Religion
In reply to the discussion: Why is there evil and suffering? [View all]Thats my opinion
(2,001 posts)The ancients looked at the world they knew and realized that there was energy in everything.
They tried to personify this mysterious force, and their gods were powerful persons seen in nature, in objects and in natural occurrences. This was the only sort of reductionism they could perceive. Nevertheless, underneath it all, wrapped in a mystery they could only objectify was the energy they saw in everything. The best way they knew to talk about it was to say that all was God. That is called pantheism. (God is the sum total of nature)
But perhaps God is not the sum total of nature, but the force within all of nature which drives it--the doing, not the being. We find it in the drive we call evolution. We see it in the discoveries of modern physics which tell us that everything is related to everything else. We see it in the perpetual motion of everything. We see in in the universal lust for life. It is always within us and beyond us. It gives purpose to all living things. It keeps the universe in motion. It is evident in all those institutions and persons that seek to make the world a better place.
Somehow we seem to want simple answers to the universe's most complicated problems. Scientists know there are no simple answers. But philosophy and theology also know it. If you really want a satisfactory answer to the very good question you asked, read Karen Armstrong's A History of God.