallibilities and inequalities. Like that manufacturing supervisor, it would have been so much better if we were all born equals (in every way), or better still, not existed at all since that's the end goal anyway.

Any Answers???

17 comments:

Tariq said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tariq said...

1. as on exploitation by supervisors...
This is common phenomena (in this case so apparent and sometimes subtle)as power structures are almost everywhere in the top down hierarchical structure prevalent in almost all of our institutions. This "institutionalisation" of the agents involved makes the people inhuman. Just a thought, though its not so correlated analogy...in warfare its so easy to kill ppl by army...mostly the premise earlier was that if u wont then the other person will kill you. 20th century premise was generally border infiltration. But cant help think fundamentally on this, as to who gave you/anyone the right to stop infiltration...Nation states were never a nature's gift...its man made...there u go the effects of institutionalisation of the nationhood thought.
2. A non-supervisory approach to operations mgmnt was tried in Catalonia, Spain somewhere in 1936 and beauty was it was bottoms up. Orwell has noted tht productivity figures actually went up...Might want to chk that out
3. Oh and by now(having read other posts as well) needless to say...awesome post...it has become your trait to pen down things so beautifully...

honshu said...

on a lighter note:
boss!!! life se itna frustrate nahi hone ka!!! chill out & take it easy! man is just another animal, only - SELFISH! :P

on a serious note:
i recommend you read LILA by Robert Prisig. I will answer this post in some time...

JeDi said...

On the Question of why did GOD ever create us:
To make us go through the "Journey" of enjoying HIS/HER beauty, complexity, geometry, architecture, science and art

On why HE/SHE made us so different:
Just so that we don't get anything for free. And hence appreciate Everything and learn the important lessons that are meant to help us after the "Journey" is over

What say ????

Hatikvah said...

Jedi, firstly, welcome to the blog world (and you should consider comment moderation considering the person who first commented to your prologue); Secondly, as to the reasons you gave, I was just wondering, whats the whole deal; Enjoy something transient (and that too while staying detached) and do what with that? If nothing is free, then what was the purpose of incorporating this constraint???? Especially as we don't know what happens after the journey...

honshu said...

May i take this opportunity to ask you if you really have a reason to believe that God does exist? Time and again, we put all our blames on this one image, and ask for favors when faced with difficult situations.
I think that the entire idea of God has been created for the same purpose: to wield power in the name of a higher (invisible) authority, and conveniently blame misfortunes on His/ Her fury...
I have just finished reading Lila, which i recommended to you. The author talks about quality (in the metaphysical sense) and goes on to deconstruct the entire social fabric. Its quite an interesting read after the intial 100 pages.

Champ said...

Profound thought I must say. My view:

I think somewhere way above us, a bunch of idle minds, who didn't have anything worthwhile to do created this whole lot of products called human beings in order to beat their boredom. So there is no business plan according to me.

JeDi said...

I guess I am the only believer here !!
@Somu: What's the fun if you know everything ?? the element of surprise is what makes life so interesting !! then why do you wanna know what's there after-life ??
And, why do you call it transient ?? don't you think all the things/people/emotions/experiences you are enjoying are going to stay with you ?? start believing and look around ... it will be a whole different world !!!

Hatikvah said...

Jedi, you got me wrong; I DO believe in God. I however have a problem with the way things are being conducted herein, so to speak God's world. And it is precisely because I look around, that I see some glaring discrepancies. If he/she did have a power to put things right, then why didn't he? One can argue that he wants us to learn the hard way, but if you look around, about a greater part of the majority simply never learn at all rendering the weak to suffer and suffer continuously...

JeDi said...

This is a separate question. Answer this:
Consider you are a manager with 10 engineers reporting to you. Will want them all to be exactly the same ?? or will you give them the opportunity to choose ...... choose between being one among the many or learn with experiences and be different ??
Its the same concept taken at global level ... GOD chose to gives us the option to choose !! As for majority around not learning ... that is what makes you different than any Tom walking down the street !!

Hatikvah said...

(They should have called this the Battle of the Ariens ;-))

Jedi, I'll gleefully answer this one. If I were a manager and had 10 engineers reporting to me (when is that day gonna come), I'll ensure that I TELL THEM WHAT IS TO BE DONE in no uncertain terms. That is exactly the problem I have with that manager UP there. He/she doesn't seem to be telling us what is to be done, and the case is that most of us (about 98%) spend their lives not even realizing a desire to figure out their purpose in life and the balance spend their entire lives in simply working that mystery out rather than attaining it. It seems a huge waste, like an I.T company lavishing itself with extra hands who serve no purpose simply because they have the additional funds to facilitate the recruitment. Couldn't things have been easier if all of us knew exactly why we came to this life?
As for the concept of choice, I have my doubts buddy. To me, its the most illusive hoax, that we actually have a choice. There are so many inter dependencies that the concept of free choice is currently shrouded in complete suspicion...

jun said...

on a deeply related note, thught you might like to see this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodV7uiQQrs&feature=related

(of course, this isn't my response to you, i have none)

Cerebrations said...

I've always maintained that if there is a God, then we ere created for sheer entertainment...cos surely, God has the last laugh!

Well written, by the way.

Kanika Gupta said...

A very thought provoking post, its an issue I haven't deliberated much on. Nonetheless, I have a perspective to offer, more so coz I disagree with a lot written here, including the comments. And so, I can't refrain myself from adding something.

Well, first of all, the post is based on the assumption that God exists. The world is still divided on this particular issue. There are some who fervently believe in His presence, while others who don't. There are also a few who believe there's no way of knowing for certain about His existence.

The post raises questions about why did He create us and why so differently. In the world of God (assuming he exists), these questions are hard to answer. If God had a plan, why is there still so much of chaos and suffering in the world? If He directs us towards what's good for us, why do we sometimes regret the decisions that we made? If He's watching over 'his children' whom he 'loves equally' why do we all turn out so differently? Why do some of us turn into criminals or live in poverty while others live comfortably? Why do wars happen and why do people kill each other, if He's the guiding force behind everything? If destiny is a reality, why has He planned fortune for some and misfortune for others? Some of these questions are raised by the post, while others occurred to me. In the world of God, despite the existence of countless religions and faiths that have existed for centuries, why is so much inexplicable?

A lot of us have our faiths and deep belief is God. It's something we've learnt about since we gained consciousness in life. It's what our parents taught us, it's what our teachers told us and it's what we watched on TV. God is something we were told about from the very beginning, a belief that was drilled into our value system at a time when our minds were impressionable and we believed everything we were told without question.

Now for a moment, assume there's no God. There's no higher force guiding our actions. It is WE who decide what we do with our lives. It is WE who shape our destinies by the choices we make everyday, each moment. Nothing is pre-determined. If this scenario is considered plausible, many of the questions would be answered.

Why is there still so much of chaos and suffering in the world? Why do wars happen and why do people kill each other? Well, because it’s created by humans - people whose goals involve violence and cause pain to others. The world's not perfect coz it's made up of people who are imperfect to varying degrees.

Why do we sometimes regret the decisions that we made? Coz we make mistakes. And we learn from them. We're humans, not God.

Why do we turn out so differently? Why do some of us turn into criminals or live in poverty while others live comfortably? This is simple. Given the same situation, it is likely that two human beings would make different choices, take different paths. That's why we turn out so differently. That's why some of us build good lives for ourselves while others choose the path of destruction.

If destiny is a reality, why has He planned fortune for some and misfortune for others?
"Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences" - J.K. Rowling. People, who get to the top, often believe more in their abilities than a force which is touted to be beyond human comprehension. We've all probably hidden behind 'God' and 'Destiny' to absolve ourselves of the responsibility of our failures at sometime or the other.

In the world of humans, there's little that's inexplicable. In the end, everything boils down to choice. To lead a life of happiness, it is critical to realize the power that resides within each of us.

sandy said...

Our existence is being delicately balanced by pulls in a million directions. Deviations definitely occur but the difference is gradually cancelled out to reinstate the balance again. It's quite like the way a feedback control system functions. God created the control system. Now its upon us to make it function properly. Our zeal is to make the difference pull tend to zero.

Tabitha said...

Thanks 4 stopping by :)

workhard said...

Thats a tough and debatable topic..
Why God created us...

He has his own ways of testing us...

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