It's one thing to want friends, it's another to want them all to love you unconditionally... and then it's quite another thing to have everyone who doesn't love you unconditionally tortured for eternity.
What does god need our love for anyway? Isn't he perfect? Perfection implies completeness... there should be no need for anything.
One other thing... Isn't he all knowing? If this is the case he already knows who is going to "choose" him and who is going to "reject" him. This makes the idea of Hell even more cruel since he is punishing people for doing what he knew they couldn't help doing. They were bound in their destiny to "choose" this path. If god creates us all and knows us all, then his punishment is not only cruel, but unnecessary.
2007-09-11 02:04:13 · 14 answers · asked by ChooseRealityPLEASE 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I admire your efforts to inject rationality, but the opposing positions are interesting for their complete inability to BE helped. They are at such an infantile psychological level of - "humans NEED to worship SOMETHING" silliness, that it is hopeless to try. I console myself that they were only a philodendron last time which excuses them from waking up and any responsibility for contributing to the greater good.
I was seven when I first noticed this insecure/cruel side of the god others 'worshiped' so fervently. Fear of burning in hell was of course the cattle-prod, with 'Jesus loves you and died for you' the maudlin side that made them controllable. I recall thinking long and hard about the choice of being stuck 'eternally' with these folks in their icky 'deadly dull' heaven or burning forever for my sin of hating the humiliating spectacle of church - the waving of arms, praising Jesus and boo-hooing about being saved. I knew I was a perfect child (excessively so) except for this one vice (avoidance of participating in what to me was tantamount to PUBLIC CRUCIFIXION) - and something CLICKED. This WAS hell - NOTHING could be any worse. Only then did the potential for REAL 'eternal aliveness' become apparent to the child in me.
But, keep pushing the envelope. Maybe someone is listening - taking what you say to heart.
2007-09-11 05:43:50 · answer #1 · answered by MysticMaze 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are God's children, wouldn't you want your child to love you unconditionally. God doesn't need us per se. God uses us for his work here on Earth. Hell is a place for people that do not follow God(ex. Satan trying to overtake God's throne in Heaven, so God cast him out).
He is all knowing, which means He does know who will and won't live for Him. Am I talking about predestination? Sure. I know that subject is a sensitive one among Christians. Can I make an understanding why God would choose some and not the others? Not really because I am not God and I am not all knowing. But as a Christian I am really, really glad He chose me. I don't question God or His reasons, I just live my life to please Him.
It's called faith. Believing in something even though you may not have actual facts of it existing. I have never seen God face to face, but I see Him in works that are done here on Earth everyday. My uncle had brain damage at an early age, and the docs told my grandmother that he wouldn't live to be 13. He is 47 years old. Why? Because some docs read the machine wrong? No. It's because God has a plan for him on this Earth. Now he can't do anything because of his condition so why would God leave him here? I don't know, maybe to put a smile on my grandmother's face to know that she has her baby boy. It is easy to believe in something because you have seen it face to face. It take a real person to believe and have faith in something that he or she hasn't seen. That is what God wants in us as his children, unconditional love and TRUE faith.
2007-09-11 04:09:40 · answer #2 · answered by dkv528 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Religious belief takes a certain amount of inconsistency of thought, suspension of logic, and adherence to a teaching despite the evidence to the contrary. The Bible itself says that "Faith is the assured expectation of things not seen." So in order to have faith you must give up rational thought and accept what you are told without question. The illogical consequences of the god theory don't have anything to do with one's willingness to accept with blind unquestioning, that which can not be seen. Religious obsession is like a mental illness in the personality disorder class. There is no cure except in rare cases where there is a complete paradigm shift to the polar opposite.
2007-09-11 02:16:18 · answer #3 · answered by ? 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
You're right. Need for recognition is a sign of Insecurity and Vanity not compatible with a supposedly All-Mighty being!...
As most people answered, it only expresses the insecurity and lack of logic of those who created it and those who continue believing in it!
2007-09-11 02:25:58 · answer #4 · answered by CiberNauta 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If you try to justify things like these, your brain will most likely explode...
The whole "god" thing fails as an explanation primarily because it doesn't make any sense at all. As such, these questions are futile.
The thing is, even the believers realise it doesn't make sense. They just profess ignorance to the everyday motivations of their deity and continue on regardless.
2007-09-11 02:11:10 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
just read the bible.
Study it.
You are obviously searching for answers.
It is within our very existance to want to worship.
This alone proves a creator God.
God is perfect holiness.
God hates sin.
Sin and rejection must be punished.
He gave all a choice.
We all know what the choice is.
I know what I choose.
Seek him.
And you will find him.
Accept his gift.
And he will accept you.
Believe on him.
2007-09-11 02:24:20 · answer #6 · answered by WWJD 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
No insecurity in God. God doesn't change. God doesn't need man. Man needs God. Man always has a choice to choose God. We were created for God's pleasure and not because God needed us. It pleasured God to have children, but God wants to be chosen and every man and woman has a choice to either choose God or reject God. Since God is the Potter and we are the clay and God can make good pots and bad pots, the truth is even the bad pots can choose God.
2007-09-11 02:14:08 · answer #7 · answered by Jeancommunicates 7 · 1⤊ 5⤋
I don't know why God would need us. But He gave us "free will" and presumably he is interested in how we use it and He does not know the outcome in advance. Hence "omniscient" is simply untenable.
2007-09-11 02:15:39 · answer #8 · answered by michaelfenelon 1 · 1⤊ 2⤋
See, that's where the argument between "free will" and "predestination" comes from. I don't believe necessarily in "predestination." We all have a choice, and we're all given the same evidence, and the same chances. If a person ISN'T given the same chances, I don't see how they would go to hell.
As for the idea that we HAVE to love God to go to heaven, that's not true. What comes first is BELIEF. Once we start to believe (TRULY believe), love comes later. I don't HAVE to love God, and neither does anyone else. But I WANT to, because He loved me first.
2007-09-11 02:10:13 · answer #9 · answered by The_Cricket: Thinking Pink! 7 · 0⤊ 6⤋
god's insecurity derives from the fact that his continued existence depends on the existence of so many suckers who believe he is real, and the number of these suckers is dwindling day by day.
2007-09-11 02:09:39 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 2⤋