What Is God's Purpose?

[The Sum of Awe]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

Is that what God is really here for? Our expectations of God? Is there a higher purpose? If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

 

[Madhuri]

I think that most people have over-inflated egos and also operate on survival instincts which lead to what you referred to as using God to justify their behaviour and desires.

I see the world as God's playground. I think the material universe exists for God's desire to express his endless powers and rediscover his own nature over and over again.

Based on my specific idea of the Divine, I think it would be pointless to judge God. First I'd like to comprehend 'him'.

 

[ChristineES]

I think is a lot "more" than we can make Him out to be. People tend to put human characteristics onto G-d.

 

[Gaura Priya]

God is inconceivable. We may conceive some of His attributes through virtues and His qualities, but otherwise He is both immanent and transcendent.

Many people in spiritual traditions may treat God as an 'order-supplier.' That is, they will pray to Divine Presence, not for pure Love, but for some material item. "God, please grant me a car" or "God, please help me from being on the street!"

However, God knows what we want, since He resides in the heart (Paramatma). Instead, Vaishnava Hinduism says that the ultimate prayer is to 'love God, and try to serve Him.' We should express ourselves by praying not for things, but to pray to love Him and to love all other living beings as creative expressions of His power.

 

[Pegg]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

Is that what God is really here for? Our expectations of God? Is there a higher purpose? If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

God is not here to serve us....we are here to serve him.

 

[apophenia]

God is not here to serve us....we are here to serve him.

One can only wonder why an eternal omniscient omnipotent god needs a bunch of homeys 'serving' him.

Omniscient omnipotent and eternally needy ?

Not to mention perverse. Omniscient and omnipotent, yet creates flawed beings whose flaws earn them eternal damnation.

Nasty.

 

[Breathe]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

A lot of people treat God like a Cosmic Sugar Daddy.
Then get bitter, or doubt Its existence, when things don't fall into place.

Is that what God is really here for? Our expectations of God?

I don't think so.

Is there a higher purpose?

I think so.

If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

We're humans, and we judge things from a human perspective. God isn't a human, and Its ideals and plans may be different to our own.

 

[Breathe]

Not to mention perverse. Omniscient and omnipotent, yet creates flawed beings whose flaws earn them eternal damnation.

Nasty.

JWs don't believe in eternal hell.

 

[no-body]

I think a better analogy is that people treat God as a genie or the lottery. A weird mixture of both. With enough worship and adherence to the rules you can will God to be on your side and grant your wishes.

 

[apophenia]

JWs don't believe in eternal hell.

My mistake. Obviously many (most ?) christians and muslims do. And presumably JWs have some notion of punishment for failure to provide the required 'service'.

The question still remains, why would an omnipotent being need to be served ?

An omnipotent being having 'needs' which can only be met by clueless meat machines ? The idea is just mad. :areyoucra

Either god is omnipotent, or god has needs. Both just doesn't work. There is no service required unless god has needs, so if service is required, especially from bozos like us, ,then god is not omnipotent.

 

[Breathe]

My mistake. Obviously many (most ?) christians and muslims do. And presumably JWs have some notion of punishment for failure to provide the required 'service'.

I dunno; JWs are annihilationists, so not quite.

The question still remains, why would an omnipotent being need to be served ?

Not a clue.

 

[BruceDLimber]

From the Baha'i scriptures:


“O SON OF MAN!
“Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image, and revealed to thee My beauty. “
―The Hidden Words, Part One, #4

”O SON OF BOUNTY!
“Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother’s womb, I destined for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love thee. Out of My loving-kindness, ’neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured thee and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become worthy of My invisible bestowals….” [emphasis added.]
--The Hidden Words, Part One, #32

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Iti oj]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

Is that what God is really here for? Our expectations of God? Is there a higher purpose? If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

We are god(s) we are purpose we are will. We are god is that is all

 

[Avoice]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

Many still pray as children, not thinking about the big picture. They want what they want when they want it and misuse scripture and Jesus' name along with their actions to get it.

Is that what God is really here for?

In a word, no.

Our expectations of God?

Those expectations depend on how educated one is about God and whether one cares enough to learn what the big picture is and is unselfish enough to be caring.

Is there a higher purpose?

:yes:

If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

Because we are human and our little lives get between us and the big picture. Judging is basically Adam and Eve's gift to us. We judge and steal, we judge and lie, some judges and murder... God wants us to be saved and live with Him in our midst willingly following His lead. Not many see freedom in that; I do.

 

[Ouroboros]

God is not here to serve us....we are here to serve him.

My kids are my creation. I love them. I would die for them. But I wouldn't want them to serve me like some kind of slaves. I don't demand they worship me or even have to have some twisted "belief" in me. I accept them as they are, even when they do wrong. I still love them and want the best for them, and I incorporate and give them what they need, even when they've ****** me off. Never would I put them in a painful or demeaning punishment just because they didn't "believe" in me.

I sure hope God isn't a lesser person than that.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

The concept of god serves a number of psychological and social purposes.

 

[Willamena]

"God" fills a metaphysical niche where the conscious entity, thriving in dualism and separation from the whole, requires an "other" to complete itself. It is the thought of that that moves thought, or the beingness (being-ability) that is responsible for our "being."

 

[Sir Doom]

Do you believe a lot of people been treating God as a slave or a pet? As in, we use God for our own passions and desires. What are your thoughts?

I agree. A lot of people look at God and their relationship with God in the same manner as they regard their bank or their insurance company. Obviously, this is not a hard and fast rule, but I think its fairly common.

Is that what God is really here for?

Its possible. I doubt it, of course. God made life for god's needs. Not for ours. We don't make a chair for the chair's sake.

Our expectations of God?

Tricky wording. I can't help but expect god to match my expectations. That's a given.

Is there a higher purpose?

I think there is. It doesn't make sense to me otherwise. God must want something that we provide. This one of the reasons I can't believe in an almighty god. Almighty beings don't want for anything. Therefore they wouldn't want us for anything. But here we are! Thus god should be something less than almighty.

If there is a higher purpose, why do we even begin to judge God on how he serves us?

We invent the god, we invent the purpose, we invent the standards for success or failure of the purpose, and we invent everything that god has done. It's only natural that we know exactly how to judge god. We designed it to be exactly that.

 

[Pegg]

One can only wonder why an eternal omniscient omnipotent god needs a bunch of homeys 'serving' him.

Omniscient omnipotent and eternally needy ?

Not to mention perverse. Omniscient and omnipotent, yet creates flawed beings whose flaws earn them eternal damnation.

Nasty.

its simply for the reason that he created this earth for a purpose.... and we have a role in that purpose. By fulfilling that role, or God assigned duty, we are serving God.

 

[Pegg]

And presumably JWs have some notion of punishment for failure to provide the required 'service'.

God does not need to punish us...our lives are shortlived, full of trouble, then we die.

That is as much punishment as God can stand.