Why did God create us?

[Deja Q]

We're warlike. Yet religion tells us to be peaceful.

Neo-cons. (some Republicans are almost respectable)

STDs.

Neo-cons.

Corporate greed.

Deceit.

Preying on the consumer base, which it must continue to dumb down.

Prospering at the cost of giving others pain.

Evil.

Life is what we make of it, yet we allow the status quo to continue unchecked (which will make life intolerable in about 30 years, 1.5 generations.)

Why aren't there more people like Michael Moore, Al Franken, Paul Wellstone, and most members of the Green party? (in other words, Progressives who want to see humankind survive and prosper. Really prosper. Prosper that doesn't come at the expense, waste, or exploitation of other people and resources?)

Sigh. I'm confused and upset. All I know is, Western "Culture" is going to come to a grizzly end within 50 years. Resources, not just oil... combine a limited resource with an economy that only survives on growth... we're toast, man. We're toast. If you think people are suffering now, just wait. It's going to be real hell. :scared: I'm sure our children will look back and rest assured that at least we in 2003 were prosperous and that a real savior was selected by unfettered-by-partisan-beliefs judges just 2 years prior... I mean, that's what matters most? :eyes: x(

[foxy]

1. My question exactly

Why me!

[Deja Q]

7. Maybe we were created to fight the evil elements?

Dunno. God would likely create a balance of power, but evil took care of good this time around. :-(

Or are the elements just "sinful"? (and what separates sinful behavior from true evil? Don't worry, Bush* doesn't know the difference either. I just like to be a little more broad minded as to what I believe is evil. Nobody's perfect...)

[wtmusic]

2. When the shit goes wrong it's going to do so real fast

I guess this cycle has to continue. People just get complacent.

[whirlygigspin]

3. so god could have something to laugh at

we're TV for the Deity

[ProudGerman]

5. now you got me worried about my ratings

When is sweeps week?

[BurtWorm]

4. As an atheist convinced by Darwin

I have to say things are as they are because they worked well enough to get here, and if they stop working, we won't get much further beyond here. That's probably not terribly comforting to you, but to me, it makes me think of the larger picture we humans are too provinvial to see. And for all the pain we cause each other, we are actually quite privileged to be part of the whole thing we can't see.

[Cleita]

6. So why did God create Sharks and Black Widow spiders?

On the other hand he created rabbits and lambs. He also created Oleander, a lovely bush, with lovely flowers that is poisonous in every part.

[Deja Q]

11. Post #3 eminently explains the whole situation

Edification occurs in mysterious ways...

Life is joy, life is misery. Life ends up as death.

I think nature is heading full circle; death before renewal. It is inevitable.

Maybe STDs aren't so bad then. :evilgrin:

[sandsn00]

25. Oh man, That's a good quote!

'Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.' Goering

And about 1900 years before that:
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.

Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism,
will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know?

For this is what I have done."

Julius Caesar, nearly 2 millennia ago

[Cleita]

34. Yes, and why haven't we learned yet?

Welcome to DU. :toast:

[moz4prez]

8. we were created by an entity just as evil as we are

NATURE

[southerngirlwriter]

9. I think he was lonely.

n/t

[RandomKoolzip]

10. I don't believe in God.

But I believe taht we're here on earth to take care of each other and prevent sorrow and suffering whenever possible. And to procreate (or enjoy the feelings borne of the process of procreation).


"No human chords are struck without a resonance in other lives."

-J. Robbins

[Deja Q]

16. That is what I want to believe

Many people do act that way about taking care of each other, preventing sorrow, et cetera.

But the repukes. Chanting "personal freedom and responsibility". We're a society of individuals who no longer realize the importance of society and of the whole and of the future. Even if all resources were infinite in supply, the elimination of the concept of society, replaced with what I love to call "individualism gone too far", will be our undoing. (I dig individuality, something our society doesn't in many ways (e.g. appearance/unspoken dress code/hairstyles/hair/body type/etc) but I believe we have to be conscious and supportive of a society that also supports us. Mutual back scratching... As individuals where we must look out for ourselves, don't step on sidewalk cracks, and jump at every whisper out of fear, not make any mistakes, and have a lot of good luck as well... we've lost our way.)

Can the trend be reversed? Or am I even correct in my beliefs?

[RandomKoolzip]

24. First, work on yourself.

Make sure that you, yourself, are someone you'd be proud of for exemplifying those good qualities. It all starts on the inside.

Once you've become the person you want to be, then work on externals. Remain altristic in all activities, and make sure you do the least possible fucking over of other people. Set an example.

One thing that seperates libertarians from liberals is the application of individuality; libertarians believe in the individual as superior to the group while liberals believe that the individual is capable of personal growth, but remains interconnected, neither superior nor inferior, to the mass of all people (the group.) I am firmly in the liberal camp, as it appears are you.

The only meaningful change one single person can affect is the change within ones' self to do good by others. In the end, it doesn't really matter if the "trend" is reversed, what matters is finding personal peace and sleeping with a sound conscience. Reversing the destructive patterns of the past requires a lot of work, and it's doubtful we'll see things "get better" within our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean our strugles are meaningless. It just means that struggle is more important than the individual's perceived superiority to others.

[liberalmuse]

12. I think most of the altruists..

...have already evolved off this prison planet. I think that people are starting to wake up and see that Western material culture isn't what it's cracked up to be, and they want their soul back.

[neebob]

13. My mother ignores me

when she falls back on her everything-is-unfolding-as-it-should-and-all-of-this-has-been-foretold crutch and I ask her what kind of sick god would plan all this on purpose.

[Maple]

14. God

is a committee.

If you've ever worked on one, that will explain the situation.

[Ellen Forradalom]

15. So that Cthulhu can eat us

of course.

[incontrovertible]

17. to glorify God

blunt answer, I know, and one most people don't appreciate, but, boiled down to its essence, it's the only Reason Why that can be assigned to the Christian worldview.

In other words: God, existing outside of space-time, sees all of history at a glance. Therefore, once the decision to create was made, the knowledge that man would fall, and have to be redeemed by the Christ sacrifice, was known by God. Therefore, it was always intended that mankind fall, and thus be saved by the Christ sacrifice, so that we mere bits of stardust would come to understand the nature of God.

The supposition of "loneliness," as one poster guessed, might also apply. God desired to be known and understood by other beings that were not God.

That aside, I'm not nearly as pessimistic as the OP. I expect to live to see a human being set foot on Mars, and to live in a home powered by fusion or antimatter generated energy within the next forty years. I also expect nanotech could, within our lifetimes, eliminate the need for scarcity-based economies, thus allowing for a non-need-based society. Ultimately, only raw earth - land - will become the one scarcity.

[ClintonTyree]

18. It's been a while..................

since my Lutheran indoctrination, but I believe we were put here to glorify God and to worship him/her/it. If this is true, then God must have been a Republican.
Since then, having seen first hand all of the contradictions to the "standard church meme", I've come to the conclusion that I really don't know WHAT to believe in anymore. I do believe that if there is a God, he/she/it is NOT a Republican.

[madrchsod]

19. he made a mistake

hey,he`s only human,right?

[TacticalPeek]

20. Because sometimes you just want to pick up a rock and throw it.

:)

[IndianaGreen]

21. Creation was an accident!

Someone pushed a red button labeled "Do not press this button" and BANG! The Universe was born!

[sandsn00]

22. Dude, Ever been lonely?

No really?

<Fuzzy intro> Here you sit in your very own void. There's no NFL, no reality TV. Well, you decide, I'm omnipotent in this void, I'll recreate my very own.

<focusing in> No one is there to ask your very own what specifically, so you procede with the myth making. (I may have some of this out of chronological order, I live in chaos and aren't particularlly prescient.) But, Forward-ho the serious myth making IAMTHATIAM.

<sharp clarity, if not comity to the masses> Seriously, your question is metaphysical and has no foundational basis of imperical evidence. But, I'll strive to give a philosophical answer: "Western Civilization" (Constantine's balliwick") has a tendancy to create symbolism, er.. a godhead. Once Western Civilization has created this symbolism, er..godhead, we have a tendancy to believe in our godhead while we have an amnesia of our creation of the symbol.

See?

[Occulus]

23. I think free will has a bit to do with it.

Free will, mortality, and the like are things we humans have that angelic and demonic entities alike do not posess. We know we will die; we do not know when, nor do we know what, if anything, comes next.

It is only here, in life, our reality, that those concepts have any meaning to any observer, including we the participants. It is the knowledge of our death, that impending doom which stalks us all, that shapes our risk/reward behavior. That element of choice, of free will, is what makes us unique and different.

We are of God, yet apart from God. Clearly, we were meant to be 'like' God, in our reality at least; this has to an extent come true: we can enter a room and make light, change frozen food to fully-cooked in three minutes or so, send images and sound over vast distances in the blink of an eye, and a whole host of of 'godly' abilities.

We are meant to be like God, but apart from God. He gave us an infinite Universe we aren't likely to ever fully explore, and the curiousity to learn all about it. There's a lot of room out there- who knows where learning about it might take us?

The knowledge of our own death often impels us to perform better, think harder, to 'make our mark', as it were. Think of the inventions we've already seen, and the ones yet to come. Thirty years from now, who knows- some bright college kid might figure out how to make the speed of light irrelevant, or some such. These discoveries, which enable our race to advance and better itself, are goals worthy of the God who created us. (Not to mention repairing our planet.)

This is an excellent reason to be against any war (defensive war excepted- I ain't stoopid :) ). We may be killing off the man or woman destined to cure AIDS, eliminate cancer, or invent serious medical nanotechnology that could repair our cells and get rid of any viruses in our systems. We might be removing from history that bright college kid who was eventually responsible for us becoming an interstellar species (hey, I can dream, can I?). By fighting wars, we almost certainly have altered our history for the worse.

The same could be said for the fated elimination of potential tyrants or parents of tyrants in a war, but that's a discussion for another thread. We have free will, and the God-given obligation to use it responsibly. If we are to constantly advance and discover and explore, to be the creation God intended us to be, we must cooperate with each other, brushing aside the petty differences that currently divide us.

We were created in God's image. Well, that means God gets a choice. Alone among His creations, we get a choice as well.

Of God, yet apart.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. Well...

Voltaire said God is a comedian with an audience who's afraid to laugh.

Kilgore Trout said that God went out for lunch around Noon on the sixth day, and no one's seen him since.

Actually, why God created us is the wrong question. It's really none of our business why God created us. (Assuming you believe God created us, of course.)

What is our business is just what are we to do about it now that we're here.

There is a tradition of thought that we were created with free will to either worship or deny God. Made the worshipping much more meaningful. The whole story of the Garden of Eden is about the emergence of self-awareness and free will.

If anyone doesn't buy into the Abrahamic traditions, there's also the duality that pops up in Asian thought. It comes down to pretty much the same thing. On the bottom line-- good means nothing if there is no evil. They are both sides of the same coin, and in the grander scheme of things, one may not be any better than the other.

This is, after all, a universe that started with a huge explosion, and galaxies are colliding and destroying each other as we speak. On this little world, mountains grow and collapse, the earth destroys itself on a regular basis, and everything alive eats other living things and eventually becomes food itself.

The universe is not a nice, or safe, place.

But, unlike asteroids on an unchanging collision path, or tigers who must kill without remorse, we alone have the choice to choose our way. Most of us choose the easy way, but the chance exists that we may choose another path.

Don't worry but that which you can't control. If Western culture goes down the tubes, there's a lot we'll miss, but there will be new opportunities. Choose your own path, and be content on it.

When Christ was talking about the lillies of the field, and how they "toiled not" he wasn't saying just sit on your ass and God will provide. He was saying understand your own life and put your energies where they are most productive. That's good advice for non-believers, too. Look inward for the truth. Outside of you there are too much confusion and and too many lies.

[opihimoimoi]

27. We are a friggen Petri Dish and the God I know don talk to us tiny ass

microbesque bits of life.

She too worried about those Black Holes/Quasars/String Things.

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[MojoKrunch]

28. She wasn't paying attention... distracted by the dwarves and elves

fighting the ogres... oh wait... that as LOTR.

Nevermind.

May the hooves of the Great IPU sparkle for eternity.

Mojo

[baldguy]

29. God got together with the other deities one night.

They spent several hours talking, arguing, trading insults, and generally shooting the shit (along with large amounts of intoxicating substances). Jehovah started into a long convoluted rant or story that the others had trouble following. He was slurring His words, contradicting Himself and taking His audience down paths in the story that seemed to have nothing to do with the main points He was trying to make.

After a while one of the others, (Mithras I think, she was a little less drunk) finally understood that Jehovah was trying to TELL A JOKE.

Humans are the punch line.

[Kamika]

30. To procreate

Thats the official answer

[Beaker]

31. short answer: he didn't.

long answer: there is no god.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

32. "I was a hidden treasure who longed to be known"

A Hadith says that God said this. It is the basis of the Sufi way, which is to experience God in everyday life, and to remember God with every breath.

[supernova]

33. Because God wanted companionship

I believe God wanted other beings to interact with.

[arwalden]

35. Humans Weren't Created By A God

I think the examples you provided actually answered your own question.

There are no gods.

-- Allen

[Swede]

36. A higher intelligence created us,to populate

the place.

[Terwilliger]

37. if all this stuff is true, god's greatest gift to mankind...

was not to tell them anything

[Sting]

38. So he can use people...

like me as a hackey sack. (I am a christian.)