Can God Experience Pleasure?

[allfoak]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

The simple answer is no.
God learns through our soul and our soul learns through us.
God and our souls are perfectly balanced, it is us who have need for emotion to make sense of the world we live in.
It is us humans who are not yet whole and balanced.
It is through this process that the Sons of God will one day be revealed and the rest of creation liberated.

 

[whirlingmerc]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

I think, yes. Pleasing God suggests there is some pleasure.
There is a book called 'The pleasures of God' by John Piper
God's ultimate passion is God's glory, which is also a book 'God's passion for God;s glory'

God is not carried away by pleasure or anger as a person might tho.
Jesus said 'Enter into the joy of the Father' which suggests the Father has joy

 

[Hockeycowboy]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

The Abrahamic God? Yes. Psalms 78:41

Proverbs 27:11

 

[osgart]

I believe the god experience is called transcendental desire. And mine experience of it is awesome peace, and tranquility. Perfect love, justice, and beauty, and relationship. The freedom to be yourself. With my experiences of it there are corresponding feelings; very other worldly and very much at home. Its a pure pleasure very unlike the pleasures of physical life.

For me the experiences outweigh the evidences against it. And no i dont take any drugs.

Just the mere fact that my feelings can correspond to how i feel at heart compels me to a higher power. Certainly not every feeling i have makes any sense, but when they do its utterly fantastic. I dont believe in god but i do feel a higher presence.

 

[Starbuck]

Gods in other cultures feel much pain and pleasure and are often painted specifically with human emotions. There are Gods of Chaos who love mankind. Gods of Choas who take on the form of nature and do natures will. There are Gods of Strategy who are also Scholars and poets. There are Gods who love material wealth yet help out sometimes when they feel like it. There are Gods of Healing who also collect the dead.

If you are discussing the Abrahamic God of Israel (Which I believe you are) then the kindest way to put it is he is *********. He feels everything a ********* feels. He's also the type to come to a party and demand you kill your son to show you really love him. Very insecure and childish. All one needs to do is look through the bible and look at human history to see that.

Genesis 22:2 Then God said, “Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain.” (What kind of Good Person does this)

Genesis 22:12 The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you do respect and obey God. I see that you are ready to kill your son, your only son, for me.”(Naw don't sacrifice your son I just wanted to see you loved me)

He's also the type to mess up then a do over and say he is awesome and perfect.

Genesis 6: 11-13 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.(Not much has changed afterward to be fair)

Genesis 8 20-21 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Wait what why?) ​

Yes, God can experience all of these things because He is not just some invisible force that fills the universe, He is my Father in Heaven. He is like my earthly father (who was pretty wonderful himself), except that He has all of the attributes of an absolutely perfect parent. I can't imagine a parent who had no emotions, who was never happy or sad or angry or forgiving.

The perfect parent who sends his "only" son (even though we are all supposedly sons and daughters of your God) to die because he messed up by imperfectly creating original sin which he could have seen because he is supposedly infallible and omnipotent. The Christian God is more like an awful alcoholic stepdad who kills his child to hide some horrible things he did in the past. He then makes a gofundme to make money off of his death so he can build the Vatican.

Perhaps I over simplified it. Forgive me.

No... I believe He felt the pain of separation/divorce when Adam chose to follow another spirit. But the physical pain.. (just an assumption in as much as the Bible is not specifice)... yes since there is no pain in Heaven.

He is supposedly infallible and omnipotent so he knew it would happen. Why was he protecting the tree of knowledge by the way? Didn't he have the knowledge to know it would happen. So why would he be saddened by something he KNEW for a fact would happen. It's kind of like dropping a bowling ball on your head and not expecting it to hurt.​

 

[Cacotopia]

The reverse anthropomorphizing god and man deal, The people that wrote the bible, knew themselves but not of the world so they made their god in a better image of man.

I would imagine that immortality and omniscience sucks the joy out of everything You know how it's going to happen, you have experienced all and even if you hadn't you know how it is. Due to the all encompassing knowledge deal. I bet your god is extremely depressed. God has no wonder, no excitement, and no joy, because due to his nature there is no surprise in all that he does due to his knowledge of the outcome.

I imagine gods are nihilists.

 

[Katzpur]

The perfect parent who sends his "only" son (even though we are all supposedly sons and daughters of your God) to die because he messed up by imperfectly creating original sin which he could have seen because he is supposedly infallible and omnipotent. The Christian God is more like an awful alcoholic stepdad who kills his child to hide some horrible things he did in the past. He then makes a gofundme to make money off of his death so he can build the Vatican.

Not one word of what you said is accurate in terms of what I believe about God. You don't actually know anything about my beliefs, but if it makes you happy to think you do, knock yourself out, and carry on with the delusion.

 

[Katzpur]

What brought you to this conclusion?

70 years of life.

 

[Cacotopia]

No we don't know what your specific beliefs are. But the bible states X and we are basing X off of your label of latter day saints christian. But then again there is absolutely zero consistency in the specific beliefs from every christian or any other believer for that matter. They are all snowflakes. and not that bs name calling term. You are all different and all have different beliefs on a specific scale. Generally speaking there is some consistency. But even then it is still a crap shoot with the 10's of 1000's of denominations and factions within Christianity.

 

[Cacotopia]

The simple answer is no.
God learns through our soul and our soul learns through us.
God and our souls are perfectly balanced, it is us who have need for emotion to make sense of the world we live in.
It is us humans who are not yet whole and balanced.
It is through this process that the Sons of God will one day be revealed and the rest of creation liberated.

God can't learn because he is omniscient.

 

[dfnj]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

An omnipotent God needs absolutely nothing from us. It's not like God needs a certain number of people to take Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior else God will die. An omnipotent God is beyond death.

However, many religions teach us our consciousness is like a drop of water in ocean of God's mind. The idea is we exist so God can experience the thrill of having limitations by sharing our experiences of joys, sorrows, and frustrations. The goal of an omnipotent God is to realize every possible experience imaginable in order to complete God's omnipotent power. So if you believe many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics there are an infinite number of yous expressing or choosing every possible choice you could ever possibly make at any point in your life. The goal is to realize God's omnipotence.

In terms of quality of experiences, then if you accept this idea of God realizing every possible experience, and we are God's way of experiencing the thrill of having limitations, then whatever makes any of us have joy is what God prefers to experience. In other words, our preferences for the qualities of our experiences are the ones God would choose.

 

[dfnj]

Gods in other cultures feel much pain and pleasure and are often painted specifically with human emotions. There are Gods of Chaos who love mankind. Gods of Choas who take on the form of nature and do natures will. There are Gods of Strategy who are also Scholars and poets. There are Gods who love material wealth yet help out sometimes when they feel like it. There are Gods of Healing who also collect the dead.

If you are discussing the Abrahamic God of Israel (Which I believe you are) then the kindest way to put it is he is *********. He feels everything a ********* feels. He's also the type to come to a party and demand you kill your son to show you really love him. Very insecure and childish. All one needs to do is look through the bible and look at human history to see that.

Genesis 22:2 Then God said, “Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain.” (What kind of Good Person does this)

Genesis 22:12 The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you do respect and obey God. I see that you are ready to kill your son, your only son, for me.”(Naw don't sacrifice your son I just wanted to see you loved me)

He's also the type to mess up then a do over and say he is awesome and perfect.

Genesis 6: 11-13 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.(Not much has changed afterward to be fair)

Genesis 8 20-21 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Wait what why?) ​

The perfect parent who sends his "only" son (even though we are all supposedly sons and daughters of your God) to die because he messed up by imperfectly creating original sin which he could have seen because he is supposedly infallible and omnipotent. The Christian God is more like an awful alcoholic stepdad who kills his child to hide some horrible things he did in the past. He then makes a gofundme to make money off of his death so he can build the Vatican.

He is supposedly infallible and omnipotent so he knew it would happen. Why was he protecting the tree of knowledge by the way? Didn't he have the knowledge to know it would happen. So why would he be saddened by something he KNEW for a fact would happen. It's kind of like dropping a bowling ball on your head and not expecting it to hurt.​

I really liked your post. Really well thought out.

I agree, I think God knew exactly what was going to happen to the apple in the garden with a naked woman prancing about. Women are my evidence God is a female. No one can create something so beautiful and desirable as a woman and not be one!

 

[dfnj]

The reverse anthropomorphizing god and man deal, The people that wrote the bible, knew themselves but not of the world so they made their god in a better image of man.

I would imagine that immortality and omniscience sucks the joy out of everything You know how it's going to happen, you have experienced all and even if you hadn't you know how it is. Due to the all encompassing knowledge deal. I bet your god is extremely depressed. God has no wonder, no excitement, and no joy, because due to his nature there is no surprise in all that he does due to his knowledge of the outcome.

I imagine gods are nihilists.

Great post! I'm not sure I would classify an omnipotent God as only being an nihilist. Omnipotence means God can be two things at once. So God can be a nihilist and also be the most enthusiastic evangelical Mormon at the same time.

 

[dfnj]

The perfect parent who sends his "only" son (even though we are all supposedly sons and daughters of your God) to die because he messed up by imperfectly creating original sin which he could have seen because he is supposedly infallible and omnipotent. The Christian God is more like an awful alcoholic stepdad who kills his child to hide some horrible things he did in the past.

You forgot to add the stepdad also dragged his son's dead body to a ditch and covered it with a dead cow so the authorities would never find the rotting corpse.

 

[Dawnofhope]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

It is not possible for the finite mind of man to grasp the relative infinite mind of God. The table is incapable of perceiving the carpenter who made it. The baby in the womb of the mother can not comprehend this world until after it has been born.

The language in sacred scripture that attributes human qualities to God should be seen as Divine assistance to enable humanity to better understand the nature of our relationship with One who is both an intimate friend and an unknowable essence.

 

[allfoak]

God can't learn because he is omniscient.

Paradox
Both thoughts are true, God is both learning and omniscient.
It is happening and has already happened. Depends upon the perspective is all.

 

[shunyadragon]

I'm assuming you're reply has basis in Genesis 1:27, which I anticipated ITT.

If my assumption is correct, and if He attributed His qualities unto man, why do we have sociopaths, murders, rapists, and other miscreants roaming the earth?

And while I'm anticipating a Satan reference in upcoming posts, I'll preempt them by asking why He would introduce such malevolent attributes to mankind, or question the relevance to the OP.

As far as the God Creating our physical physical existence and humanity with the attributes of God does not translate that we can assume an anthropomorphic God with human attributes and weaknesses.

This projection of human attributes on God is a reflection of an ancient mythical worldview of God(s).

 

[Kenny]

This is kind of off-topic, but how'd you come up with the idea that it was Adam's job to keep Satan out of the Garden?

This is kind of off-topic, but how'd you come up with the idea that it was Adam's job to keep Satan out of the Garden?

For various reasons.

Jesus, as the second Adam, cast out devils wherever he went

God has given Adan dominion over the earth and the work of His hands

Jesus gave us that dominion back and commanded us to do the same thing.

 

[SalixIncendium]

70 years of life.

Your response is doublespeak and really doesn't tell me anything.

 

[Etritonakin]

In a recent thread, it was suggested that God can be pleased by one action over another.

Can God experience pleasure? Can God be happy? sad? angry? forgiving?

Is it productive in your faith to attribute human qualities to God? Why?

In Old and New Testament -based faiths, "delight" is the whole point (though, in reality, by a very round-about yet necessary experience of that which does not produce it).
It is the motivation for God essentially reproducing himself -saying "ye are gods" and creating the "children of God" -in order to share the awesomeness and increase, delight, joy and love exponentially -perhaps infinitely -and for creating "the heavens" as well as the earth, which are both described as being "formed to be inhabited".

In the New Testament there is this....
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

In the Old Testament there is this....
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 18"But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create .......

And ....though biblical scripture states that all things -both bad and then good -are first to the Jew/Israelite, it is truly no different than being the first on a bus going the same place as everyone else -and even the first resurrection described in the New Testament will include some of al peoples -because there is what is prophesied to happen on earth with men, and what is prophesied of those made immortal. While it is prophesied that Israelites will inhabit the area in and around Jerusalem as men, a great multitude of all nations will reign on earth -the law going forth from Jerusalem -as immortals.
Eventually, we will also go out into the universe.
So.... It is not as though we have limited time or space -or any real reason to be in conflict.
There will be conflict, but then it will cease -and ALL will be prepared to inherit everything.
The meek -of all nations -shall inherit the earth first, but then the entire creation.