Where and what is God? Always thoughtful conceptual illustration by Anna Godeassi
It is typically the case that all film, photographic material and illustratons always depict man looking into the atmosphere in search of a God.
There is no evidence into the existence of God. As there is no evidence into the existence of God a God is no more likely to be oriented in a proximity above the ground one is standing on than somewhere below on the other side of the planet. If God were situated on the other side of the planet, perhaps man should concentrate his search for God looking at the ground or his shoes. Although if he were to look at the ground, man's view would be obstructed by a considerably large planet that is in the way.
Perhaps God is on another planet somewhere or riding the solar winds of some other star in the Milky Way galaxy. If that is true, man, like SETI, would have to check lots of planets and stars for the existence of God, at least 1,000 per week and continue the search at that rate for over 1,000,000 weeks. For every star in the milky way galaxy there are planets orbiting around approximately half of them, adding up to billions and billions of planets.
The galaxy is pretty large too. It spans 100,000 light years across. In terms of miles that is otherwise five hundred and eighty thousand, trillion miles. Most of the known galaxy is not observable from our solar system. I guess that means if God is attuned to the thoughts and prayers of all of the intelligent creatures in the galaxy, God has to cover a large expanse simultaneously. And what of those billions and billions of galaxies, like our own Milky Way galaxy, that are 13 billion light years away and hurdling away from our galaxy at incomprehensible velocity. Is God fishing for trout on some planet over there?
Alternatively, you could accept as I do that the existence of God is very, very unlikely.
On this point I agree with Sir Richard Dawkins that the belief in God and the after life cheapens the human experience. It is cosmically so unlikely that we exist, that we think, that we can see and hear and communicate with each other. The chances of that happening, of you being you are so remote yet it happens. You have this short existence in relation to the age of the universe to experience all that your senses can devour.
Perhaps you should make the most of it and discard all that precious time towards the bleak prospects of a supposed after life or the bleak prospects of there being a God.
In the time it takes to comtemplate God or pray you could be enjoying the sights and sounds and tastes that exist in the here and now.