Indeed, this should be a provocative post because of its oxymoron in the title. Surely I am not going to try to comprehend what I can't explain myself, just to put a couple of thoughts on paper. So let's start from the word itself. God. What could it be? There is one widespread, simple theological explanation where all nowadays religions and the ones extinct in the past define this divine being(s) as extra powerful entity(ies) capable of the creation of everything. The mighty one(s), if you will. The history of God in all religions is more or less the same. It is full of wonders and love but also violence, especially when two cultures collided or shared the same habitat with each other. Good thing today the habitat now is the whole planet and there are no big crusades any more, just small sparks here and there, but the danger of a big explosion is always in the air and it is everywhere: Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and the Americas.
The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo
The big problem with God(s) in nowadays theological books is that nobody ever saw the divine beings. In today's world full of technological wonders, internet, TV, and live broadcasting events on a global scale, there is still not a single proof of God. This is a big problem for me; it is just too strange that there has been that much theological studying in that many different religions, and yet God simply refuses to show his/her/its image for a millennium of past years. Yes, they always say this is the part that comes later, when we die or reincarnate or go to hell/paradise, but still, this just looks too convenient to me, especially for the almighty beings who are so mighty to create the universe and yet not so powerful or willing to live with us, not just for one day a year? It was not like that in the past - in Greek or Roman religious past, gods were here, sharing the same space with us. Other old mythologies also required divine beings sharing the same planet with their creation, like Scandinavian mythology, the Slavic pantheon, or Native American tribes and their beliefs. What changed today? The only thing I can think of is that today people easily visit any place on Earth; even the most hidden places are no longer unexplored, not to mention that even a child now can go to Olympus and see that nothing is there. Only clouds, for some meteorological reasons, cover its peaks most of the time. Second, and also a major problem for my comprehension of the theological world, is that I simply don't understand it. If God created a great place, then why is it not so great? Why wars, borders, diseases, limitations... Why there are bullies, criminals, nuclear weapons, and too many diversities and animosities among races, cultures, and all. Why there are so many different religions. Why there are so many factions of one religion. Why God must be a male. Why can't women be priests? Why must priests in some Christian factions wear black dresses with long beards, frightening every young child who goes to church?
I have been born and educated to respect all people no matter what they are or how they look or dress. If they are not criminals, I am fine to chat with everybody about everything, to listen and be heard in a proper and cultural conversation of any kind. Living in a society of people, we really need this kind of mutual respect. We also need to live by some protocols accepted by the majority of people. From the point when we are born until we die, there are many occasions requiring many events to be performed. I mean, I can't imagine a wedding here in Serbia without Church involvement. They have very nice protocols. Funerals too. Anything that requires more than two people to participate with, religious organizations are doing this just right. But for all those events, God is not required, and he is never there, just people.
Olympus in clouds as seen from Leptokaria
Do I believe in God? I need to say that I don't believe in this kind of God. The theological one. I never saw him, but if he does exist, I don't understand the cruelty of the world he made, and I am not ready to believe in anything I cannot see or understand. Or perhaps the better way to describe my glimpse into religiosity is that I simply don't 'believe' in the concept of believing.
But is there a scientific God? The one we can try to understand? Yes. Actually, there are many. There are lots of gods everywhere we look. I remember when I first read about it in Carl Sagan's famous Cosmos; he said there are many domestic animals in the world created by artificial selection. The evolution paths created by humanity either on purpose or by some kind of accident. The domestic cows are one of them. They surely would not be among us if we didn't create them. If all humans disappear in one night, they will be extinct as well. Some species, like some particular cow races, can't even give birth to a calf without a man. In other words, humans, especially those involved in manufacturing cows, are real Gods. To the cows. The cows are just an example of the species created by humans for purpose, but there are many other 'created' species, like some sort of crabs with samurai texture, described in one of the Cosmos episodes, evolved by human interactions indirectly.
The question is now, are we humans, or even this planetary neighborhood, created by some artificial selection? Or even more, are we created for some purpose by some other species? Maybe even our universe is created in some alien laboratory. We don't know, but there is a possibility, and eventually we will find out by science. We are definitively smarter than in Christ's time; we develop lots of different gadgets and scientific sensors; we can now see farther away and also have insight of a micro world smaller and smaller every decade. One of the devices we have is the one you are using to read this post, the computer that every two years doubles its power. If this trend continues and I don't see what would stop it, within the next centuries or millennia, the home computer of the future could be able to create vivid simulations of other worlds, like the ones in the movies "The 13th Floor", "Caprica", or "The Matrix". There are other theories proposing the universe to be made out of holographic dots, located deep inside the smaller particle we can think of.
What we know for sure is that we live in an imperfect world; not just here on Earth, the whole universe is in a kind of chaotic state where any kind of order is just an illusion, or if it is real, it has an expiration date, following with more challenges everywhere we look.