POWER AND POWERLESSNESS

Albert Einstein expressed a fundamental principle of the physical world in the following statement: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed.”

This phenomenon is evidence of the Creator’s absolute power. Man can only use the present world. He does not have the power to change its fundamental nature, cancel its laws, or destroy it. From this, we also learn about man’s status in the present world. Man in this world does not enjoy the position of a master but, rather, the position of a subordinate. This situation is called a ‘test’ in the language of religion.  Man comes into this world only so that, staying here for a limited period, he can complete ‘writing’ his ‘test paper,’ as it were. After this, he will go away to the world of the Hereafter, where his eternal future will be decided based on his performance in the test he has undergone while he was on Earth. He has no absolute power more than this.

Some people, despairing of the conditions of the world, decide to commit suicide. They think that in this way, they can eliminate themselves. However, this is just not possible. Just as that energy that appears in the form of matter cannot be destroyed, it is impossible to eliminate that energy that has assumed the form of man. It is within the power of man to commit suicide, but to extinguish himself is not within his power. This fact symbolically conveys what man’s situation truly is in this world.

Man has the power to deny the reality of a fact, but to change a fact is not possible for him. Man has the power to rebel against God, but he cannot save himself from the consequences of such an action. Man has the power to refuse to accept moral boundaries, but he cannot eradicate the desirability of morality from the universe. Man has the right to do what he wants, but he does not have the right to give his desires the status of a universal principle according to which the decisions of all people will be made. In this world, man is free, but his freedom is limited.