Imagine the psychology of a deity. A deity is defined as perfect, all-knowing, omnipotent, etc. Ergo, the deity wouldn't need to invent life to SOLVE any problem. What motive does that leave? Amusement.
How can any "benevolent" spin be put on such a motive when "creating" anything other than nonliving, material things (like a painting, for example)?
A deity is bored, so we must suffer the wrongs of a deity's creations? How can you respect such behavior?
2006-09-13 13:58:45 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I appreciate answers that don't bend over backwards to EVADE the question. Thanks.
2006-09-13 14:03:02 · update #1
wasn't gonna create itself now was it?
~~~
lets change deity with god for ease of typing if nothing else
so, god nor anything/one else could have never created life as life was never created. it has always just been. it has no start. or end for that matter. no, god is not the creator but rather the creation and the created. god is the living and the life. she knows no boredom nor excitement. god simply is.
get it?
....
yeah, me neither
2006-09-13 14:00:33 · answer #1 · answered by ỉη ץ٥ڵ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You overlook another possible reason for a Deity to create life. How does something grow if it is perfect and all knowing? The only way to do so would be to create obstacles to overcome, to put itself into situations where some of it's knowledge was not known to itself... and the reclaiming of that knowledge would be the goal.. thereby .. growth..
All things are living.. even rocks have a life.. spirit ...
a progression of beginning, being, ending.
2006-09-13 21:21:52 · answer #2 · answered by Silvatungfox 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lemme get this straight....the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years, exceeds ordinary human comprehension...right? a time interval vastly greater than all of human history.
Another thousand times farther takes us to distant cluster of galaxies, but even then, that would be less than one ten-thousandths of a percent of the observable Universe. We are mere specks in an abyss of time and space.
With that backgroud, you're asking me whether a deity, a supernatural being or sentient lifeform out there is worried about having motive in our creation?....don't make me laugh.
Did you know that there's a certain percentage of scientists who believe in God, even Einstein spoke of him often. But the greatest number of non-believing scientists are the astonomers.
The hundred billion galaxies of our visible universe, each with a hundred billion stars, makes us but a grain of sand on the Sahara, grown out of that original "pure vacuum" or nothingness.
2006-09-14 20:41:54 · answer #3 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question reminds me of a quote I came across once:
"Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all?" -- Sister Miriam Godwinson, "But for the Grace of God"
2006-09-13 22:31:14 · answer #4 · answered by R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥̲̅٦̲̅]ution 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He was lonely.
He wanted company so He created us and gave us a garden paradise filled with all the gifts he could to think of to give us.
He then gave us a choice of free-will or to stay with Him.
Then we screwed it up by not listening to Him and He has been upset with us ever since.
But, like any loving parent He is hoping we will learn to listen to Him and want to come home one day.
Like the one sheep that strayed from the flock that the shepherd left the others safe with someone he trusted and went out and rescued that lost sheep; so too does God search for all of His lost sheep.
How can we not respect our parents who gave us life and raised us?
Do you disrespect your mother and father that way?
Are you so bitter about being in this world that you blame your mother and father for loving each other so much they wanted to share their love and happiness with someone else and brought you into the world?
I hope not.
I will pray for you.
2006-09-13 21:17:29 · answer #5 · answered by sworddove 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
...so you don't enjoy being alive?
....have you ever felt creative?
...wanted children?
wonder why so many judge, and/or dislike God. I think he's gotten a bad rap. There's really only one problem. Our ability to think, which lets us choose. We all suffer some due to everyone's choices, but God being life itself, the life force, lives through and experiences all sufferings, why would he put himself through all this? Because he's not creating robots, but a family..
2006-09-13 21:10:05 · answer #6 · answered by flowerchilde 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A deity can't have "WANTS", otherwise, it is affected by time/enviromnent..
A deity can't have "NEEDS", otherwise, it wouldn't be almighty..
Thus, only a non-almighty deity could have created something, either by "WILL" or "NEED"..
:-)
2006-09-13 22:09:02 · answer #7 · answered by Andreba 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wouldn't. It hasn't.
2006-09-13 22:00:18 · answer #8 · answered by Girl 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mighty good thinking question
ruminate on this answer, see how well it stands up for you:
perfection is imperfect unless it is experienced - all experience is by contrast - so perfection, as part of perfection, had to create contrast, ie imperfection, to enable experience
[it is like white pastel on white paper: no experience - or like the contrast on your tv: no contrast, no picture]
the world is imperfect, a mixture of good and bad, but because it is imperfect, it provides the contrast essential to experience [consciousness, awareness, life]
see an essay 'a piece of chalk' by g k chesterton - if you cant be bothered hunting it down, it praises brown paper for making a white chalk drawing visible, experiencable
'i was a hidden treasure and i wanted to be known so i created the world'
isis is invisible, so wears a veil [visible], so that the invisible can be 'seen' by contrast wih the visible [and imperfect]
on the one hand, you have: invisible, infinite, perfect, unknown, 'hidden', potential, 'artist', energy, lifeforce, unlimited perfect power and happiness
on the other, you have visible, finite [temporal, mortal, spatial, vulnerable], imperfect, actual [work of art], matter, mixed bag of good and bad
together they make a great team, and are ultimately not to be thought of as different - together they make experience, consciousness, life
when a soul is in imperfection only, it feels disatisfied - in time it discovers perfection, it contacts perfection - which it can experience only by contrast with imperfection - when the soul experiences both 'worlds', it is at peace - it can have the good of both, and bad serves its purpose of making the invisible 'visible'
bad is good because it is bad - because only bad can make good visible
like writing - the black ink is what 'reveals' the white paper - and the perfect unrevealed would be perfectly bad
hence buddha told monkey that the blank scripture was perfectly right and the written scripture was partly wrong, but with the written scripture you can get the truth by reading between the lines!
there is no doubt that the deity is bad as well as good [and those who idealise the deity as good-only are wrong]
ultimately all the darkness [death, pain, suffering, grief] is destroyed by the light
no evil is absolute, all evil is relative, unfinal
all the stories have happy endings - and the story wouldnt be good if things didnt get tough in the middle - no good stories are allgood - which shows that we are one with the will of the deity: our souls approve of the decision to create [relative, unfinal] evil in order to make [absolute] good visible [experiencable]
perfection is hidden because it is perfect - because it is infinite, it has no boundaries for light to bounce off and make it visible - all visible things are limited [in time and space] - ie, they are not selfsustaining, they have beginning and end, they are illusion, because they seem to exist and then they all go poof! and disappear forever - like drops in a fountain - but an endless stream of drops is being generated from the fountain, so although created things all end, creation is forever, because the infinite creative energy is forever
energy is invisible until it makes things move, and change - and ultimately matter and energy are not different - e=mc2 - energy [perfection] and matter [imperfection] form a good team - a perfect team
although all drops [finite created things] end and are lost forever, drops are forever [the energy, the creativity, the lifeforce is pushing out drops forever] - and ultimately all drops are the same - one person dies, and is lost forever, but all that you love in that person [the lifeforce, the perfect, the love] comes back in every other drop - and you train to see through the differences [physical] to the essential [life, love]
all's well that ends well - and all's well that goes wrong in the middle - all judgement of life is premature, the story is not finished - the story wich seems unsatisfactory in the middle [when you fear that evil is absolute, perfectly real, immortal] is beautiful in the end when it is clear that all evil is temporary, relative, nonabsolute - it is clouds that make the sun experiencable - familiarity breeds contempt - the always present is the invisible
the christian idealisation of god as good is contrary to the bible: i create good and i create evil, isaiah 45,7
the christian idealisation of god as good is idolatrous, because good is limited [it is not bad] and idolatry is worshipping the limited, the finite - the proper worship is of life, the proper labour is solving the mystery of evil [the fact that we are bothered by the existence of evil is evidence that we know in ourselves that only good is real - the seeming absolute existence of evil bothers us, because our selves tell us this is wrong, not good
but when we enjoy a story that is bad in the middle [and dont enjoy any story that has no bad in it] we show our oneness with the deity - ultimately we and the deity are not different - we have the same will to create evil to make good stories
the deity hardens pharoah's heart [exodus] so he, the deity, can show off his plagues, which he calls glories - if it hadnt been for the interference of the diety, pharoah would have softheartedly let the israelites go, and there would have been no exciting story of terrible plagues and the escape of the israelites
it is we who are bored - it is we who have enjoyed the film exodus
perfection is boring-as - no stories, not one - perfection [energy] is as nothing, zip, nada - like trying to watch 'snow' on tv, without the movement and noise - in one minute, youll be looking kindly on an old john wayne movie
if you think this theory wont do for the horrors of concentration camps [ie, if you think c camps are an absolute, unremoveable stain on eternity] think of all the people who without shame went to see schindler's list - and the people who without shame made that film - or think of the exploitation of vietnam for action movies and grimness movies - rambo, deerhunter - or the awfulness of sophie's choice, which arguably went further than reality in horribleness
i can prove in a minute that we can be 1000 times happier - and that we know it - someone wrote that the universe is made of stories
everyone will agree that a govt taking 99% of income permanently off 99% of people and giving it to 1% will destroy [something of the order of] 99.9% of happiness of everyone - we have that level of injustice - therefore we know we can all be 1000 times happier - just by obeying the intention of the founding fathers and limiting fortunes to justice, to the most a person can make, by work, not just rake by legal thefts - we all know we can be 1000 times happier, where there is a will there is a way, clearly we do not have the will - we are not ready for the happy ending yet - everyone knows that 'the rich get richer' is unjust, everyone knows that injustice destroys democracy, freedom, equality, peace, safety, fraternity, friendliness, order, everything good - and there is zero will to limit fortunes to justice, and have everything good - we are as gods, here on earth for the hellraising, enjoying rambo immensely, thank you - even at this stage, on this eve of nuclear destruction of all life, we are not bothered by the danger, we gobble up the horrible news daily - the most popular thing on tv - and we dont want any truth, guiding us to the way out of this hell we have made: 'however small the supply of truth, it always exceeds the demand'
in our deepest heart of hearts, we know evil is never absolute, and that we are perfectly safe, and perfectly unstained by evil - it is like the fun of paintball war - in our deepest heart of hearts we know that real war is no more real than paintball war - and just as much fun, or much more fun, because seemingly more real - every videogame player is looking for more realism in the games - see the haste with which filmmakers rush to bring a taste of war to cinema screens - even during the war
in the movies, we wouldnt like it if we didnt get drawn in, if we sat there thinking: i am watching a screen of moving colours accompanied by sounds - we wouldnt like it if we were completely objective and aware that 'real life' is not real, and were never caught up in the drama of life - what a great character is bush! - how he interests, excites everyone to discussion [hitler is getting oldhat for entertainment] - bush is something new! - combination of comedy and evil! - a new entertainment genre! - not the oldhat evilly laughing villain -
if we knew that 'real life' is just a movie, we couldnt be entertained, so we have to be 'caught up in' 'real life' - if we thought it was real, we would be trying to make it as good as possible, we would be practicing justice, but as it is for entertainment, we hang between believing it is real and not believing it is real
2006-09-13 22:27:23 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋