God's motive

[BuffaloEmperor]

I'm with you on this one. How is it possible for the universe to have always existed or have a beginning?

We can't comprehend infinity, and any mathematician that says they can or ever will is lying. Saying the universe just appeared is as stupid as saying everything in the bible happened.

It all had to start somewhere. So it's "magic", some super science stuff, or some supreme being. Whicheverone is true, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to come close to understanding it.

Its crazy man. Some ppl posted great responses to my post. I can't understand it all. As they say I guess it's above my pay grade

 

[TewPoint0]

Without us he's not a god. It's kinda like a tree falling in the forrest...

I'm guessing he has a huge ego.

But there's no sky daddy. So it's just hypothetical.

 

[Plissken]

First mistake is trying to ascribe anthropomorphic and human concepts like motives to something that would be so far beyond such things.

 

[Cygnus A]

"mysterious ways..."

 

[sleepwalk]

Here are some of the ones I had in mind earlier. In some sense only tangentially related, but there are some interesting ideas presented, to say the least. The Philosopher's Stone is particularly good because it relies on real-world cases to build a theoretical model which could explain or could allow the alchemical process. The second book is more philosophical/esoteric/spiritual and not really subject to scientific evaluation at this point.
[/I].

Thanks for the recommendations.
"How To Think About God" is Adler, one of the most prolific philosophers of the 20th century with a an impressive body of work on religion. I'm also interested in his "Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religion and the Unity of Truth", just by title alone.

The other two I mentioned are more thought experiments such as this thread rather than theology/theology. Eagleman is a neuroscientist and somewhat rival of Sam Harris. Adams is the creator of the comic strip "Dilbert."

 

[MortalWombat]

He wanted to laugh at atheists.

 

[Strychnine]

God's thoughts are beyond our thoughts and his ways are beyond our ways.

 

[Shokushu Goukan]

Without us he's not a god. It's kinda like a tree falling in the forrest...

I'm guessing he has a huge ego.

But there's no sky daddy. So it's just hypothetical.

Wow, I think you won dumbest post on this thread which is saying a lot. Kudos.

Also, any Christian apologetic would agree with your statement "there's no sky daddy"
but I guess they would agree with anything you say about your version of God not existing. Because that is how ignorant your view is. Your view on God is so ignorant that a Catholic priest would wholeheartedly agree that he would not believe in what you call God either.

 

[Spoken]

Not saying I "believe" this necessarily, and I definitely don't think Yahweh or anything like it is what I'm talking about, but here's my model:

"God" is a completely self-contained entity; not physically manifest, but in it containing the seed of all things that could be potentially manifest. A perfect being, timeless and complete- yet empty. Why empty? Because it cannot do anything but contemplate itself. There is no movement, no entropy, no creation, no destruction.
The solution? Project itself into (abstract) space, and divide itself so that each part can interact with each other part. This is the beginning of creation, and it is also generating "information". Think of it like god is A...then divides itself into A1, A2. A1 and A2 interact to generate A3, etc. They all share a common essence, yet are different. This process continues indefinitely and eventually can become almost infinitely complex (like our Universe). This is also the beginning of 'time'. It would be silly to guess the ultimate purpose of this exercise, since our minds are far inferior to this hypothetical 'One', but my guess is that this is how it "grows", or evolves in it's own right.

I could recommend you some interesting reads on the topic. Totally non-religious btw.

Classic Christianity would call this modalism and open theism. God creates because God is incomplete--he becomes more God because of his creation of finitude, which means he also perpetuates suffering, death, and sorrow to become more fully himself. God is the ontological grounds of all great tragedy.

Classical Christianity would rather use trinitarian ontology, which upholds gods oneness and yet openness to something "other than himself." This avoids the fallacy of a God that is self contained or contingent on finitude, while making sense of christ's existence and that of the holly spirit.

Anyway, I think God, being a self contained deity, created out of love, similar to out an artist exists independently of her painting. I suppose the difference would be the creative idea is withheld eternally as opposed to random bursts of creativity. It's tough because why humanity exists isn't the first question Christianity tries to deal with. There is a whole lot to buy into before one can take seriously various Christian arguments.

 

[Slick_36]

Spoken!!!

 

[Quinton Overeem]

Shokusho, of course I am glad to live. The question is why does he create a world in which things die and in which there is evil? I'm not whining just curious as to his motives. I understand the Bible very well but I don't believe he ever explains why he lets the devil off of his leash.

How can you know Good is Good if you don't know what Evil is?
How can you truly choose God, if you don't have any other choice?

 

[Joe]

Why are you living when you are going to die? Why do people have babies even thought both the parents and the baby will die? Why build a house when it will eventually be no more? Why vote for a president when the sun will eventually eat the Earth?

See why your logic is shit, yet?

because i like living, its a whole lot better than being dead. i dont know why people would have babies. that shit sucks. because its cold outside? because i like having my voice heard? these questions were easy to answer. answer why there is a universe then now that ive answered your questions.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Classic Christianity would call this modalism and open theism. God creates because God is incomplete--he becomes more God because of his creation of finitude, which means he also perpetuates suffering, death, and sorrow to become more fully himself. God is the ontological grounds of all great tragedy.

Classical Christianity would rather use trinitarian ontology, which upholds gods oneness and yet openness to something "other than himself." This avoids the fallacy of a God that is self contained or contingent on finitude, while making sense of christ's existence and that of the holly spirit.

Anyway, I think God, being a self contained deity, created out of love, similar to out an artist exists independently of her painting. I suppose the difference would be the creative idea is withheld eternally as opposed to random bursts of creativity. It's tough because why humanity exists isn't the first question Christianity tries to deal with. There is a whole lot to buy into before one can take seriously various Christian arguments.

I love this post. It's beautiful.

 

[ripskater]

Does he love the ones burning in hell too?

God doesn't want to see any of us burning in hell. That is why he sent his son Jesus to pay the price for our sins. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. We all deserve hell for our sins. We are sinful and cannot be in the presence of God when we die because of our sins. But Jesus changed all that.

We have a choice. You have a choice and an opportunity to have your sins covered and the fine paid for by Jesus Christ. Will you make that choice? It is up to you. And it's up to everyone here reading this thread right now. What choice will you make?

 

[ShadBo]

I think the first thing this thread needs to do is specify which god we're talking about. There are 10,000 known variants of god in our recorded history.

The chance that ripskater's god, who approves of rape, slavery, human sacrifice and teaches the totally immoral idea of vicarious redemption is .0001.

It is clearly the case that humans made many gods in their own image. It's the only thing that makes sense when you consider the sheer number of gods, their mutually exclusive nature, and the fact that despite how devoted their followers were, died natural deaths. The same natural death every single thing that has ever been will face.

 

[A Pennysworth]

His wife nagged him for 6 months to fix the toilet. And that's how the universe is created.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

I think the first thing this thread needs to do is specify which god we're talking about. There are 10,000 known variants of god in our recorded history.

The chance that ripskater's god, who approves of rape, slavery, human sacrifice and teaches the totally immoral idea of vicarious redemption is .0001.

It is clearly the case that humans made many gods in their own image. It's the only thing that makes sense when you consider the sheer number of gods, their mutually exclusive nature, and the fact that despite how devoted their followers were, died natural deaths. The same natural death every single thing that has ever been will face.

You pick the God. Or invent your own. Be as creative as you'd like.

 

[ripskater]

I think the first thing this thread needs to do is specify which god we're talking about. There are 10,000 known variants of god in our recorded history.

The chance that ripskater's god, who approves of rape, slavery, human sacrifice and teaches the totally immoral idea of vicarious redemption is .0001.

It is clearly the case that humans made many gods in their own image. It's the only thing that makes sense when you consider the sheer number of gods, their mutually exclusive nature, and the fact that despite how devoted their followers were, died natural deaths. The same natural death every single thing that has ever been will face.

There are probably thousands of wanna be gods. There are many demons and many fallen angels that want your worship. But I would go with the only God who conquered death. His name is Jesus Christ. Next time he comes back, he's coming back with an army and some things are gonna get wrecked up. So I recommend that people get on his side.

 

[Slick_36]

There are probably thousands of wanna be gods. There are many demons and many fallen angels that want your worship. But I would go with the only God who conquered death. His name is Jesus Christ. Next time he comes back, he's coming back with an army and some things are gonna get wrecked up. So I recommend that people get on his side.

Again man, you're evangelizing with threats that, you better get with JC or else. Is that what He taught you? I know it's the way most of us were taught, but it's wrong and it only breeds more hate and misunderstanding for Jesus.

 

[LEWIS540]

I think the first thing this thread needs to do is specify which god we're talking about. There are 10,000 known variants of god in our recorded history.

The chance that ripskater's god, who approves of rape, slavery, human sacrifice and teaches the totally immoral idea of vicarious redemption is .0001.

It is clearly the case that humans made many gods in their own image. It's the only thing that makes sense when you consider the sheer number of gods, their mutually exclusive nature, and the fact that despite how devoted their followers were, died natural deaths. The same natural death every single thing that has ever been will face.

There are probably thousands of wanna be gods. There are many demons and many fallen angels that want your worship. But I would go with the only God who conquered death. His name is Jesus Christ. Next time he comes back, he's coming back with an army and some things are gonna get wrecked up. So I recommend that people get on his side.

You're basically an atheist as well.

Say there is 10,000 known Gods. Sane people don't believe in 10,000 of them, you don't believe in 9,999 of them.....so really close. You are only 0.001% off.

If you were born in India to Indian parents, there is a 99% chance you wouldn't believe in the Christian God.