Spirituality What are God's motivations?

[Blobbenstein]

I thought suffering was a product of the fall.

I thought of the idea of bad things happening as a permutation of the things that are possible. All those bad things that could happen, just by permutation, upset God, or whatever, and manifest in the being that became the Devil. The Devil represents the knowledge of evil....and then all the Adam and Eve stuff in a higher dimension, that I went on about earlier.

Maybe pain itself, is, even at a simple physical level like cutting a finger, is a pain that springs from the fall.......

I just invent my own doctrine.

 

[Mischief]

Even if it were true that humankind brought suffering upon itself through the fall, it's hardly just to make countless generations suffer for it. Even less just is the fact that the worst suffering has been inflicted on species other than humans.

As I said before, God, if he exists, is much less than admirable.

 

[Poppy]

Free-will seems like this huge "gotcha" that only a very mean God would invent.

 

[yakherder]

Assuming god exists, what is his modus operandi?

Boredom and curiosity. Like when I was a naughty 9 year old and I'd put a bunch of spiders and centipedes and stuff in a big jar and watch them kill each other. God is like a much larger scale version of the 9 year old me.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I have wondered about boredom...If God sat in a room on his own for billions of years, with only one book to read, that he wrote himself, then he might get bored after a while....but starting up life is just gonna cause problems, but what's he supposed to do?

 

[Second Summer]

A human would get bored, but would a god get bored? The gods of the Norse, the Anglo-Saxons, the Romans and the Greeks - yes. The god of the Old Testament - perhaps. But the way the Christian god is portrayed these days, I doubt it.

 

[Blobbenstein]

A human would get bored, but would a god get bored? The gods of the Norse, the Anglo-Saxons, the Romans and the Greeks - yes. The god of the Old Testament - perhaps. But the way the Christian god is portrayed these days, I doubt it.

what would God do on his own?

I think by creating life, or having life, eventually leads to things going wrong, for some of that life.


What do you think of my permutation idea? That assuming God knows everything, then he knows all the permutations of events that are possible, some of which are quite bad, and this constitutes the knowledge of evil. How would a loving god deal with this knowledge? Was the devil the fall guy for this knowledge; was the devil the part of God that had this knowledge, which corrupted him, and he had to be forced out?

 

[Second Summer]

what would God do on his own?

I think by creating life, or having life, eventually leads to things going wrong, for some of that life.


What do you think of my permutation idea? That assuming God knows everything, then he knows all the permutations of events that are possible, some of which are quite bad, and this constitutes the knowledge of evil. How would a loving god deal with this knowledge? Was the devil the fall guy for this knowledge; was the devil the part of God that had this knowledge, which corrupted him, and he had to be forced out?

To do good requires knowledge of what is good. But to truly know what is good, one must also know what is evil. In any case, someone who is omniscient, or has the amount and type of knowledge required by a god, would need to know about both good and evil. Even a child knows these basic concept, so why not a god? But I don't think having knowledge of evil constitutes a corruption of one's mind or soul.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I didn't say constituted, just that it could lead to it...I mean if you knew ever single evil thing that could be.

 

[Blobbenstein]

and not just intellectually know it, but emotionally, as well.

 

[beancounter]

I don't know if a god could get borded, but given how big the universe is, there is probably plenty going on to keep him from going bored.

It's true that the majority of people generally agree as to what is good and eveil, but those are still relative concepts.

 

[Blobbenstein]

The Universe might be big, but surely the astronomical processes etc would be mind bogglingly mundane for someone like God....bit like watching paint dry, if you're the sort of person who knows pi to the last place.......life is where it's at....even just from a soap opera point of view, surely?

 

[beancounter]

The Universe might be big, but surely the astronomical processes etc would be mind bogglingly mundane for someone like God....bit like watching paint dry, if you're the sort of person who knows pi to the last place.......life is where it's at....even just from a soap opera point of view, surely?

To quote Q from StarTrek:

"When you can do anything, getting there is more than half the fun, it's the whole enchilada".

 

[Blobbenstein]

if you're the sort of person who knows pi to the last place

of course pi doesn't have a last place, it never ends......must be weird to know all the decimal places.

 

[Second Summer]

of course pi doesn't have a last place, it never ends......must be weird to know all the decimal places.

I wonder, if you used a different numeral system, you might have pi with a finite number of decimal places.

 

[Blobbenstein]

perhaps only if the base was a never ending number, like base pi....can you have base pi?

 

[Blobbenstein]

I posted such a thing once, on a board......pi in base pi would be 10......

nobody said it couldn't be done...

 

[yakherder]

God is often defined as either loving or angry, both of which are emotional tools that aid in the survival of animals which are capable of existing in a state other than surviving. Such emotions would serve no rational purpose in a being that is eternal. If he possesses them nonetheless, I don't find it unreasonable to believe that he is also capable of being bored.

 

[beancounter]

God is often defined as either loving or angry, both of which are emotional tools that aid in the survival of animals which are capable of existing in a state other than surviving. Such emotions would serve no rational purpose in a being that is eternal. If he possesses them nonetheless, I don't find it unreasonable to believe that he is also capable of being bored.

but an omnipotent being can will himself into not being bored.

 

[Second Summer]

I agree that this doesn't make sense. It seems contradictory.

However, the Bible was written by humans, and in a different, less enlightened time. So while they thought God was angry, he really wasn't. When he killed all those sinners, homosexuals etc in Sodoma and Gomorrah, he wasn't a bit angry, he was just making an example and helping future generations make the right decisions ... Or is there another way to interpret this?