What is the purpose of God?

[Evoman]

This is not a post on religion or atheism, or why people believe in god, or a psychoanalysis. With that disclaimer, I want to know what the theist here believe is the purpose of god, or if there is even a purpose.

I mean...okay, lets assume god exists. Now, we know what the purpose of human beings is....you may say we are his playthings, you may say He made us so that he could have something to do, you may say He made us, because he wanted to have someone to love him.

But then....whats his point? Why does he exist? The reason I think its an interesting question is because a lot of people like to feel there is a point to life and it gets at the root of that assumption....if god himself has no point, then by extension, although we may have a point to god, there is no point to us is in broader terms. If He exists so that He could create life and the universe....then shouldn't he be thanking us for existing, and not the other way around?

I know its hard to get your brain around....yes, you could be all powerful, ominiscient, omnipotent and, in fact, all ecompassing. But that still does not grant you a purpose.

Evoman

[Broken_Hero]

1. My main thought.

People believe in god, to better understand, the things, in which, they don't understand.

Much like old rome/greek mythology. Why did the volcano erupt? Oh, some god is pissed. Nowadays, we know why the volcano erupts, and scoff at anyone who believes in some "volcano" god.

Thats, just one take on it....one take, in a sea of million ideas/angles.

[Evoman]

4. Shut down your atheism, dammit

Lol...I'm not talking about What is the Purpose of God FOR HUMANS. I'm asking WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOD?

I'm an atheist too, although I'm trying to engage people in theist terms. Assume god does exist...what is his purpose. The thing is...I assume there is no purpose. I don't know why the universe exists..maybe its planned or maybe its a freak occurence. But SOME theists assume they know the purpose of human, and the purpose of the universe....and I'm just wondering what that is.

Thanks for your answer anyhow...I do completely agree with you.

[Broken_Hero]

6. Oh, okay...:)

I am not athiest persay. I do believe, that their is some higher force out there, and some people call him god, some call him the spaghetti noodle monster...:)

The purpose of God. What is his purpose? In essence, I have no idea, except I "think" his purpose, is to create. To create us, planets, what have you's. Like, what is the purpose for a car? Is there a grand scheme to the purpose of a car? What does a car do? A car, makes it easier for "us" to go from point A to point B. I see god as, a creater, his purpose to create. Sometimes, I think people but a little to much stock in god, I am more of the mind of that line on Fight Club...

"We must assume, that god created us, but in doing so, we must also assume, that god doesn't like us very much"...Pitt said it, something like that, I didn't quote it exactly...:)

[papau]

26. SOME theists assume God knows the purpose of humans/ of the universe

And those theists do not assume they are as smart as God, or even that they are as smart as atheists on DU.

Indeed why should humans "know", outside of their religion, the "why"? Science doe not try to know the "why". Perhaps having that bit of arrogance is what permits the atheist to look down their those at others and proclaim their noses with the certainty that the theist is "wrong" - and to even be Evangelical about doing so.

[Evoman]

33. Dude, don't start a flame war please

I haven't called anybody arrogant or anything. Lets not get into atheist attacks, please. Apart from that, I'm not sure what your trying to say.

Are you trying to say that theists don't "know" outside of their religion? Or they do? Because I can completely respect an answer of I don't know. Hell, I've said a bunch of time that I don't know.

This thread is about gods purpose, not humans. I want to start with the hypothesis that god exists, and then go from there. I've already got some great answers. Maybe you can contribute without starting a flame war.

[Nostradammit]

2. Maybe God created others to ease the loneliness

Maybe God divided into an infinite number of parts in order to disguise the fact that God is utterly alone.

God can not be anything other than what God is. Infinite and Eternal - and you and I are part of that.


I dunno.

[Evoman]

5. Ah...there you go

That explains why god created us....but it still does not get to what gods purpose is. For the record, I assume he has no purpose.

[Nostradammit]

7. God simply is.

Before purpose, beyond reason. God is the sum total of all that could ever be, is, and could possibly ever be.


Don't worry about it...


:)

[Ecumenist]

25. Why does God need a reason to exist

when there are bond to be somethings that only God can truly understand. I do believe that God needed his creation and all the things in it to ease loneliness. I often wonder where he came from, Assuming that there was a somewhere before He was in existence.

Most of us who've studied the information about God, from a judeoChristian viewpoint know that when God spoke ofHimself, he spoke in terms that are clearly plural. In Genesis, God speaks to someoen esle and He announces "let US make man in OUR image". Therefore , I suppose one could also suppose that God didn't come into being by himself. I have come the conclusion that God needed a creature He created and gave them freedom of thought and deed to make sure that when people proclaimed their love and faith in God, it was done with a full and conscious heart.

[varkam]

3. God makes life absurd

In my view, if there is a God, he/she/it could not possibly have the characteristics that he/she/it is said to have with life being as it is. That aside, I do tend to take a more psychological perspective on the religion question - of course I'm operating on the assumption that God does not exist. If that's the case, then God's purpose is that which we made it. We built the notion of God from the ground up so a) the ruling class could give the peons eternity to worry about (e.g. "You don't need to worry about the squalor and poverty you live in now! If you will just be a good little servant and do what I tell you, God will give you eternal bliss!") and b) because on the face, believing in a God makes a lot of sense (at least for the basic questions, but the devil is in the details).

[serryjw]

8. god is the contruction guy in the sky that

will build the McMansion for those whom don't get it on earth..BTW it will be in a gated community!

[Evoman]

34. heh..try not to start a flame war please

you sarcastic bastard ;)

[Journeyman]

9. The purpose of life is to create. . .

and happiness is a byproduct.

An old alcoholic told me that.

As I've found no better explanation for we humans, I presume the same drive motivates the cosmos.

[Broken_Hero]

10. good post n/t

[lvx35]

11. To be.

The original Hebrew term "I am" that is applied to God in the Bible sort of suggests a primacy to God in being, and he is generally viewed as being transcendent to cause and effect relationships. But I think you could say his purpose is "to be", and human beings fulfill part of that purpose. There is some Sufi wisdom regarding this: Basically they say God is infinite power and knowledge...But part of that infinite knowledge is that it must paradoxically include knowledge of the experience of being FINITE, which is against God's nature, therefore we have to exist to fill that role.

[Evoman]

14. Holy shit *excuse my french*

That is deep...I have never even thought of it that way (the whole finite experience thing). So in that case, we ARE god. Of course, if you believe that, then praying to him or thanking him seems kind of dumb....we are not better, nor worse than god. We are all finite versions of the whole deal.

Although I still don't buy it. I mean, how much experience does god need of the finite. After the first 5 billion people, ya think that would have sufficed lol. Again, I can't presume I really know anything. But posts like this are so much better than the automatic "God is good and Jesus loves you posts"

I want to thank you for your great contribution.

[lvx35]

17. hehe! I like that too.

you believe that, then praying to him or thanking him seems kind of dumb....we are not better, nor worse than god. We are all finite versions of the whole deal.

Yeah, basically. Though we are intrinsically limited in our awareness/power so appealing to our "Self" for help would make sense in some kind of way, until one is freed from the illusion (Maya, as the call it) through Nirvana/God realization whatever, which most of these eastern systems say eventually happens.

But posts like this are so much better than the automatic "God is good and Jesus loves you posts"

hehe! Yeah, its not a really feel good system to me; people need to suffer so God can know suffering, its work we have to do...but the advantage is makes a lot more sense in an ugly world!

I like it though because its such a broad philosophy, it doesn't take a lot of faith. For instance for an atheist who looks at the observable physical universe as the ultimate truth, you could modify this philosophy so that our experience of consciousness is "Maya" and the ultimate truth of our selves is that of the continuum that is the universe, the electrons and protons and neutrons that make up not just one's body, but everything. So in this sense, like the eastern system, you and I are the same entity, the physical universe, experiencing the illusion of separation produced through consciousness.

[Wheres The Beef]

12. God did not create Man

Man created God(s)

And God spelled backwards is Dog, Mans best friend.

[dipsydoodle]

19. You just re-expressed

the dyslexic agnostic joke.
:rolf:

[Random_Australian]

23. No, it's the insomniac dyslexic agnositc joke:

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog.

[dipsydoodle]

27. I'm aware of that

but abb'd it as sleep hadn't been mentioned. Golden oldie that one !

[file83]

13. God's purpose is to awaken from his dream. He is still asleep.

You see, "purpose" implies more than one object, one object effecting another object.

So, to ask the question of what the purpose of God is suggests that there is something outside and separate from God of which he/she/it could have an effect on. But if God is everything (omniscient, omnipotent, all encompassing), then, God, by that definition, can not have a purpose.

You and I can have purpose because we are separate objects living in a world with many other objects that we can have an effect on. We can decide what we will do to which object, which is, of itself, a "purpose".

However, when we dream, we may think we have a purpose, but that is an illusion because those objects we think are separate from us in our dreams are not separate - those objects are us.

So, if God is truly everything, then God is living in a dreamland. The question is, does God know he is dreaming?

Maybe that is his purpose: To awaken from his dream.

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. To find out his name

8,999,999,995
8,999,999,996
8,999,999,997
8,999,999,998...

[raccoon]

41. The Nine Billion Names of God. nt

[Oversea Visitor]

16. What is the purpose of LIFE?

n/t

[Lexingtonian]

18. It depends

on whether there is meaningfully such a thing as purpose independent of the Being of God. The mystics perceive all things united in the Divine, and an ultimate distinction between His dynamic aspect (Becoming, desire, creation and creativity) and His static aspect (Being, enduring, neverendingness) means He is subordinate to Time, which is...unlikely.

There are theologies in which the explanation for the existence of Man is that God needs Man to complete Himself, is completely invested in Mankind and suffers and loves and celebrates with each human being. Why this would be is not completely explicable on our everyday plane of being and consciousness.

The suggestion made is that human humility contains the explanation- that in completest humility, love is most complete and true, most purely itself. The Divine, these people say, made itself humble and came into the World in order to be most perfectly and adequately itself, channeling itself into being shown and given and acknowledged in the small actions of human beings to each other. The world, and human life as it is, is in this scheme of things the arena in which God wishes most to be and is most fulfilled. Therein, we are God's purpose and our purpose in turn is to be the actualizers of God's being to each other and thereby to Himself.....

Yikes, I'm turning into a mini-Niebuhr with time.... :-)

[TomClash]

20. I pondered this question long ago

I think God exists to create. And that doesn't just mean you and me. He/she (God is the original gender neutral) doesn't need to thank us - we exist for the same reason.

[Stevepol]

21. Better to ask what is YOUR purpose. You are part of God's purpose.

In fact, God is the sum total of his/her creation, and just as our real purpose on earth is to know ourselves to be ourselves yet one with God (Edgar Cayce's way of putting it), so God's purpose is to know and experience him/herself/itself as what he is and to experinece the mysteries of the life that has been created. We are co-creators with God, in that we create our own world thru our thoughts and actions, just as God created this world thru thoughts as an expression of his/her own love, law, wisdom (which are all one).

Seeing God as power only is really to mis-represent God. It's only a small part of it for us. Obviously, God is more than this insignificant grain of sand in this insignificant back alley of the Milky Way but our "purpose" for want of a better term is to experience, in the right way, this beautiful world and experience its ups and downs, joys and sorrows in the right spirit and to carry that spirit with us into the further reaches of God's endless creation. I think the Christ spirit is the best model for how to do this, but I think all the other great prophets and teachers had and have a part in that spirit, are one with that spirit, and God certainly does not look on names and "isms" but on the heart. How do we really feel about our fellow man?

What is the purpose of the law of gravity? To experience itself working in the right way, harmoniously with the other laws I guess. What is the purpose of love? That's a different part of it but if we begin to understand it, we realize it is as much a law as the law of gravity, maybe more certain. Love is Law and as we fulfill its mandates we understand the law of life we live under and within.

[Evoman]

32. I don't have a purpose

I've really done nothing overly important in my life. Sure there are people who think I'm important..I have affected them in some way. But within 100 years, everyone I've known will be dead, and I will be nothing but a name, most of my limited contributions having been completely forgotten.

None of us have a real purpose. We make up purpose so we can live our lives without anxiety. I don't have a purpose, you don't have a purpose...even god does not have a purpose when it comes down to it. This big force may know more...may know everything in fact...but in the end, it just exists because it exists.

[Stevepol]

36. As you say, you have no purpose; ergo, God has no purpose, or vice-versa.

[Random_Australian]

22. Captain Atheist Weighs In:

Meaning is subjective into reality. Reality made by order inherit in randomness.

Therefore meaning of universe:

1) It makes us. In part, evolution acts as an algorithm to give us a structure of society. We are to think a certain way.

2) We think that way and that defines our purpose.




There you go. Any other questions?

Edit: Was this, in any way, inspired by a recent 'What is the purpose of the Bible' thread?

[Evoman]

30. No, not really

Just one of those things I think about when I'm not pondering the existence of dogs, hehe.

[Ecumenist]

24. Wow, Evoman, This is a VERY interesting question....

I am a Christian although I am no where near what people characterise fundamentalist. I have a perspective that is light years different from most people who identify themselves as Christian don't have. The question that you pose is one I have thought about many times, maybe not in the manner in which you're asking this question but in a manner that has to do with the basic reason we exist and by extension where does God come from and why is He bothering with man and creation.

I have had 3 NDE's, (clinically confirmed in my medical records). Oh, I could go into what I saw and experienced here but that's really not the point. I could say that God exists so that we do but that is something that is highly subjective to anyone who doesn't have a similar belief.

To be honest, I'm not sure how to answer this question without wandering very quickly into a minefield of faith and spiritual belief. I have to think of a way to form an answer that will be understandable in level headed manner.

For now, let give you what may at first seem like a convoluted answer... My honest feeling is that God exists for us and all his creation and this same creation exists for Him. I know that this sounds twisted but it really meake sense when you understand that, at least as much as I believe nad many others like me believe, Creation and the Creator exist for one another. Each part providing a reason, if I may use that word, for the other the continue. An equlibrium of sorts. Of course, I speak of that in a macrocosmic manner but it also applies to the personal walk that each person who believes in God, whther that person is Muslim, Jewish,Singh, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian.

[Silent3]

28. I don't think you're supposed to ask that question. :)

Think about creationism. The existence of our world, the life upon that world, the vast universe we inhabit... all of this complex order supposedly "demands" that there be a Creator. A Divine Creator is the "only" explanation.

For the non-theistic among us, this hardly seems a satisfactory answer. All you've done is play a pretty transparent shell game, saying that everything you can't explain is explained by something even bigger you can't explain. Where did God come from? He didn't come from anywhere, he was always here. Who or what made God? He made himself... or, He didn't have to be made, because He was always here. These are good answers?

God is the answer which is supposed to awe you into not wanting to ask deeper questions. It makes no sense to me how "God did it" can be such a satisfying answer to so many people when it's not much of an answer at all. What it lacks in explanatory power it obviously makes up for in placating some psychological need for some people.

The concept of "purpose" ends up working the same way. When you get to God, you're just supposed to accept and stop asking questions.

What is the purpose of work? To make money.
What is the purpose of having money? To be able to buy food.
What is the purpose of having food? To be able to live.
What is the purpose of living? To serve God.
What is the purpose of serving God? Hmmm... to save my ass from Hell?
What is the purpose of having a system of Heaven and Hell and torturing millions, maybe billions of souls for eternity? That's for God to know, foolish mortal!

Each of these questions could, of course, be answered in different ways, but you're always going to end up either running in a tautological circle or confronted with one big, unanswered and/or unanswerable question. You can't used God to solve this problem, you can only use God as a way to quell your desire to probe the question of purpose any further.

What really gets me is when people declare unconditionally, "Well, there's just has to be a purpose behind all of this!" Oh, really? Why? Because the universe is somehow obligated to satisfy the human need for a sense of purpose? Because the human sense that the bigger a thing is, the more complex, the bigger the purpose must be behind it, and for some reason we can demand that this perceived need for purpose scales all the way to the top to the Universe itself?

[Evoman]

31. Man, I agree with you

I've never been satisfied with that answer...I really don't think we have any purpose. Except maybe to make plastic, lol....George Carlin joke.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

29. You got me.

I have no idea.

[Evoman]

35. Lol..I'm with you.

I also have no idea.

[Meshuga]

37. God's purpose to a Jew

Judaism emphasizes deed over creed and we know absolute certainty in faith leads to fanaticism. We also believe that if God were known, moral choice would end, and since God's existence is unprovable, doubt is natural.

We must struggle with our doubts about God (the name of the Jewish people, Israel, means "struggle or wrestle with God"). Questioning is important in Judaism.

But God is our source of morality. We have a system of ethical laws based on God. Judaism does not suggest to its adherents that they act kindly to fellow human beings, honestly in business, or with compassion to animals; it commands Jews in the name of a Being infinitely higher then themselves or their leaders to do so.

Our ultimate goal is Tikkun Olam (perfecting the world). Not saving ourselves or others from burning in hell. We live for this life and not the afterlife since who the hell knows if there is an afterlife? No-one ever came back from the dead to tell us the story. :-)

But we use God as a standard of morality and for ultimate purpose. We use the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) for behavior and we use science books to explain the origins of the species, universe and other facts.

[Random_Australian]

38. Does God have a mind? If yes then His purpose would be whatever he chooses

and only determined by the initial state of that mind and the further processing and cognition in that mind;
If No, then without subjective reality one is without 'purpose' as such.

The above was just literal logic. In fact it was basically restating the question, but with the assumption that purpose is found in subjective reality.

No faith was used in the creation of this post.
This post is not intended to speak for any person's views but my own.

[rug]

39. To be.

The name chosen is "I am who am".

That's a harder concept to wrap a mind around.

Sartre tried in hundreds of pages in "Being and Nothingness".

[Finder]

40. Get some Sea Monkeys...

and play God. Create the environment, give them life, then watch.

Deism in a glass bowl.

Although I am an atheist, I use this to teach my children the concept.

[Ready4Change]

42. "Ok, lets assume god exists..."

So, I'll go from there.

We have no direct evidence of God. As he is (by conventional thought) omnipotent, I take it this is intentional.

We are the end result of billions of years of, seemingly, random activity, spanning from a very momentary event billions of years ago (big bang.) We've evidence of that event, and no evidence of a guiding hand after that event. (Nor before it either, but as we are assuming God, and God typically is viewed as the universes creator, and the Big Bang is as close to the moment of creation as we can thus far perceive, I'll assume the Big Bang was Gods doing. Ok? Okay.)

Now, why create a universe in which beings such as ourselves "evolve?" Why not just snap us into being? Here's my thought: Why do I like talking to people, rather than IMAGINE talking to them? Because, when I actually talk with them, I get surprised. I get answers I didn't expect.

Had God snapped us into being, we'd be predictable. He instead created us to be, to some degree, unpredictable.

So, God has created a planet of beings (I'm assuming we're the point, as we've no evidence contrary to this, and it's a more interesting thought than some OTHER beings being the goal)(Or maybe its just ego) God create a planet of unpredictable beings, beings who would do things he would not expect.

For a bored God, that might be enough. He has no purpose, and we've no purpose, other than entertainment.

But unpredictable? C'mon. He's GOD. Hello. OMNIPOTENT. That means: we are NOT unpredictable. He knows every nuance of 15 billion years of an entire UNIVERSE. The shape of the boogers in my nose is no mystery to God.

So why did he even TRY?

Because he NEEDS us to be unpredictable. He needs us to break out of the barrier of his ken. He needs his creation to exceed himself.

Why? I think he's in a prison, of sorts. He's asked the same question we've asked. What's beyond our universe? We create telescopes, particle accelerators, electron microscopes, gravity wave detectors, all to see more than we already see, all to know more, to probe the beyond. Racially, it's in our nature. That drive is the definition of the human species.

And as we created telescopes, God created us. We are to extend his vision. We are to probe HIS frontiers. Our universe is our cradle. Someday, God will invite us to peer over the edge, and then our real work will begin.

Or, maybe we are just the FSM's Sea Monkeys. :)

(And thus I end that thought train. Don't ever epxect me to follow it that exact way again.)

[SPKrazy]

43. What Is The Purpose Of Man?

Who knows?

I do believe that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves

but why man?

why God?

God will have to answer that

[Proud_Democratt]

44. To give humans reason to kill each other.

Who knows if any god exists? We've been murdering people because they have a different vision of God or gods for thousands of years, and yet, it still exists, under the guise of politics.