The Invention of God

In his piece “The Age of Reason,” Thomas Paine tackles a concept that I have personally always wanted to pursue, but could never accurately articulate it. While the rest of the argument he makes in the piece is the most logical and responsible stance on religion I have heard or read in quite some time, the aspect that intrigued me the most was the way he rationalizes the existence of this spirit humans call God. Religion beyond its ritualistic nature was never stressed in my house, so instead of formulating a belief in God, I tended to be more interested in examining how God came to be. I always wondered if the world would be a different place today had someone many years ago not come up with the idea to identify the force that creates all things as God, a spirit that commands our attention and devotion. Paine explains the creation of God perfectly. He writes, “Every man is an evidence to himself that he did not make himself… and it is the conviction arising from this evidence that carries us on, as it were, by necessity, to the belief of a first cause eternally existing, of a nature totally different to any material existence we know of, and by the power of which all things exist; and this first cause, man calls God,” (180). Every man realizes that his existence depends on something greater than himself. This fact urges men to seek answers to the question of creation and why he is here. Long ago, near the birth of humankind, someone chose to call that which allowed human beings to exist God. Since then, people have clamored to appease God because of what we have turned the notion of God into. Rather than God being the name for the energy and matter and process through which we exist, human beings turned God into a mode by which other human beings can be controlled and urged to behave in a favorable manner. The invention of God, Paine argues, was perhaps the most innovative and successful business and method of indoctrination ever invented. To reference a divine, all-knowing power is to win every argument that could ever arise. God can be used to prove anything, which takes the responsibility to behave morally or ethically completely out of the hands of human beings themselves. It is interesting to imagine how easily the concept of God could have never materialized, and where we would be today had it not. I, for one, believe we would be far better off without it.

Religion in the lives of Newton and Bacon

Luminaries Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton share a common characteristic that separates them from other scientists of their time. They both valued a belief in God, or a higher power, despite the movement towards reason and science during the Enlightenment period. Although Francis Bacon founded his work upon reason and evidence through experimentation, he rejected atheism because of his belief that it served as a handicap to philosophy. He is quoted as saying, "It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." Bacon saw that society was turning away from religion because of the lack of God’s presence in philosophy of the time. He argued that the mind of an atheist would eventually lead one to insufficient understanding of individual and social truth.
Sir Isaac Newton took into account the importance of God through more of a numerical approach. His unprecedented advancements in mathematics and mechanics were achieved through his belief that all his science revolves around mathematics and numbers. Newton took this same theory and applied to the Bible. He saw numbers as imperative to understanding God's plan for history through his written word. He worked on biblical numerology and theology, stating that in his system of physics, God is essential to the nature and absoluteness of space. In Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, also known as Principia, he writes that the magnificent arrangement of the solar system could only be the work of a “an intelligent and powerful Being.” He acknowledges that someone is responsible for the way Earth is made, someone with great vision. Newton’s relationship with God varied from Francis Bacon’s, but the acknowledgment of religion in each philosopher’s life left a lasting impact on science during the Enlightenment period.