There Is an Ultimate Control of the Entire Universe - Research Paper Example

? There Is an Ultimate Control of the Entire Universe There Is an Ultimate Control of the Entire Universe Introduction Religion and religious beliefs concerning the world creation have been criticized for centuries. The beliefs that are being disputed are those that claim that God created the universe and everything that exists in it. These disputes have led to the emergence of some schools of thought challenging the supreme nature of God. Such schools want to challenge the authority of God as the creator of the world and the fact that God has the authority over His creation. They might be right to challenge this view at some point, but closely scrutinizing other fields of study and the basis of their critics we find some loopholes. Some of the explanation they have provided to counter the creation theory are quite amusing, since at some point they fail to provide a very comprehensive answer. This makes them still go back to the creation theory as the base for the existence of the world. Among some of the critics of creation theories are the scientific studies and some religious beliefs. Thesis Statement With the immense discrepancies and failures in the critical explanations offered, we are taken back to one origin of creation being the Supreme God. It is then that we accept the fact that the world and all that happens in it is controlled by a supreme being. This supreme creator, in my opinion, is God. Buddha Teachings The teachings of Buddha are quite fascinating. Buddha as we can say is the founder of the Buddhist religion. In the book, What Buddha taught by Ra?hula (1974) we are introduced into beliefs and convictions of Buddha about what happens to the world. In this text Buddha teaches about the attaining of enlightenment and perfectness. Through his life Buddha was able to find the path of liberation. Liberation in this case is the attainment of enlightenment through knowing the truth. Buddha teaches that human beings are the supreme beings of all the creatures, and as such they are the masters for themselves. They should not, therefore, be enslaved to any other supreme being. He goes further to point out that human beings have an ultimate control over their destiny, and there is no other being that is responsible for the destiny of a person. Buddha displays that he himself achieved the highest level of enlightenment and liberation. This made him to be seen as even superhuman and a perfect being. He attributes his achievements to his own will and intelligence. According to this teaching then, one can attain anything and can decide anything in life and get it. All that happens in the world is, therefore, through the mind and intelligence. The more one gets to be enlightened, the more they become intelligent, and the easier they find it to manipulate the world around them. So, it is not that there is some being somewhere that controls one’s life and destiny. It is your mind that can do all this and not any other thing. What the humans need to do is to go through the meditations taught in Buddhism, and through this meditation enlightenment will come in (Charles, 2012). The meditation as described by Buddha is the deep and continuous soul search that leads to the realization of the truth about the world. Through the process of meditation one gets insight because they look at things objectively and extract that thing from the environment. In doing this the thing is investigated carefully only by the mind of a person and not with the help of any other person or any other supernatural being. This is the point where Buddha takes the basis, that it is only human intelligence that is able to find truths about what is happening in the universe. This view is what brings serious critics of the Buddha teachings. There is a being that is responsible for what happens in the universe, and that human beings have little control and influence of the happenings. The Critics of Buddha Teaching Though Buddha himself claims to have attained enlightenment through the meditation process, and that it is all his intelligence that led him to attain these, some questions arise and the answers to these questions are what take us to believe and to agree that there is a being responsible for all that happens. Amongst the questions to be answered are: 1) What is the source of the human intelligence that will lead one to realize the truth? 2) If you have to find the truth about something then what is the origin of that thing? 3) We live in the universe so who created the universe? 4) If the universe was created then that person must be supreme. 5) The supreme being that created the world should be able to surpass man. 6) The creator must also have control over what he created. I can agree to some point that human intelligence can lead to understanding of the nature of things, but understanding the nature of something does not make one able to control the same thing. You can understand the nature of the world, but you cannot be able to turn the same world into, for instance, a stick. Another example is the scientists have been able to understand the nature of things falling to the ground, but they have not been able to stop things from falling down and turn them to start going up. So, the view by Buddha that by attaining enlightenment you become the master of it is wrong. It is not true to say that man is the master of himself and is able to manipulate his life. If it is so, then why it is that man despite so much enlightenment achieved like Buddha himself was unable to stop the death. We shall agree that death is a natural occurrence and can happen at any time, and man cannot manipulate it. The fact that there are some natural happenings that man totally fails to control clearly shows that there is another force that is more superior and supreme to this man. The origin of creatures is another issue that points at the existence of a being that is so supreme. The account from the Bible, shows the Earth was created by a being that was there in the beginning and will be there till the end of times. This account, points out that it is God who is the creator of the universe. The account states that God took seven days to make the universe, and, thus, what we see today is attributed to him. I believe this question bothered even Buddha because he had to explain the origin of the beings. What Buddha attains in the process of meditation is only understanding of the nature of beings, and nothing beyond these (Ra?hula, 1974). It follows then we can all agree the creation of the universe and all the being is the attribute of that creator, who in my case is God. There is another question that bothers us all - who created the universe we live in. George notes that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (1989). So, all the heavenly bodies were created by God. Though God himself is a spirit, he was able to work with physical matter to create the universe, and this is a fact that points out at the supernatural being of God. It is undisputed that what God created cannot be equalized to any human creation because all that humans create lasts only for a very short period of time, but what God creates has a very long lifespan. With this fact at hand, it is out of place to believe that human beings have power over the universe, this is what the Buddhists believe: the human being is supernatural, and there is nothing above him. If that could have been the case then the human could have been able to create a universe, but no human even Buddha was able to create the universe. Therefore, humans are not supreme beings at all. They are only more superior to the other creations of God, but not supreme. In the theoretical and even the practical world the person who creates something has an ultimate control over that thing. It is not possible that one creates something that he can have influence on. In this case, it is God who created man and all that exists in this universe. The fact that He is a Creator gives Him an ultimate power and control over His creation. We can claim, therefore, to have any control over ourselves and overlook the fact that there is our Creator. Then the teachings of Buddha will fail at this point. This is because the teachings state that human beings have a total control over themselves and everything else. If we have to accept the fact we were created then we also have to admit that we are controlled by the same Creator, and ours is to live according to the wish and the plan of the Creator. The Bible being a reference point for the creation theory explains that the Supreme Being who is God has a plan for all of us. So it is not either human endeavor that decides once destiny, but it is the will of the Creator. That is the reason why we ask to let his will be done in our lives (Charles, 2012). The teachings of Buddha try to explain that is the man who is a Supreme Being over all that exists in the universe. I can agree with this because I do not rely on the statement that man is a Supreme Being. One fact to point out is that Supreme Being is immortal by nature. And if a being is supreme it should be able to have power over the other supernatural being. This human being who is deemed to be supreme is not really supreme because human beings have very little control over the other being. The creation theory demonstrates that man was given a right to be above other creations and oversee them. It is just a matter of logic that if one is given the power to oversee then the person cannot be supreme more than the one who gave them the commands. Human beings are, therefore, lesser beings who just live by the mercies of the supreme God. This God is the only supreme being, and all other beings that exist are under him (Ra?hula, 1974). He is the ultimate authority, and there is no other control that is above him even the human being who Buddha claims is superior. There is something that baffles me about the teaching of the human who emerges to be supreme. Before this man comes into existence he must have been created. If man has to attain anything then it is why he has to exist. What I am looking at is that fact that the existence of this man must have had some origin. Before he can begin going through the liberation to attain the supreme nature he must have a particular source. Many explanations have been put forward as for the origin, but my concern is about the sole Creator who is supreme. It is, therefore, worth mentioning that humans did not create themselves, and if that is the case then there is something else greater than the man himself (George, 1989). If man was able to create another man then I could agree with the teaching and the beliefs that human beings are supreme. But with all the developments that have been done in many fields over the time, there has been no incident when man was able to create another living man, these then makes me dispute the supreme being of humans. According to the writings based on the creation theory God created human beings in His own image. Though God himself is a spirit he was able to create a physical being that has got life and can breathe. This exemplifies how supreme God is. So humans cannot be anything close to him (Stanley, 2003). It is so because even all that humans have been able to create is only a modification of what has already been created. This modification is seen in cloning and robots that humans have made. Many natural catastrophes have happened over the ages, these catastrophes include the tsunamis, the cyclone earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. I believe that human beings have failed to control these happenings. These events are deemed to be natural in nature. There are so many other catastrophes like these. I would expect that the supreme nature of man could have been able to stop these catastrophes. As Buddha says that man has control over his destiny then why does he finds it difficult to treat such disasters and only terms them as natural occurrence? Conclusions At this point I can come to a clear conclusion that the teachings of Buddha have got some loopholes. They fail to explain some very basic questions that I have mentioned above. The factors that I have reviewed in this paper are an example of the contradictions that arise from Buddha’s beliefs. If I have to criticize his teaching then I have laid down quite a basis to do that. I strongly disagree with his teaching especially on the existence of man as a supreme being and that there is no other supreme being above him. References Charles, F. (2012). The greatness of God. How God is the foundation of all reality truth and love. Bloomington: Cross Books. George, W. (1989). Invisible light or the electrical theory of creation. New York: G. W Dilingham co. Ra?hula, W. (1974). What Buddha taught. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. Stanley, C. F. (2003). God is in control: An unshakable peace in the midst of life's storms. Nashville, Tenn: Countryman. Read More