Mira and Mahavir or Belief in God

Author(s): N V thadani
Publisher: Hindu College Delhi

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its foundations to the earth. Belief in God forms, as a general rule, the basis of religion; but Science, revealing the marvels of the forces of Nature, has questioned and almost overthrown this belief. The mystery of birth and death yet eludes its grasp, but it hopes to master that too. What place can we assign to God in a scientific scheme of life? What is he-a personal or an impersonal deity? -- manifest or unmanifest ? Can he create, apart from the forces of Nature?-or is he a mere spectator of its work? Is he governed by or above all law? Can he change the course of natural or human events by his intervention? In short, is he necessary to Man-except as a consolation or comfort in sorrow, sickness or death? Men and nations are asking these questions: many have discarded religion as a fraud or a dope; and it seems as if the very idea of God will be overthrown.
This applies as much to western as to eastern countries of the world, and India is 110 exception. Hinduism is the home of religion; but the educated young Hindu appears to have little place for it in his scheme of life. The case with an educated young Mussalman or a Christian is not very different. The institutions remain-- the temple, the mosque, and the church; but the spirit appears to have fled. The older people, who still adhere to ancient forms, complain of loss of faith among the young; but the latter do not seem to care. Their appeal, they say, is to reason, to the laws of Science; and what place has Religion in this scheme of life? TO this there has as yet been no reply.