Who invented God and is it a reflection of man's avoidance of responsibility?

Who invented god? Was it man simply not wanting to take responsibility for his own life? Is not the priest as much a victim of his own fear of looking inside as anyone else?

Fear invented God. The priest is as much a victim as you are. But he is more cunning than you are. Man's fear of darkness, man's fear of sickness, man's fear of old age, man's fear of death needed somebody to protect him. He could not find any protection anywhere. When you can't find any protection anywhere you have to invent one, as a consolation. Just today I was listening to a song of one of the great Urdu poets, Mirza Ghalib. A sentence says: <q>HAMKO MALOOM HAI JANNAT KI HAKIKAT LEKIN DIL KE BAHLANE KO GHALIB KHAYAL ACHCHHA HAI.</q> We know perfectly well the truth about your paradise, but it is good as a consolation. We know it is not there, we know it is a lie, but to console yourself that after death angels will be there waiting, playing on their harps, "Alleluia," that receiving you at the…

Question: OSHO, DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST? If there is a God who has created the world, then nobody is responsible except Him. And to whom can He be responsible? -- there is nobody above Him. You are not responsible because He has created you. He is not responsible because there is nobody else to whom He can be responsible. God means the world loses all responsibility, and responsibility is the very center of your life. Then you can play the role, but you are not there, only promptings; whether given from the outside, from behind the curtain, or whether given from the inside through the hormones, through biology, physiology, psychology doesn't matter. You are only a collection of promptings, and you are just following them. It takes all dignity from man totally. It reduces you to a puppet.

Beloved Osho, you say there is no god. Can you explain why man has ventured into the spiritual realm in search of god?

Mind is part of the society. It is not part of existence. Hence, it needs a society for its growth. The better established the society, the more proficiently the mind grows. The question of God arose in the very beginning, perhaps ten thousand years ago, because in the Rig Veda -- the oldest scripture in the world -- one of the most important statements occurs. And that statement is, "We do not know who created the world. We do not know whether anybody created it or not." This must be in the very beginning when man starts the first stirrings of thought: "Who created the world? We do not know." Yes, the theologian has not appeared yet; the man with the answer has not appeared yet. He comes very soon, he is not far away. Once you ask, "We do not know who created the world," the cunning man amongst…

Osho, you say god is not a hypothesis nor an idea. Then what is god? Has anyone ever met god or not?

It was left to be proved by another Indian, Jagdishchandra Bose, who devoted his whole life to finding scientifically whether Buddha and Mahavira were right or wrong. And he conclusively proved that trees are alive. He was given a Nobel prize for proving trees to be alive. But that was only the beginning. Then more and more researchers went into it. Just to be alive is not enough. Soon it was found that they have a different kind of brain system, but they do have one. You should not look for the same brain as you have. This is a stupid human idea, that your brain is the only kind of brain. If there can be so many kinds of bodies why can't it be that there can be so many kinds of brain? And soon it was found that they have a certain kind of brain system, and things…

Osho, alan watts once described the universe by saying, "it is as if god is playing a game." if there is no god, who is playing and what is the game?

The Master said, "That is the first requirement, that time is not binding. I cannot say how much time it will take -- one year, two years, ten years, fifty years -- nothing can be said about it. It all depends on you, on how quick you learn. I will try my best because I am old, I am also in a hurry. I was not going to accept another disciple, but if the king sends you -- he is my old friend, we both were under the same Master learning meditation -- I cannot refuse you. Your training starts from now." The prince asked, "What do I have to do?" The old Master said, "You have not to do anything except just ordinary things: cleaning, cooking, drawing the water from the well, cutting wood. But remember one thing, I can hit you any time from behind, so remain alert.…