Why would God care?

Question

I'm an atheist. However, I generally CAN see things from the perspective of a believer. I disagree, however, I do see their logic, or rather, lack thereof.

But: Though "God" does not "want" us to "sin," WHY does it matter to him? Why does he care? It's not as if our sin affects him directly, in a negative matter.

So WHY!?

If you don't have an answer that directly correlates to "Why," please don't bother answering. I'm not interested in how accepting God will give me faith in life, or that God wants the best for us, or anything. I'm asking: What's in it for God?

I'm not talking about stealing guns, or whatever. That's MORALLY wrong. But not all sins are morally wrong, as far as I'm concerned. I see nothing wrong with lust. If my neighbor gets a pretty new car, and I see it, I might think, "Ooh! I want one like that." If you never have that feeling, it's pretty hard to amount to anything, in terms of getting what you want in life. Etc...

Answer 1

What is so difficult to understand about organized religion?

The use of *fear* is an important tool for many organized religions when trying to keep members or looking for converts.

It's not just religions, political parties can also use fear as a tool.

As for what's in it for God:

If one is to assume there is some omnipotent being out there, this being would be far beyond the human ability to comprehend. Some answers will always remain unknowable, whether in science or religion.

Answer 2

Well, I feel that God wants us to join Him in heaven. He wants people who are good and strong. It takes strength to resist some things. Builds character, etc. As to lusting after a car, that is not sin unless it consumes you. We all have desires. God wants people who can control themselves most or much of the time.

At least this is my take on things. I appreciate your question and the way you worded it. Very nice. And even though you are an self-professed atheist, I say to you, may God bless you and keep you safe from harm while opening your eyes and heart to His loving grace..

Answer 3

No god certainly is not forgiving in fact god doesnt even give a crap if you think gods forgiving what about the crusades what about the Italian and Spanish inquisitions its alliance with hitler and modern day sex abuses that have injured thousands and cost the church billions is god supposed to forgive all these sins all these horrble bad wrongheaded interpretations of his word its all BS the church government and big buisness want to control you everything about you what you do what you buy what you think who you like wake up and get as far away from that bible as possible the bibly is just an instrument made up by men along time ago to control people for example "The meek shall inherit the earth" they just say that because if you believe it that its cool to be meek you wont complain think about it

Answer 4

Good question. I doubt if you will get good answers.
God does not care about sin obviously or it would not have been his plan. Some claim that God needs sin to test us with but that makes no sense either.
Up until 1766 these types of questions would have gotten you killed for heresy.
The answer that it is like God being your parent still does not answer the question. Pointing out that God is not real does not answer the question. Even if God is fiction the plot device of sin bothering him still deserves an answer.

Here is my answer.
It is part and parcel of the guilt trip laid out by religion as a control method. We are taught to feel sympathy and guilt over how we treated our parents, as well as love for our parents.
Religion, especially Christianity, capitalizes on these emotions. Poor God, when you don't do as the priest tells you to you break God's heart. He is disappointed, just like your mommy would be.
Now the idea of causing your mother to cry and the guilt associated with that is transferred to the church.
It is just one more of the mind control tricks in religions big bag of psychological tricks.
Remember, God loves you, his other children, so much that he killed his only son for you.

It is because if questions like these that religion encourages faith, and discourages thinking to the point that any such questions are blamed on Satan.

Answer 5

most sins are the root of problems in society. killing, stealing, screwing your neighbor's wife, not listening to your parents ("whateva! I do what I want!"), etc.

"Thou shalt not have any other gods before me" well that one's obvious. And a lot of the things considered sin are just things that go against God's intentions for mankind. Mankind is like the ultimate disobediant child. As a parent (and if you're not, imagine you are) think about how you would feel if you told your child not to do something and he kept doing it over and over. You would be pretty upset. And although what he's doing may not directly affect you, it still upsets you. It's kind of like that.

Answer 6

You know what I find interesting, why does an atheist care, if God cares if we sin? I do see your logic, or rather, lack thereof. I think secretly, you want to know pretty badly, but your secret is out. How do YOU know our sinning doesn't affect him directly? You don't even believe HE exists, right? As our Creator, and in affect, our "Father", maybe it hurts him, makes Him sad, makes him cry, and agonize over even creating us in this human flesh. I always think in terms of my dad, or of being a parent myself. IF, you have children, would you care if they did anything wrong? Would it affect YOU? Would you be sad, maybe even cry, if it was serious enough? What's in it for Him? What's in it for any parent? What's in any of these answers for you, logic? None of us have any. Oh, and I might add, the quintessential answer to your question, is YOU, and your question.

Answer 7

God cares because, not only does He love, but He IS love. (see 1st article cited below)

God does not want ANY of His creation to "perish"... that is the spiritual death, or separation from God. Why? See above. Our sin affects Him directly because it keeps us from being "at one" with Him... it separates us from Him. He doesn't want that.

He holds us all accountable for our sin, which is why we are all under the "death penalty" for it. But He loves us so much that He resloved this accountability problem with the sacrifice of His Beloved Son.

What's in it for God? Love. That's what is in it for God. He loves us, and He wants us to love Him. And it does hurt Him when we sin and "disappoint" Him.

In a "brief" sort of way, I hope I helped answer your question. The websites below sort of go into the "in depth" explanations.


Have a blessed day.

Answer 8

But it does affect him directly. It says in the bible that we are created in his image. Since he is our maker and our heavenly father, we are 'one in him' and therefor our sins do affect him.

Just like a child who misbehaves, he will be punished for doing wrong, and it hurts the parent who punishes the child, but the punishment is for the child's own good and well being. The parent wants to keep the child safe and 'good', so as not to get hurt. This would directly affect the parent, just as God feels toward us, his children.

Answer 9

Imagine God as all the religions make him out to be, able to get exactly what he wants, when he wants, and able to make anyone do anything......let that settle in your mind for a moment. ANY ABILITY.

Alright. Now imagine that you are God. You are perfect, unable to do wrong, unable to commit anything evil, but you can have anything that you want. What would be the first thing that you would want? Wealth? Fame? Beautiful surroundings? Perhaps a league of adoring fans? Let's do better, a million adoring angels!

That would feel good for about one minute. Then the empty loneliness would come in with the realization that you have to MAKE them do what you want. They aren't choosing it.

Follow me, I'm actually answering your question, believe it or not.

This is where humanity comes into the picture, as we are the first of God's creation to have free will. He let us have our way with the world, but we chose imperfection, which means that we cannot have a direct relationship with God, as he, being perfect, cannot justify touching us as we possess evil within each of us. If he were to violate that, his perfection would be stained, and that cannot occur.

That is the price and punishment of sin, separation from God. That's why he hates for us to sin, because it keeps us away from him. He loves us like a faithful groom awaits his bride at a wedding! He longs to be with us ultimately.

Why? Because he doesn't have to make us want him. We have the choice to love him back.

Answer 10

That's the thing, God doesn't care! We are made in God's image, so that obviously means God can tell great dirty jokes and sit on the couch next to us and have a beer then have sex with his girlfriend that same night. God is not a strict God like everyone makes him out to be. God is aware of science and human nature, so it's not a "sin" if you get h*rny and have sex with someone...who came up with that anyway? People have just made up these ridiculous rules for religion to keep the power over the people and to keep the religion from falling apart.