Is God an idea that attempts to save ourselves from sorrow?

Question

If so, why is there sorrow? And what is the force that desires us to be saved from sorrow?

life is a battle of wills, Our will to survive v.s the will of nature and the inevitable (death and suffering).

If we possessed the right will, we could fight off death.

If only we were willing enough to do so or to even try.

The goal of evolution has to be to create beings that are immortal. Why else would it toil so much for the sake of survival?

I know, sort of preachy, but would like to hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

Our sorrow exists because of our suffering. Our suffering exists because of our attachments. We become attached to these physical bodies, therefore survival becomes a necessity. The obsession with the IMMORTALITY of our physical bodies, will only lead to further sorrow in my opinion, because the physical body will eventually die. Yet if we neglected our physical bodies altogether, this would still eventually lead to some type of physical discomfort, which is still suffering. So either way, we suffer. We have to realize that our physical being is only an illusion, which is only housing our true self, our soul. When I say illusion, I'm not meaning that this thing doesn't exist. Our physical bodies exist, but what I mean by that is - they are not our "true" self. Our true self is our inner being- our spirit. Our physical bodies can be a "reflection" of who we are, but they are not who we truly are. We should not neglect our physical bodies, though, because to do so, it will cause us more suffering. I don't beleive that the focus of our existance should be to acheive immortality, though, because our true self already possesses immortality- our focus should be to end our suffering. through the elimination of our suffering, we acheive a higher state of self realization. I beleive that our physical bodies only exist for the experience - to aid us in self realization. Through the sensations that we experience from our physical senses, we come into a higher state of consciousness- a greater awareness of who we are in relation to our surroundings. We become aware of what things bring pleasure, and what things don't. And we become aware that everything we experience has the ability to lead to some type of suffering in some way. And this is because of attachments. For example: pizza is great, but if you eat too much of it, you'll get sick - so you suffer. And if you really want that pizza, but do not get it, you still suffer. Both are examples of attachments. In both situations, the attachment to this pizza led to suffering. There is nothing wrong with enjoying pizza, but if you are are attached to it, then you will suffer. We can eliminate all suffering, by letting go of the attachments we have toward things. When we let go of our attachments, we are finally able to find joy and peace in our lives within every experience, and every situation. We realize that the physical is actually not necessary, that there is something deeper inside of us - a higher part to our existance that is more important. When the physical body dies, this part of our being will still exist. We are already immortal. That feeling that we all have to live forever, is there, because we already ARE immortal beings. This higher part of our being already knows this. When we finally let go of our physical attachments, and come to realize this - our suffering, and our sorrow will end.

I beleive that God has been used before in the past by religion as a means of escaping sorrow. But what happens, is that we begin to rely on a force, that we beleive is apart from ourselves, to eliminate this suffering. And when we place this power in someone else's hands, we are forgetting that that power lies within us. Happiness and peace lie within, not from without. So we become attached to the idea that this outside force is in control of these things. But we have the ability to end all suffering and sorrow, when we realize that the power to do so lies within ourselves already. This higher part to our being that we call "God", already exists within us. This higher part to our being is who we truly are. The purpose of our existance isn't to acheive immortality- it is to end our suffering. Our true self already posseses immortality.

To answer your question on the immortality of our physical bodies: I don't think that we should FOCUS on acheiving it, but I am also not ruling out that it is possible. I beleive that anything is possible. But to FOCUS on immortality, we are also focusing on death at the same time, because we are constantly striving to defeat death. If our focus was not on death, would we have the ability to defeat death? My thoughts on that is, regardless of whether or not that is true, death of our physical bodies should not be our focus. To focus on it, is to draw it to yourself. Don't focus on death, focus on the elimination of suffering. In a physical sense, it is true, when you have less suffering, you are happier, and happiness leads to a healhier and longer life. So if we were to eliminate ALL suffering- could our physical bodies become immortal also? I don't know the answer to that, but like I said, I beleive that anything is possible. Through the elimination of suffering, I beleive that we can acheive a great number of things. I do beleive that our potential is far beyond what we may be aware of. Of course, these are just my own thoughts on it, though. Thanks for the interesting question! :)

Answer 2

Excellent, insightful, thought provoking question, I have thought the same things many times, so here is my answer.
If you look at much of what Jesus said, it all points to us living a euphoric life,IE:"the kingdom of heaven is within", " if you have faith as a grain of mustars seed, you will say onto this mountain, be thou cast into the ocean and it will be done, and nothing will be impossible to you", I can do all things through GOD","They who wait apon the lord will find thier strength renewed, they will mount up with wings as eagles, the will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint".
I believe the trick is to learn to completly trust God, to let go and let God take over, very difficult, we all feel like we know what is best for us. We create our own sorrow,and our own mortality, God never intends for us to hurt, just like our earthly fathers would never want us to hurt, (hence the story of the prodigal son) this is just what I believe and I have also found that when you focus on other people and try to help them you increase the happiness in your own life. Peace

Answer 3

God is a fantasy created to comfort ourselves with the hope of heaven, scare others into being good with the threat of hell, and above all, a way to explain what we cannot understand.

Answer 4

i dont really know. i would assume that the first beliefs were of Spirits as a way to explain weather or dangerous animals in later years once these cultures understood how to explain them better these animist spirits became gods...

Answer 5

God is an attempt to explain the unknown.

Answer 6

No. God is way OF keeping ourselves from being the freaks in this world...