In the history of human thought, rarely has a question provoked as much debate, bloodshed, and worship as the question of God.
From the moment the human being lifted his eyes to the sky and asked:
"Who am I? And where did I come from?",the history of consciousness began,and with it began the story of the deity.
But this story was never exclusive to faith,nor was it exclusive to atheism;
it is the story of the human himself when he confronted the unknown, gave it a symbol,and called it "God."
The believing reader will recoil when he assumes that the book diminishes the sanctity of his Creator,and the atheist will rejoice when he sees in it evidence of the human origin of the idea of God.
But the writer of these pages like the sincere seeker does not aim to please this side or sadden that side,for truth does not take sides.
What we attempt here is neither affirmation nor denial, but a deep understanding of the primordial origin from which the idea of God emerged in the human mind,religion in his conscience,and the human being in his awareness of himself and his distinction from other creatures.
History has taught us that religion was not merely a ritualistic system,but cognitive structure that reshaped the human relationship with the universe,death, and time.And science has taught us that faith may be, in some of its aspects, a biological and psychological necessitythat preserves the human's inner balance in the face of the terror of annihilation.
Between these two poles,this book stands to pose the question anew
not in the spirit of challenge,but in the spirit of inquiry:
Did God create the human being, teach him language,and guide him to Him?Or was it the human who created God and projected upon Him his own attributes to protect himself from the void of existence?
In the coming chapters, we will examine evidence and indications, from mythology to neuroscience,and from philosophy to physics.
We will present to the reader what the believers have said and what the deniers have observed,then attempt as far as our limited minds allow to reach a meeting point that may end this eternal debate or redefine it.
If God created the human being,then perhaps He intended him to question Him.And if the human created God,then perhaps he was searching within Him for himself.
