A Debate Like 'Does God Exist' Is Not Just Futile, It's Fatuous
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
25 December 2025
The recent debate between Javed Akhtar and Mufti Shamail Nadwi sparked huge interest, but the real question is not who won, but the political and social meaning behind such discussions.
The debate on the existence of God between poet Javed Akhtar and Islamic scholar Mufti Shamail Nadwi has received over 10 million views on the YouTube channels of Lallantop and Mufti Shamail Nadwi combined, and it continues to dominate discussions among certain sections of social media.
Now the point is: What's the relevance of such perennially inconclusive debates? Can we afford to have such philosophically and metaphysically vague debates at this juncture? Isn't it a luxury enjoyed by those living in ivory towers and are well-fed and well-heeled? Whether or not god does exist is always a fashionable debate. Humans have not been able to prove or disprove the existence of god. That 'scholars' are debating over a subject which is so obscure and nebulous that it has no end shows that we hold this type of a debate just for the hell of it. Our very debates on god's existence or non-existence are ontological proofs that somewhere in the subconscious and unconscious of even an atheist, there's an atom of faith in god's existence!
More than the question of god's existence, it's of paramount importance to understand that god is part of human evolution. Call it a remnant or vestige of faith, god does exist unknowingly even in the consciousness of an atheist. Otherwise, how'll you account for Javed Akhtar or Richard Dawkins constantly trying to prove its non-existence? God is part of human consciousness. Your conscious self may discard it but your subconscious and unconscious selves still have a skerrick of belief in god's existence! You cannot deny the human evolutionary process. Logically and rationally, god really doesn't exist. It's non-existent. But god is a matter of faith and faith is mankind's inexorable fate. On the evolutionary template of the human mind, the idea of god has always existed and almost permanently inscribed.
You've to be the Buddha, who went beyond the existence and non-existence of god and was recorded history's first Apatheist (one who has gone beyond theism and atheism).
Read Ashvaghosh's 'Buddhacharita,' an epic poem in the Sanskrit mahakavya (epic) style on the life of Gautama Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa of Sāketa, composed in the early second century CE. Ashvghosh used the word iish-parangmukh (insouciant to god) for Gautam Buddha. If Sanskrit is an Achilles' heel for you, read E H Johnston's 'Asvghosa's Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha.'
Buddha was an absolute atheist- in fact, he went beyond that and never cared for god- but he didn't flaunt his atheism like today's fashionable, militant and armchair atheists like Sam Harris, Dawkins, Javed Akhtar, among others. This is a futile and unyielding debate that leads you nowhere.
I listened to Akhtar and Nadwi's lukewarm debate. Young Nadwi was full of laffazi (verbosity) and was using laughable logic that had Islamic stamp on it and Javed came a bit unprepared as he just repeated what he said earlier in numerous debates. His logic was also threadbare.
Once we all reach the ultimate in the evolutionary process, we all will automatically stop discussing whether or not god does exist. Since we're still collectively foolish and woefully unenlightened, we indulge in such debates that remain inconclusive till the end.
Be a Buddha and go beyond theism and atheism and become a human sans any religious faith and esoteric belief. But how many of us can have the potential to become a Buddha? We're fighting in the name of religion; we're killing our brethren because they believe in some other god; we're creating bad-blood because we think that we're religiously superior to others and our god is the only god or our 'revelation' is the final revelation and our Book is the Book of absolute truths; Muhammad was the last Prophet and Allah will not send any more Prophet to guide the people of the world; Jesus will come again etc. Ridiculous, to say the least. In such a chaotically unevolved scenario, how can enlightenment dawn on humankind?
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/debate-god-exists-futile-/d/138152
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