Does God exist? The atheists would say that religion, to borrow Marx's metaphor, is opium. An opiate takes away your aware consciousness, you thus feel neither grief nor injustice. Hardly are you aware of either as you are almost half-asleep, opiate-intoxicated. In brief, it hardly matters whether God exists or not as your consciousness of grief, of injustice is not awake(ned).
As for agnostics, they would find it difficult to believe in the existence of God, and surely of all sorts of religious praxis. If you have studied Philosophy, all these, and many more, major arguments, both pro and anti, meet you right at the beginning of your coursework.
Well, even science would not be able to completely and totally explain how this vast universe began in the first place. Similarly, a truly scientific approach teaches you the basic humility that our knowledge is bound by our current paradigm(s) which continually evolve, change, refract, right?
In my personal opinion, God is both. On the one hand, all that is good, ideal, perfect within an individual and in humanity is the Divine. On the other hand, God can be a universal and divine force that stands by you, supports you, sustains you in your innocence, even when the whole wide (wicked) world is against you in all its evil potencies.
This force is just and ethical. Indeed this faith is necessary. Otherwise, the powerful of all sorts, beginning with the quantity/group/number to infinities of all imagined mights, would completely squash the weak. May be, those intoxicated with their arrogance, would behave well at least due to this awareness.
More than anything else, I believe passionately that this force listens to a fervent, genuine, soul-felt prayer, especially when it is not self-centered. Hence I have always revered the Vedas and the Upanishads that glorify the great, the vast, the beautiful. Be it the "Agni mele" or the "hiranya Varna", or any other suktam, it is sheer poetry and profound prayer that is benevolent.
Can miracles be thus explained? Surely, the stupid tricks of the "from the air" variety can be explicated even by a school kid. In addition, all the saints have hated the horrors such as local deities demanding some offering in return!
Look at a miracle like Sant Dnyaneshwar making a so-called stupid buffalo recite the 'rucha'. It is as if he was communicating to this great, good principle dormant in the poor animal, making 'him' aware of all infinite possibilities. I suppose, that is what is truly godly. Yes, the whole universe conspires to grant you what you fervently wish from the soul!
Pratima@ God is all that is (and takes you closer and nearer to the) good, great, glorious (within you and in this vast universe!)
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