The arguments of Mr. Raju Mathew in favour of a single god are interesting. He seems to imply that humans have invented a need based single god so that one authority can be in control of the universe. Mathew could have added that we need a single emperor (shall we call him Khalifa?) who can be in control of the whole world and stop all fights between different countries. Once we have installed such an emperor we could tell our children that all countries and their inhabitants were created by the emperor! However, there will be two minor problems. First, historical experience tells that emperors, even when they controlled less extensive and complex empires than the whole world, were unsuccessful in either stopping inter- or intra-group violent conflicts between different subject groups or in satisfying multiple aspirations otherwise. That is why most empires were destroyed by internal conflicts and dissatisfactions. In contrast, democracies with no single individual in permanent control have a relatively better, though not a perfect, record both in keeping peace and in otherwise giving more satisfying life experience to their citizens. Second, there will be something dishonest in calling an emperor installed by us as the creator of all the peoples and nations under his control. What can be said of our experience with the various emperors can be verbatim extended to our experience with the various single gods. Moreover, each of these single gods seems to be extremely jealous of other single gods and cause as much disharmony between their respective followers as the multiple gods that some other human groups have invented. If at all, the multiple gods would have an advantage in that the groups accepting the existence are likely to less intolerant of the followers of a different god than their own. Of course, there is a major problem in the belief in multiple gods: there is as little evidence to support the existence of multiple gods as for the various versions of monotheisms. They are all imagined entities and none deserves the loyalty to justify conflict with other humans.
Suresh Mahajan
