Man’s quest of 4000 years to know the creator and controller of this universe has been analysed by Keran Armstrong in this
book. A long confrontation between logic and intuition, gathered from the writings of hundreds of intellectuals and theologists during the past has been consolidated in the book. Based on various writings Keran Armstrong, an ex-nun, has examined many conflicting convictions pertaining to the history of one God as under:-
In the beginning, a high God was considered to have created the world that was
believed to be ruling it from afar. This belief remained prominent for centuries. Thereafter, men and women created their god in the shape of various unseen forces associated with sun, stars, sea, wind, silt, horizon etc. Then the great mother, depicted as a pregnant woman by artists known by the names of Inana, Ishar and canan remained important for centuries.
Bible has mentioned Bal, Anat and Asherah as traditional gods of Cannon. The one god of Jews, Christians and Muslims are attributed to Abraham who lead the people of Cannon(Israel) , at the end of third millennium BCE. Abraham’s grand son was Jacob and Jacob’s son had immigrated to Egypt during a famine in Cannon and returned to Canan around 1200BCE. They told that they were enslaved by Egyptians but had been librated by deity called Yahweh, the god of Moses. Biblical account narrating these stories were written down centuries later in the first five books which were later on collated into the final text. Bible does not make it clear as to who is Yahweh.
Yahweh introduced himself dealing with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and told the people of Israel to make a choice between himself and their traditional gods for worshiping. Israelites entered into an agreement with Yahweh to worship Yahweh alone as their God and in return he promised that they would enjoy his protection. If they broke this agreement , he would destroy them. It was, therefore, decided not to worship any gods except Yahweh.
During the period from 800 to 200 BCE ideologies of the people was shifting to intellectual, cultural florescence and development of conscience. Each region developed a distinctive ideology. Taiosm and Confucianism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India and rationalism in Europe. The rationalism of Plato and Aristotle also became important.
In the seventeenth century BCE, Vedas believing in multiple gods emerged in India. Vedas did not explain the origin of life and thus Upanishads known as Vedanta which means end of Vedas appeared by the end of fifth century BCE which believed the whole world as a divine activity of Brahma.
In538 BCE a prince named Siddhartha also known as Budha belonging to Kapalvastu in India left his family and became an ascetic. After a dedicated search of six years he came to the conclusion that gods were not of much use to mankind. He believed that ultimate reality of Nirvana was higher than gods.
Plato (427-346 BCE) believed in the existence of divine beyond the world of senses. He believed that soul, imprisoned in the body was capable of regaining its divine powers by purification of reasoning power of mind.
Aristotle(384-322) insisted that it was not possible for us to see God. But every one could make contribution to its collective understanding. He believed that there was a hierarchy of existences and at the top of hierarchy was Unmoved Mover which we call God.. God was pure thought and there was no material element in God. All the motion activities are caused by Him. He has not created the world and does not guide the world and can make no difference to our lives.
Philo of Alexandria (30BCE-45AD) was another Greek philosopher. He interpreted Yahweh’s visit to Abraham as unbelievable. He insisted that we will never reach God. In 70 AD Rabbis of Jerusalem stated that God was incomprehensible. King David admitted that it was futile to understand him.
Jesus was crucified by Romans in 30 AD. We know very little about Jesus. Account of his life was written after 40 years of his death by which time historical facts were overlaid by mystical elements. Jesus had emphasized that he was a frail human being who will die one day. St. John stated that Jesus was God.
Cappadocians said that God was one and expressed himself in the forms of father, son and spirit (Trinity)when he wanted to reveal himself to the world and believed that our concepts and words for God were inadequate. Denys of Athens agreed with this view in 533.
In 610 Mohammad Abdullah of Mecca said that an angel had appeared to him and given him a command under which scriptures came from his mouth.
The Koran was revealed to Mohammad bit by bit and verse by verse over a period of twenty three years. Mohammad could not read or write, therefore , recited it aloud. Those who were literate wrote it down. Koran preaches that al-Lah is the
creator of world. It suggests decent behaviour with poor and is against the rich. The concept of Koran was rejected by Jews.
A number of scientists, theologists and poets were doubtful of the traditional doctrines.
Newton (1642-1727) stated that planets were carefully disposed through the space with sufficient distance so that internal gravity did not pull them together. He ascribed it as the work of an intelligent agent.