Is God another name for chance?

The novel Coronavirus has deepened the faith of the American people in God evident from the findings of a poll recently conducted by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Associated PressNORC Centre for Public Affairs Research in the United States Of the 86 per cent of Americans who are believers 26 per cent said their faith in God has grown ever since the Coronavirus began to ravage the world in contrast to one per cent whose faith has weakenedLess than one per cent said they no longer believe in God today but did so earlier But God gained support of two per cent of Americans who did not believe in him earlier As many as twothird of believers think the virus is a message from God to humanity Change or perish More blacks 47 per cent than whites 27 per cent are likely to say thatWe do not know why the faith of some has either weakened or died completely Perhaps they are shocked at discovering that their God in whose omnipotence they believed is disinterested in smothering the virus For them God is either callous or he simply does not exist Could it be that more and more people like philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche will declare that God is deadIndia has not had a poll tracking the impact of COVID19 on our belief system There have been media reports though of people turning the novel Coronavirus into a goddess and propitiating her Almost everyone I spoke to thought the pandemic had deepened Indias famed religiosity A friend who recently underwent the COVID19 test said I prayed and prayed and prayed until the test report came It was negative ndash which will certainly bolster her faithEven the most religious know their prayers alone cannot save them from COVID19 and that they must undergo medical treatment They also take the precautions recommended for ensuring they do not get infected They simultaneously repose faith in both the evidencebased science and God largely because they have seen some even without comorbidities die despite undergoing the best treatment for COVID19They have also seen many who were as cautious as they are contract COVID19 Presumably in a moment of carelessness they touched their mouths with unwashed hands Or they bumped into an asymptomatic carrier who exhaled a plume of virus at the time they had momentarily taken off their masksIndeed the factor of chance seems to impinge upon what are the unchangeable laws of nature Or is what we call chance simply a measure of our incomprehension Albert Einstein arguably the greatest scientist of the 20th century rejected the notion of a God who altered the destinies of people An interviewer once asked him Was he then an atheist or agnostic He replied The problem involved is too vast for our limited mindsEinstein asked the interviewer to imagine a child entering a library stacked with books arranged neatly written in different languages by someone whose name he does not know The child discerns a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books Einstein said That it seems to me is the attitude of the human mind even the greatest and most cultured towards God We see a universe marvellously arranged obeying certain laws but we understand the laws only dimlyViewed from Einsteins perspective chance is merely a manifestation of our incomprehension which condemns us to live in confusion We seek Gods intervention to negotiate our confusion He is destined to live until all the laws of universe become known to us A question however arises If chance is a function of laws we cannot comprehend then why do we seek a social and economic transformation of the worldIn the manner of Einsteins child who discerns an order in the arrangement of books even though he cannot fathom the rules followed to do so we know for instance that thatched huts will get blown away in a cyclonic storm although some might not Why That is because of chance But what is known to us is that all pucca houses will not collapse unless say a tree falls on themIn todays context eight people living in a room are more likely to contract COVID19 than a family of three in a threeroom apartment where physical distancing can be easily practised It is only rational for us to strive to a level of development where every family can afford to live in a pucca commodious house Yet the factor of chance will ensure that some will nevertheless fall to the novel CoronavirusWhat we know as chance from Einsteins perspective is merely an outcome of the mysterious working of universal laws we cannot comprehend Unlike the scientist we treat chance as the conscious working of God who we think can be petitioned to save us This provides us hope and lessens our anguish reasons good enough for many to turn to God for maintaining their sanity and equipoise amid the looming uncertainties of lifeThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news 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