Why do religious people give God credit for things they do themselves?

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

God does not give us strength to do every day things. God does not lend a hand when we strive to achieve something special. If he did he would help those less fortunate than ourselves in countries where children starve and suffer. But he doesn't. I believe anything we achieve is indirectly related to the gifts God gave us from birth. He put us in the environments we are in and allowed us to be born of parents that passed on abilities and giftings to us. So to give thanks to God for the things we then achieve is probably not unreasonable.

But if we are honest, the main reason we give thanks to God for all the little things is because it builds faith. It helps you to believe that God is real and he really works in your life. It's great, you can list all these things that God has done for you, even if he didn't actually do it himself.

 

[blah782]

God does not give us strength to do every day things. God does not lend a hand when we strive to achieve something special. If he did he would help those less fortunate than ourselves in countries where children starve and suffer. But he doesn't. I believe anything we achieve is indirectly related to the gifts God gave us from birth. He put us in the environments we are in and allowed us to be born of parents that passed on abilities and giftings to us. So to give thanks to God for the things we then achieve is probably not unreasonable.

But if we are honest, the main reason we give thanks to God for all the little things is because it builds faith. It helps you to believe that God is real and he really works in your life. It's great, you can list all these things that God has done for you, even if he didn't actually do it himself.

I think many people who don't have very good lives, wouldn't consider life a 'gift' per se. If God throws us on earth and then lets us fend for ourselves giving no help with the big or little things...why would anyone pray? Why would you have faith in something that has not and will not help you? I can understand someone claiming they experienced a miracle therefore resulting in a strong faith. Would people be this thankful for a parent who created you, but did nothing to help you once you were alive?

Basically you acknowledge God doesn't really do anything but allegedly put us on earth. It's kind of odd in my opinion to give such credit/thanks to a God who doesn't do a thing regardless of the suffering going on in this world. I just think it would be more sensible to give God credit when he actually...does something.

 

[DallasApple]

I think many people who don't have very good lives, wouldn't consider life a 'gift' per se. If God throws us on earth and then lets us fend for ourselves giving no help with the big or little things...why would anyone pray? Why would you have faith in something that has not and will not help you? I can understand someone claiming they experienced a miracle therefore resulting in a strong faith. Would people be this thankful for a parent who created you, but did nothing to help you once you were alive?

Basically you acknowledge God doesn't really do anything but allegedly put us on earth. It's kind of odd in my opinion to give such credit/thanks to a God who doesn't do a thing regardless of the suffering going on in this world. I just think it would be more sensible to give God credit when he actually...does something.

Maybe He did it all?? Thats the scary part..Like even pre-planned people that He knew would not accept Him and they would go to hell and all that..:sad4:

If you look at it face value its not fun.

Love

Dallas

 

[Beaudreaux]

Maybe He did it all?? Thats the scary part..Like even pre-planned people that He knew would not accept Him and they would go to hell and all that..:sad4:

Well, according to the Christian Bible, that's exactly what he did way in advance (highlighting added for emphasis).

Romans 9:
18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "[h] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? 22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory
​

 

[S-word]

I give God credit for anything I do good because I know he drove me to it.

Love

Dallas

And likewise, do you also hold Satan accountable for all the evil you do, because he drove you to it?

 

[Quagmire]

If nothing else, gratitude is a much healthier attitude than pride is, whether you believe in God or not.

 

[challupa]

If nothing else, gratitude is a much healthier attitude than pride is, whether you believe in God or not.

While I do agree gratitude is healthy, I don't see pride as unhealthy. I think we should be proud of ourselves if we have done something difficult successfully. Not haughty or arrogant or braggart about it, but proud of a job well done for example.

 

[Quagmire]

While I do agree gratitude is healthy, I don't see pride as unhealthy. I think we should be proud of ourselves if we have done something difficult successfully. Not haughty or arrogant or braggart about it, but proud of a job well done for example.

As a spontaneous emotion, it's fine, and a perfectly healthy response to success.

At some point though when we look back on our successes (if we choose to do so for any other reason then to glean whatever inherent lessons there might be) we're indulging in a bit of emotional (or ego) gratification, and we have to decide which emotion we're going to attach to them.

Pride can become an addiction, and like any addiction, indulging in it, to whatever extent we do, distorts our reality.

Gratitude helps us keep a more realistic perspective because; 1). It makes us less likely to exaggerate our successes or what they say about us and 2). Gratitude is much less fun to revel in than pride is so it's likely we'll spend less time doing so, which keeps us from resting on our laurels.

 

[challupa]

As a spontaneous emotion, it's fine, and a perfectly healthy response to success.

At some point though when we look back on our successes (if we choose to do so for any other reason then to glean whatever inherent lessons there might be) we're indulging in a bit of emotional (or ego) gratification, and we have to decide which emotion we're going to attach to them.

Pride can become an addiction, and like any addiction, indulging in it, to whatever extent we do, distorts our reality.

Gratitude helps us keep a more realistic perspective because; 1). It makes us less likely to exaggerate our successes or what they say about us and 2). Gratitude is much less fun to revel in than pride is so it's likely we'll spend less time doing so, which keeps us from resting on our laurels.

Yes I can see what you mean.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Beaudreaux

Why do religious people give God credit for things they do themselves?

There are 2 aspects to it.
1. Religious people are not enlightened and so they are still seperate from that Universal Energy and being religious they THINK that it is god who is there are doing it.
2. Enlightened people know and realise that they are not there and what is, is only an individual energy in a form which is part of the universal energy and whatever happens it is that universal energy or the whole that actually decides which way the flow is.
The individual just flows with that bigger flow.
Love & rgds

 

[Father Heathen]

If god is to have credit for our successes, then god is to also have credit for our failures.

 

[no_spoon]

If god is to have credit for our successes, then god is to also have credit for our failures.

That doesn't make sense to my view of God.

In my theology we are in a relationship with God. I am also in a relationship with my family, friends and employer. There are most certainly times when I feel the bulk of the credit for my success goes to training, confidence, resources or patience received from the other person(s) in the relationship. At those times it is only sensible to give some credit to them.

There are other times when I feel that I have been treated poorly or even harmed by others in a relationship, and it is only sensible to give some blame to them.

I believe the relationship with God is similar, although it cannot be exact because of the nature of the other person. I think the closest you can come (and analogies are always inexact and slippery) would be a military drill instructor. I am sure many in boot camp have constructed complex arguments as to why all their problems are the fault of the drill instructor and with that person's unrealistic and harsh treatment. But, in general, the recruits are wrong. I suspect there are many times in the future when they will give credit to the drill instructor for things which they did, and other times when they will realize they have built upon and gone beyond their training.

 

[no_spoon]

With regard to the OP, I would add two more points:

- The movie "Groundhog Day" summarizes my view of God's relationship to our lives; God is trying to put us in situations where we decide to grow, and gives us these situations over and over. We have some flexibility in our lives, but in the end the world is basically the same (at least from a global perspective) and it is we who must change, not the world or God. This is one of the things I thank God for, that there is no final exam. Each interaction with others is a quiz which helps me to learn and grow, and at the end of my life I will not be judged by the average of my scores on those quizzes, but on what I have become based on doing the best I can each time. It's about growth and change. Any parent can tell you this is what they want from their children.

- In a funny kind of way when you realize you are stuck in the movie "Groundhog Day" (every day is basically the same except for your reactions) it's one of the ways you end up deciding God does exist. As I've said before in other posts, this Universe and our place in it is too fishy, too "rigged" for me to swallow as being the result of galactic time scales and atomic/thermodynamic processes. I know others may disagree.

 

[Luminous]

Ronald Reagan once told a fantastic joke. To paraphrase:


A great joke (Gosh sometimes I miss Reagan) and one that resonates with me. There are other examples from real life. When a professional basketball player, who has spent his life training and working to hone his skills, makes a great shot, I will often see them point to the sky to "give the glory to God." Why? Clearly their success has come from their own hard work. Why do the religious sometimes feel the need to claim that God should get the credit for their hard work?

its like Voltaire said.

God is always on the side of the big battalions.

 

[Luminous]

With regard to the OP, I would add two more points:

- The movie "Groundhog Day" summarizes my view of God's relationship to our lives; God is trying to put us in situations where we decide to grow, and gives us these situations over and over. We have some flexibility in our lives, but in the end the world is basically the same (at least from a global perspective) and it is we who must change, not the world or God. This is one of the things I thank God for, that there is no final exam. Each interaction with others is a quiz which helps me to learn and grow, and at the end of my life I will not be judged by the average of my scores on those quizzes, but on what I have become based on doing the best I can each time. It's about growth and change. Any parent can tell you this is what they want from their children.

- In a funny kind of way when you realize you are stuck in the movie "Groundhog Day" (every day is basically the same except for your reactions) it's one of the ways you end up deciding God does exist. As I've said before in other posts, this Universe and our place in it is too fishy, too "rigged" for me to swallow as being the result of galactic time scales and atomic/thermodynamic processes. I know others may disagree.

Maybe you're making your own tests as you go along and in reality there is no one grading your progress. i suggest we just dance

 

[Luminous]

The religious too often become the beasts of burden for their false god. they, believing they are cared sheep, begin to do work on their 'shepards' behalve.

 

[Beaudreaux]

The religious too often become the beasts of burden for their false god. they, believing they are cared sheep, begin to do work on their 'shepards' behalve.

That is a beautiful and poetic way of saying something that could have sounded staid, straightforward and normal.

So, would you mind terribly saying it the staid, straighforward and normal way, because I don't get it...

 

[Charity]

God helps those who help themselves.....
Just think a bad situation could have been even worse if God wasn't helping....

 

[Beaudreaux]

God helps those who help themselves.....
Just think a bad situation could have been even worse if God wasn't helping....

The phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is another way of saying that God doesn't really help anybody.

 

[tumbleweed41]

Where does personal responsibility come into all this? Every person is responsible for his or her actions. If I fail, or do a misdeed, I am solely responsible. However, if I succeed, I am not? Is this not counter to freewill? What of when a person who does not believe in an interpersonal God succeeds? Was God helping him/her anyway? Does God only help the believer? And if the believer works hard, using all of his/her abilities, but fails...who is responsible then?