What
follows is a set of spontaneous thoughts that were allowed to flow out as
words.
Semiotics is the science of meaning.
How does God get meaning? This is an attempt to understand the meaning of God
by decoding how our mind is hardwired to react and perceive the world. No layer
of editing or structure has been applied. Whatever little structure exists is
intrinsic. The way it got created.
7 Thoughts in Mind
1.
Infinity is being fed into the mind
regularly. All the senses, sensing all the time. Information, knowledge,
debates and arguments. Blankness too
2.
Mind can't comprehend everything
that is fed into it
3.
Mind makes sense by organizing this
complex data/information feed, on the basis of likely assumptions made through
past experiences
4.
Mind tends to believe the sense it
makes, and thus believes itself
5.
Mind also tends to question itself
6.
Belief and questioning help the mind
to sharpen its assumptions
&
7.
Mind is "amazed" at all
that which goes 'against' its assumptions.
***Amazement, Awe, Wonder, Distress,
Bewilderment***
Amazement is an
expression of a mistake that does not hurt
Distress is an expression of a
mistake that hurts
Mistake is what went against the
mind's assumption
Hurt is a driving force that makes the
mind change its assumptions
Belief*Questioning*Mistakes*Amazement*Hurt
Poetic
Conclusion:
"The idea of not binding the mind with an
assumption and keeping it open to imbibe change without getting hurt is GOD."
Non Poetic Version:
"God = Incomprehensible Data"
But how?
7
More
Thoughts
1.
The Mind assumes an event as being less
likely or more likely to happen, basis the assumptions made from the limited
amount of data that it has been able to comprehend and structure sensibly
2.
When a 'mistake' happens, the mind
either reacts in amazement or with distress
3.
Both the situations seem beyond its
control
4.
Mind needs a support system to get
back to its process of "perception/reception
---> comprehension ---> belief/questioning ---> Assumption".
Reboot.
5.
God is that Support system. A notion
that lets mind forgive itself for the mistakes it made
6.
God thus is nothing but some
'incomprehensible data' that helps the mind to go back to the state of
believing & questioning. Because Infinity/Incomprehensible data is where it
all started
&
7.
Probability is one such
incomprehensible set of notions.
God elicits awe and wonder. It’s a
Universal Set of all that we believe to be beyond our control. Probability is
beyond our control by definition.
Event A: Very likely to happen.
Happens everyday. We are amazed when it doesn't happen. (Eg. A politician refusing
to take bribe)
Event B: Very likely to happen. But
we know there are times when it may not happen. (Eg. Continuous success. Sachin
hitting a century in every game)
Event C: Less likely to happen, but
we know it happens. At times we can’t even believe when it happens. (Eg. You
winning a game of Poker, Tambola, Scratch card or state lottery. Earthquake on
Tv vs Earthquake in our city)
Event D: Unlikely to happen. Most of
us think that they know it can’t happen (Eg. Extra terrestrial life, Someone
waking up after dying)
All the sources of our awe, amazement,
wonder, distress and hurt come from some such improbable event that went
against our mind's assumptions.
The vastness of probabilities can never be comprehended by the mind. And if an
event, that has lesser probability of occurrence, actually occurs, the mind is
amazed and needs to define such an occurrence. We end up calling this 'mistake'
as God.
Thus God, by definition, needs to be incomprehensible. It implies miracles, which are nothing but
realization of a rare probability. Thus one brings the notion of faith into
picture. Belief in God (The Incomprehensible) implies having faith, and faith
has no reason.
Just because something is rare does not mean its occurrence is inexplicable.
And just because something is inexplicable does not mean it is guiding or
controlling us. This is a stone age thought.
Those rare events, that are interpreted as God's signals, become noticeable by
the virtue of their unlikeliness of occurrence. A guiding force is a notion,
that a certain set of probabilities will dominate over all other possible
outcomes, because of the presence of an external factor. There is no way to
find out if that external factor ACTUALLY affected the outcome or not, because
one can’t go back in time and repeat the event sans the external factor.
Thus, the intrinsic value of the Stone Age
God (That Incomprehensible
Power Guiding My Life) is null. That God is only as valuable as the value WE
associate with/allocate to it, in order to support rebooting of our system when
the mind's assumptions are proven wrong.
'Less Likely' is NOT equal to 'Unlikely/Will
Never Happen'.
When
Event A is more likely than B, it’s the occurrence of B that will amaze you.
Probability does not rule out the occurrence of B and thus, leaves that door of
Hope
open, which makes you want to ensure that B happens instead of A. And when it
happens, out of sheer probability, you tend to correlate the steps you took and
the strategies you applied, and suggest that if the entire 'process' is
repeated, you can make B occur over A, again and again! Thats how Knowledge is
generated. And we tend to spread this knowledge at times without realizing the
complete nature of the context.
If you didn't do anything, neither A nor B might occur (A third Probability C
may). So doing (Karma), which is in your
control, takes precedence over occurring, which is beyond your control. So you
must keep doing what you think you are supposed to do.
And this cycle goes on and on. And it’s a fight you can never win inspite of
having won, because you can never be sure of it. But thats OK.
This is where, I think, the poetic idea of God begins to make sense.
"The idea of not binding the mind with
an assumption, and keeping it open to imbibing change without getting hurt is
GOD."
