{"id":667783,"date":"2026-10-22T23:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/?p=667783"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:25:17","slug":"the-universe-the-big-bang-and-the-cosmic-soul-a-philosophical-reflection-on-god-science-and-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/667783\/","title":{"rendered":"The Universe, the Big Bang, and the Cosmic Soul: A Philosophical Reflection on God, Science, and Atheism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The late, distinguished scientific genius Stephen Hawking stated that the Big Bang occurred because of three fundamental elements: matter, energy, and time. He explained this through an analogy involving the preparation of a cup of tea. Just as tea is made by combining tea leaves, milk, and hot water, the Big Bang occurred entirely in accordance with the laws of nature. Therefore, according to Hawking, there was no need or possibility for God to play a role in the process.<\/div>\n
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Even if we accept his argument about how the Big Bang occurred, an important question remains unanswered: Was the Big Bang truly the origin of the universe?<\/p>\n

The reason for this question is that, at the point where the Big Bang occurred, there was already an inexplicable phenomenon known as a singularity, in which everything was concentrated into a single state. There was also space capable of accommodating an enormous expansion.<\/p>\n

Science itself tells us that space is the domain through which cosmic rays travel. Furthermore, we do not know whether the energy involved in the Big Bang existed beforehand or came into existence at that very moment.<\/p>\n

Consider the tea analogy again. Tea cannot be prepared if the milk, tea leaves, and hot water remain separate. Similarly, merely having matter, energy, and time independently would not produce the “tea” of the Big Bang. There must also be a process that brings these elements together in the appropriate proportions.<\/p>\n

Just as the preparation of tea requires an intention or thought that precedes the tea itself, the question of whether some organizing intelligence was necessary for the Big Bang becomes relevant.<\/p>\n

Science itself acknowledges the existence of certain conditions associated with the Big Bang, raising doubts about the assertion that nothing existed before it.<\/p>\n

Could the Big Bang, therefore, have been merely an expansion that occurred in one particular region of a much greater universe?<\/p>\n

Could it be that our science has arrived at an age of approximately 13.8 billion years simply by measuring the light that has reached us from that expansion?<\/p>\n

In other words, if the universe existed even before the Big Bang, would it not also be reasonable to suggest that light originating from those earlier regions has simply not yet reached our eyes?<\/p>\n

If nature is a canvas, that canvas has its own rules.<\/p>\n

One rule is that a painting must be created using the bristles of a brush rather than an axe. Another is that properly prepared paints, rather than ordinary water, must be used to produce a picture.<\/p>\n

Stephen Hawking is correct in saying that paintings can be created on the canvas only by following the rules applicable to it.<\/p>\n

However, even Hawking cannot claim that the canvas itself created those rules, can he?<\/p>\n

Would it not be reasonable to conclude that the system responsible for creating the canvas also established the rules appropriate to its capabilities?<\/p>\n

If the argument is that everything happened purely by chance, then another question arises.<\/p>\n

Was it also purely accidental that the singularity, the space necessary for expansion, matter, and energy were all present and arranged as though preparations had already been made for the great expansion?<\/p>\n

If your own existence were entirely accidental, would that not be equivalent to claiming that the reality of your parents and the genetic components known as DNA within you also came into existence purely by chance?<\/p>\n

Would you then be willing to admit that even the food you ate today reached your stomach accidentally, without any involvement on your part?<\/p>\n

Here in America, a person known as an atheist says that he experiences an extraordinarily pure and powerful presence within himself.<\/p>\n

However, he admits that he does not know what it is.<\/p>\n

He invites others to join him in investigating the nature of this mysterious presence.<\/p>\n

I believe that those who have already experienced and understood what it is have no need for further investigation. Therefore, he should conduct his search with others who, like him, have not yet discovered its true nature.<\/p>\n

A gentleman regarded as the leader of atheists in Kerala has narrated the story of how he became an atheist.<\/p>\n

He tells this story before an audience sitting with their chins resting on their hands, resembling honeybees that have lost their hives and become isolated.<\/p>\n

Anyone listening to his account would find it so ridiculous that even a donkey might burst into uncontrollable laughter.<\/p>\n

According to his story, when he was a child, he survived a school bus accident without even a scratch, although one person died and several others were injured.<\/p>\n

Believing that God had protected and saved him, he began regularly visiting churches and temples, offering prayers and making religious offerings.<\/p>\n

One day, while praying at a temple, he recited a verse from the Ramayana concerning the killing of Vali by Lord Rama.<\/p>\n

A drunken man who heard the boy reciting the verse apparently mocked him mercilessly.<\/p>\n

“Are you praising someone who killed another person while hiding from him?” the drunkard reportedly asked.<\/p>\n

The criticism embarrassed our learned gentleman so deeply that he began questioning his beliefs.<\/p>\n

Gradually, by revising one belief after another, he eventually became the complete atheist we see today.<\/p>\n

The audience, sitting there like castrated bulls, offered no response.<\/p>\n

That is understandable. Their capacity for independent thought appears to have been similarly disabled. Otherwise, why would they sit before such intellectuals without even bothering to pull the weeds growing in their own courtyards?<\/p>\n

However, ordinary people like me have questions.<\/p>\n

My question to this gentleman is this:<\/p>\n

Was it not because the real God\u2014whom we may identify as life, soul, intelligence, or consciousness\u2014was actively present within you that you were able to recognize the emptiness of the divinity religious traditions had attached to two characters created by human imagination?<\/p>\n

Those characters may or may not have had historical connections.<\/p>\n

Even if they were real human beings, it may have been their followers who elevated them to the status of gods and installed their images in temples.<\/p>\n

Even today, there are people in Tamil Nadu who construct temples to beautiful film actresses and worship them.<\/p>\n

Does the fact that others worship such individuals mean that you must worship them too?<\/p>\n

Whether you choose to do so is entirely your decision.<\/p>\n

Atheists who present themselves as representatives of scientifically established truths should not rely on Rama, Vali, Jehovah, or Allah as the principal targets of their arguments.<\/p>\n

Instead, they should present scientists and the truths those scientists have demonstrated.<\/p>\n

Of course, that requires considerable effort.<\/p>\n

Even scientific explanations may remain incomplete, with gaps and unresolved questions.<\/p>\n

Treating such characters as God, the Cosmic Soul of the universe, is itself a sign of intellectual poverty.<\/p>\n

Our religious institutions have become enormous marketplaces filled with gods created by human imagination.<\/p>\n

If you are deceived into purchasing the religious commodities being bargained over and sold in those marketplaces, the responsibility is yours.<\/p>\n

God has no need for your money, fruits, milk, ghee, coconuts, or sacrificial animals.<\/p>\n

Someone standing between you and God is cleverly taking these things away from you.<\/p>\n

As the American atheist has experienced within himself, God is the universal consciousness or cosmic energy.<\/p>\n

God is the embodiment of the powers and beauty that permeate the entire universe.<\/p>\n

God is the eternal truth of the microcosm that introduces the physical body\u2014a fragment of the macrocosm\u2014to itself and to its surroundings.<\/p>\n

That light of awareness, which we experience as our present state of consciousness, should be preserved without allowing it to be extinguished.<\/p>\n

Make every effort within your ability to keep that flame burning.<\/p>\n

That may be the form of worship through which you can attain peace of mind.<\/p>\n

Your problems began when you imagined God to be someone like yourself\u2014a person with hands and legs, walking around and smoking cigarettes.<\/p>\n

The authors of various religious scriptures could rise only to the level of understanding available to them.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they could not go beyond that because they, too, were merely ordinary, helpless human beings.<\/p>\n

My dear people, however much you develop your brains, you will never be able to contain within them the immense phenomenon called God.<\/p>\n

God is the cause of the great universe, as vast as the universe itself\u2014the Universal Mind and the Cosmic Soul.<\/p>\n

This applies equally to Stephen Hawking and to you, the person reading these words.<\/p>\n

In its tiny cracks and crevices, there may be colonies of little ants enjoying abundant sunlight and a pleasantly moderate climate, living happily and celebrating their existence.<\/p>\n

Those ants may never have seen the house in its entirety.<\/p>\n

More importantly, they may not even know that you, a human being, worked hard to build it.<\/p>\n

Suppose someone like me tells them about your existence, and they decide to make an effort to see you.<\/p>\n

Even then, their tiny eyes may be incapable of perceiving your entire form.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they would see only a small portion of your shadow.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they would sense only a slight vibration caused by your movements.<\/p>\n

Before declaring that your existence is impossible, would it not have been wiser for those supposedly knowledgeable little ants to think a little more carefully?<\/p>\n

That is my humble opinion.<\/p>\n

Modern science has developed many of its newer theories on the foundations of discoveries made by Albert Einstein during the early decades of the twentieth century, including his Special Theory of Relativity.<\/p>\n

Many conclusions in cosmology have been built upon Einstein’s scientific findings.<\/p>\n

For more than a century, these discoveries have remained among the most widely accepted principles of human scientific understanding.<\/p>\n

However, a scientist from Kerala has come forward with the argument that some of these established findings contain errors.<\/p>\n

That scientist is Professor C. S. Unnikrishnan, who conducted research at the Tata Institute in India.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because he carried out his research while maintaining the simple lifestyle of an ordinary person, the glamorous scientific establishment has not given his discoveries the recognition they deserve.<\/p>\n

After all, in almost every field, we seem to have a habit of ridiculing and suppressing anyone who rises above us.<\/p>\n

Professor Unnikrishnan has expressed his pain over the fact that, even at the Tata Institute, he was allegedly denied opportunities that rightfully belonged to him because of his significant scientific discoveries.<\/p>\n

(Please watch the interview conducted with him by Akhila Nandakumar on Asianet.)<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he is not prepared to surrender.<\/p>\n

He has already published the results of his research in two books.<\/p>\n

Because he devoted a substantial portion of his life to scientific research, he did not have sufficient opportunities to publicize his findings.<\/p>\n

Nor had he cultivated a flock of media birds ready to swoop down and carry away whatever researchers regurgitated from the backrooms of scientific laboratories.<\/p>\n

Now he is stepping forward on his own.<\/p>\n

His determination is to compel the scientific community, sooner or later, to acknowledge his corrections and establish that several of Einstein’s findings were incorrect.<\/p>\n

The question of what is right and what is wrong still remains, in a sense, a matter of relativity beyond our reach.<\/p>\n

If those who believe that the universe is the result of pure chance find inner peace through that belief, let them enjoy it.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there are others who experience the immense spiritual richness of self-realization.<\/p>\n

They recognize that the present state of consciousness, which exists within you and me as fragments of the universe and makes us aware of our own existence, must also exist in a corresponding form within the universe from which we emerged.<\/p>\n

If such people find profound spiritual fulfillment in that realization, let them enjoy it as well.<\/p>\n

Is that not what democracy is all about?<\/p>\n

Just as your soul\u2014whether you call it life, consciousness, or mind\u2014functions within you, is it not possible that the Universal Mind, the Cosmic Soul, is continuously functioning throughout the universe?<\/p>\n

Could that not be the ultimate truth?<\/p>\n

Your tiny eyes and the limited measuring instruments of your knowledge may never be sufficient to discover, measure, or fully comprehend such a vast reality.<\/p>\n

Therefore, would it not be wiser and safer to avoid undertaking such an enormous intellectual adventure without first developing a deeper philosophical awareness?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The late, distinguished scientific genius Stephen Hawking stated that the Big Bang occurred because of three fundamental elements: matter, energy, and time. He explained this through an analogy involving the preparation of a cup of tea. Just as tea is made by combining tea leaves, milk, and hot water, the Big Bang occurred entirely in accordance with the laws of nature. Therefore, according to Hawking, there was no need or possibility for God to play a role in the process. Even if we accept his argument about how the Big…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":667784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667786,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667783\/revisions\/667786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}