Deepak Chopra
www.deepakchopra.com http://twitter.com/DeepakChopra

Deepak Chopra

Chopra is the author of more than fifty-six books translated into over thirty-five languages. His latest books are the "Ultimate Happiness Prescription" and "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul"

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Proof of God Never Stands Still

Q:What makes the best 'case for God' to a skeptic or non-believer, an open-minded seeker, and to a person of faith and Why?

1) The message of scripture?
2) The scientific evidence for an Intelligent Designer?
3) The 'words' that God has 'spoken' - Torah, Jesus, the Qur'an?
4) A compassionate lifestyle?
5) Personal, subjective experience?

-- Karen Armstrong

The Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton remarked that God is always a step ahead of the seeker, having just departed wherever the seeker arrives. That's true for anyone who seeks proof of God. The debate is constantly changing its ground. But it wouldn't be true of personal experience, which is the most convincing proof to any individual, an immediate sense that God's presence is here and now (although much less convincing to friends and family who stand by as spectators). The Bible contains almost no intellectual arguments for God's existence, being entirely filled with direct experience. Jehovah talks to the prophets: Jesus performs supernatural miracles. In modern times the reverse is true. We hunger for objective evidence of all things, even things that cannot help but be subjective, such as beauty or for that matter, thinking itself.

The essential question isn't which type of proof is convincing but whether any proof is possible. Science has steadily eroded religion by saying, in essence, that there is no proof that satisfies experimental inquiry. In the eighteenth century most people would have accepted the argument from design, a rational proposition which pointed to the intricacy of Nature and declared that there must be a Creator behind it. Although such an argument can be updated, not through the creationism of Intelligent Design but by a rigorous argument against randomness, that has proven to be too great a leap for people inculcated to believe that randomness is, in fact, the basis of the universe since the Big Bang.

I'd offer that convincing arguments for God depend upon several factors:

-- Getting rid of the notion that God is a person.

-- Throwing out all dogma and religious conditioning.

-- Looking into the nature of consciousness, which links the observer to reality.

-- Taking seriously the concept of an intelligent universe, which implies self-awareness as primary in Nature, not a chance development in human beings.

There are now countless books by a diverse range of thinkers to support all these avenues of exploration. But ultimately, without an understanding of consciousness one can't possibly explain God or the numinous, or expand from personal awareness to divine awareness. Perception changes with the perceiver, including perception of God. Such an ever-elusive deity cannot be the real thing, only a mirror of our own restless awareness. Therefore, to be fully real, God must be perceived at a level of consciousness that isn't personal or shifting. In the East such changeless consciousness is available in a state known as enlightenment, the Christian equivalent of grace. In a secular society such a state of consciousness has yet to be defined and widely accepted (although millions of people meditate or pray, hoping to meet the divine face to face).

Theology has lagged far behind in helping us explore God personally or define the state of God consciousness, unfortunately, being occupied with side issues like defending one faith against another or trying to lure believers back into the church or synagogue. Scientists have done a far better job, ironically, by dismantling outworn notions about reality, but it's rare to find a scientist who is professionally interested in either God or consciousness. God is considered so unscientific to begin with that few researchers consider this a valid field, except for the purposes of a debunker a la Richard Dawkins, who does nothing more than repeat the tired clichés of skeptical materialism. Telling us all the reasons that finding God is impossible, attempts to prove a negative and is useless in explaining the great thinkers, sages, and saints who assure us that God is real.

So where do we stand now? On our own two feet -- seekers must find proof that satisfies them, one person at a time. It's not an easy journey, but it never was, except to those who preferred blind faith over personal exploration. The reason that the Kingdom of Heaven is within is that God is a state of consciousness; there is nowhere to look but within. The deity may be infinite, all-pervasive, and ever-present, but proof of God is on the move, shifting as fast as our own perceptions.

By Deepak Chopra  |  October 8, 2009; 9:01 PM ET Save & Share:  Send E-mail   Facebook   Twitter   Digg   Yahoo Buzz   Del.icio.us   StumbleUpon   Technorati  
Previous: Exhibit A: Jesus | Next: Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

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Dear Mr. Waters & Mr. Rupuert Murdok et al:

STOP Deleting our Academic NEW Ideas; and PLAGERIZING our [my] Intelectual Property!

S{HAME On LONDON, ENGLAND & Jealous QUEEN & similary situated!!

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Ye hath Freudiantly Slippeth'd and Pre-Apocalyptically saith,

"the Vatican had brought together global religious leaders and academic experts who explored the theological and scriptural bases and implications of the foundation of A Common Word, the two great commandments, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, based directly Christian, Muslim and Jewish Scriptures.

Questiion: How much of This Theoligical POW-WOW [of Imprted Religions in Amerik, Not MADE in America] was 'Subsidized' by OUR tax-Payers money via the OBAMA's 'Faith Based Initiative" ??

After-All Last Week or two Britisher's Low-Lifes via "BONO" {Oprah Winfreys & Co, "SECRET" pals] built a Stage as if a Spac-Ship [Ummmm?] and The PLUTOCRATS [Government Run by the Rich/Wealthy] Of Washington, D.C. America; Like Nancy Polosi et al....

WHO PAID for THIS [ALL]! The VATican? BOBO? BLAIR? George Town? or did WE [i] The [SIPP] aka "SECULR INTERNATIONAL PROLETARiATE PEOPLE"????

Question again: WHERE is the [unconstitutional] $2,000,0000 of Stolen Tax-Payers [un-Godly] money , w/out THE-PEOPLES Consent/Approval/Voter, is going; who?, where, Why...???

Rise-Up! Rise-Up "SIPP"s Time to Take-Back Our Nation, as Promised US!

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A NEW BOSTON TEA PARTY is Comming Soon Soon Very Soon!

Posted by: usa-proletariat-movement | October 12, 2009 11:23 PM
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11.Enjoy your own sex life (so long as it damages nobody else) and leave others to enjoy theirs in private whatever their inclinations, which are none of your business.
POSTED BY: COLINNICHOLAS | OCTOBER 11, 2009 7:26 PM
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Privacy is not all that private any more.

Here is a tip: Thanks to AT&T, Verizon etc. privacy is not all that private any more. Especially when you cell can be remote activated to listen on to your bedroom crap.

And if you did not realize is there are plenty of AT&T, Verizon etc operatives who religiously devote their spare time to remote activate your phone to listen to your bedroom crap.

And Uncle Sam want to listen on to your bedroom crap too. And if it is Uncle Sam's business to invade your privacy, then by extension it is each and every american's business as well.

Enjoy your sex and do it which ever way you want - that is your business, but only a naive would expect privacy now-a-days in their bedrooms.

Posted by: sheekhar | October 12, 2009 1:15 AM
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I am a fan of science so please don't take this wrong. But science is not all that. Yoga is a strange practice from thousands of years ago and yet we find that it is beneficial to us. Meditation is a strange practice from thousands of years ago that we find is beneficial to us. Vegetarianism is a strange practice that is beneficial to us....

If you look in the right place you may find advice that science is catching up to.

hariuam

Posted by: Navin1 | October 12, 2009 12:33 AM
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Talking of Dawkins

Dawkins' ten commandments plus four, in response to the biblical commandments.

1. Do not do unto others what you would not want them to do to you.

2. In all things strive to cause no harm.

3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general, with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.

4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.

6. Always seek to be learning something new.

7.Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.

8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience, do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

10.Question everything.

Four more..

11.Enjoy your own sex life (so long as it damages nobody else) and leave others to enjoy theirs in private whatever their inclinations, which are none of your business.

12.Do not discriminate or oppress on the basis of sex, race or (as far as possible) species.

13.Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

14.Value the future on a timescale longer than your own.

From "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, p300.

Posted by: colinnicholas | October 11, 2009 7:26 PM
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Your mentioning Richard Dawkins brought this essay to mind by the great man himself comparing science with theology.

Here's Richard Dawkins;

"Science is responsible for the following knowledge about our origins. We know approximately when the universe began and why it is largely hydrogen. We know why stars form and what happens in their interiors to convert hydrogen to the other elements and hence give birth to chemistry in a world of physics. We know the fundamental principals of how a world of chemistry can become biology through the arising of self replicating molecules. We know how the principal of self-replication gives rise, through Darwinian selection, to all life, including humans.

It is science and science alone that has given us this knowledge and given it, moreover, in fascinating, over-whelming, mutually confirming detail. On every one of these questions theology has held a view that has been conclusively proved wrong. Science has eradicated smallpox, can immunize against most previously deadly viruses, can kill most previously deadly bacteria. Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin.

Science can predict when a particular comet will reappear and, to the second, when the next eclipse will appear. Science has put men on the moon and hurtled reconnaisance rockets around Saturn and Jupiter.
Science can tell you the age of a particular fossil and that the Turin Shroud is a medieval fake. Science knows the precise DNA instructions of several viruses, and has recently done the same for the human genome.

What has theology ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has theology ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? I have listened to theologians, read them, debated against them. I have never heard any of them say anything of the smallest use, anything that was not either platitudinously obvious or downright false. If all the achievements of scientists were wiped out tomorrow, there would be no doctors but witch-doctors, no transport faster than horses, no computers, no printed books, no agriculture beyond subsistence peasant farming. If all the achievements theologians were wiped out tomorrow, would anyone notice the smallest difference? The achievements of theologians don't do anything, don't affect anything, What makes anyone think that 'theology' is a subject at all? "

Richard Dawkins. from "Free Enquiry" Spring 1998.vol18 n2.p6(1)

Posted by: colinnicholas | October 11, 2009 7:13 PM
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So where do we stand now? On our own two feet ... The deity may be infinite, all-pervasive, and ever-present, but proof of God is on the move, shifting as fast as our own perceptions.
-----
I am not an atheist nor too much inclined to religion, but believe in God, I do. And that sets me apart from majority who only associate God with religion and believe God does not exists outside of the religious domain.

Growing up in a joint family (My grandmother lived with us), I was brought up in an environment rich in cultural and religious beliefs.

As I grew up, I became aware of the ugly face of religion and religious leadership, one that exploited people in the name of religion. So it was a natural consequence that I began to question religion and God.

One day I asked my grandmother, how would you describe God, if its proponents themselves are so corrupt. She replied "In my heart and soul, I believe, for me God is one, who provides me the internal strength to discover light, when their is darkness all around, at a moment when each source on earth would have lead me to believe pralaya (end of the world) is imminent, and there is no way out of this darkness".

Years later, in one discussion, I asked my father the same question, his response was almost identical to my grandmother's. I asked him how did he discover this truth about God. His response was "I learned it from your grandfather, he was a good man."

I am a third generation from my grandfather, and for me God's existence and description has not changed.

The shift in belief in God as per my experience can described as - ask a wealthy and educated trader, if God exists. Probably he would say "No". Ask him if Christmas exists. He would come up with a "Yes". Ask the same trader "How was your Christmas season?" and he may say "God was not so happy with us this time around".

God does exists. It is the corruption that shifts our belief in God.

Posted by: vig_raman | October 11, 2009 3:11 PM
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In boundless ocean of existence there are many waves. Deepak Chopra is riding one and Richard Dawkins another. Both of them think their waves are the ocean itself and their fragments, the wholeness. They are approaching it through mind which can't fathom the boundless and so the conflict. If they could have a glimpse of Wholeness they will realize that they were describing the different dimensions of the same. Theist and atheist belongs to the same existence although they think themselves opposite to each other.

Kumar Jeeva

Posted by: vichar | October 11, 2009 11:33 AM
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DEAR CHILDREN: As "Automatic Born Citizenz/Denizenz" on This Blesseth S.pace-S.hip Earth (of Many) Ye should be fortunate to see that LIFE (aka LOVE) is a Miracle in Holyi Cosmic, unreversable Motion. And

Please See The Real American Born "MAHDI" The "MASSIAH", the "METREYA", and by manymany names , no-more by 99 names or 1000 names... as foretold in ALL your Qurans/Korans, Chumash/Bibles & Geeta/Kangyurs. SO

-- BEHOLD the "New-Message" of many, Young Lady's & Lad's:

^ .^. ^
FOOD
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HOME
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L♥VE
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CLOTH
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AND: Don't Worry KEEP BUSY:

IMPORTANT: Rich, Middle-class or Poor, If YE hath All these “Tetra(4)Needs“ then Ye or loved ones hath No other Worry’s to be sure on this Blesseth, yet Holy Cosmic Miraculous, & zero biblical Sineth, S.pace-S.hip Planet EARTH, aka S.S. GAiA, S.S. GEOiD, S.S. TELLUSng something! NOTE:WE [i] art Not Alone. keep this in mind!

REMEMBER Kids: G-D is never a "HE" nor a "SHE" only being "IT", inside & oustside of US ALL! Together Forever W/SOURCE-ONE [G-D by manymanymany names).

PEACE, PAZ, SHALOM, SALAAM, MIR, AHIMSA, ZHINGYU.... & HAPPY-EVERY-DAY!

Posted by: anti_bad | October 10, 2009 6:18 AM
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...having denied that God cannot be described, located, defined, limited, etc., one must negate the previous negation. The absolute transcendence of God is established by the use of double negation, in which a negative and a negative of a negative are applied to the thing denied - the first freeing the idea of God from all association with the material and the second removing Him from any association with the non-material. God is thus neither within the sensible world nor within the extra-sensible.

Posted by: i48998 | October 9, 2009 5:40 PM
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