Title: The Concept of God
Author: Vinoth
Publisher: Notion Press
Genre: Religion & Spirituality, Non-fiction
First Publication: 2020
Language: English
Book Summary: The Concept of God by Vinoth
God – the supernatural being, the perfect, the omnipotent and the omniscient originator, and ruler of the universe – is the object of worship in almost all religions across the world. Usually, people understand God through the religions they’re born in. This way, they get to learn how and why their Gods created reality and put them in it.
But is this the only possible way to understand the entity?
What if one takes an alternate route to understand God? What if one first understands the reality God created – the reality that everything and everyone’s a part of – and then identifies the entity itself? Reality includes everything around and inside it, and inevitably includes us. Understanding the reality requires a metaphysical analysis of life and the universe and metaphysics reaches an incredibly new level if the knowledge of the Western sciences is merged with the everlasting ideas of the Eastern spiritual philosophies!
With multiple perspectives making the reader constantly inquisitive, The Concept of ‘God’ merges the knowledge of science and spirituality to understand the nature of life and reality and then finds out who the all-powerful God is!
Book Review: The Concept of God by Vinoth
The concept of God is more related to divine timelessness. While there are a number of questions, they all seem to relate to one basic issue. How does a timeless God relate to and interact with a temporal world? In The Concept of God, author Vinoth considers different variants of this question and possible answers. I am tempted to describe this book as “everything you never thought to ask before uncritically accepting an attribute of God,” but that would not be accurate. Author Vinoth clearly states that he is merely summarizing certain philosophical questions.
One of the more intriguing aspects considered in the book is omniscience and its relationship to human free will. If God knows what I will do in the future, do I have the freedom to choose to do something else? Different philosophers have approached this question from various angles: God’s relationship to time, redefinition of human freedom to something consistent with determinism, modal logic, etc. Author Vinoth discusses various proposed solutions to the problem, and it appears that he settles on some kind of modal logic solution. The discussion about omniscience and human freedom contains a lot of interesting information.
There are two main reasons I think it’s worthwhile to read this book, no matter where you’re at in terms of belief. One, it exposes how our belief systems cater in part to our emotional, existential and social needs as much as to our rational capabilities. Thus, we should be wary and sceptical of any claims to absolute truth, not just religion’s. Two, it does this without succumbing to dogmatic faux pas or ideological arrogance. Instead, author Vinoth does an excellent job showing how faith makes enough logical sense to not be discounted outright.
There are many features of Vinoth’s writing that makes this book, The Concept of God, worth your time: clarity of argument, deep knowledge of the belief systems he interacts with, a smattering of powerful illustrations and quotations, and a compelling presentation of the God who provides realistic and compelling answers to life’s issues. Vinoth’s writing both feeds the intellect and stirs the soul.
