Why did God create the world and man?

Discuss philosophical questions regarding theism (and atheism), and discuss religion as it relates to philosophy. This includes any philosophical discussions that happen to be about god, gods, or a 'higher power' or the belief of them. This also generally includes philosophical topics about organized or ritualistic mysticism or about organized, common or ritualistic beliefs in the existence of supernatural phenomenon.
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Sy Borg
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by Sy Borg »

LuckyR wrote: December 27th, 2017, 6:55 pm The only person qualified to answer this question is the original human who invented the idea of gods. Alas they are long dead. But I suppose anyone and everyone else's opinion is as good as any other. Just with less authority.
As noted earlier, Lucky, the first evidence suggestive of religious belief are Australopithecus burial shrines.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Greta wrote: December 27th, 2017, 6:57 pm
LuckyR wrote: December 27th, 2017, 6:55 pm The only person qualified to answer this question is the original human who invented the idea of gods. Alas they are long dead. But I suppose anyone and everyone else's opinion is as good as any other. Just with less authority.
As noted earlier, Lucky, the first evidence suggestive of religious belief are Australopithecus burial shrines.
Exactly, I wonder what their answer would be?
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by Eduk »

Religions by and large are rarely the work of one man. I guess Scientology might be ☺️
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Eduk wrote: December 28th, 2017, 5:13 am Religions by and large are rarely the work of one man. I guess Scientology might be ☺️
You are familiar with the LDS, right?
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by Eduk »

LuckyR I thought you were a Mormon? Anyway I kind of think of it as a denomination of Christianity. I could be wrong?
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Arguably, If the God of the Hebrews and the future Jewish/Christian people, created "the heavens and the earth," He did so for companionship and beauty/goodness. God would have been the lone being, according to biblical and religious belief/chronicle, and, as such, he could have become lonely. Additionally, the world was seen as "good" to God. This goodness is perceived as beauty and ultimate potentiality in actuality. He created the world because it would become "good," and he would have inhabitants so that He were no longer lonely. I think any good creationist argument has something to do with the personification of God and the divination of man. In theory, one may personify God and divinize man, in order to have a clearer picture of God (and perhaps man). Why does an artist create great art? Perhaps it is just part of who they are. That is what I think. And, they see it as "good." So then, I would say God's character is such that creating a world with all of us and the other living things, mountains, etc. is just what he would do. And if that is true, how wonderful it is to be made, and how great it is to have a God out there, who would desire to create such beautiful scenery, people and living things.

Philosophically, If a God of this sort exists, then he may have created the world so that the other would be. Individuals and the other are, essentially, a product of His creation. Therefore, this philosophical topic of Individual and Other Minds comes from a created universe by an eternal God.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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LuckyR wrote: December 28th, 2017, 3:58 am
Greta wrote: December 27th, 2017, 6:57 pmAs noted earlier, Lucky, the first evidence suggestive of religious belief are Australopithecus burial shrines.
Exactly, I wonder what their answer would be?
Given the inevitable harshness of their lives, I imagine they would have figured that the god/s were punishing them, rewarding them, challenging them or toying with them. Interesting that it didn't occur to them that they could be simply collateral damage of powerful natural processes.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Eduk wrote: December 28th, 2017, 3:25 pm LuckyR I thought you were a Mormon? Anyway I kind of think of it as a denomination of Christianity. I could be wrong?
Wow, you really how to hurt a guy... But seriously, I must be among the world's worst communicators.

As to the LDS, they firmly believe they are a denomination of the standard christian churches. The standard christian churches tend to think of them as a cult.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Greta,

I realize now that you are not a creationist. That is fine. However, what convinces you that "powerful natural processes" makes humanity, I presume, "collateral damage?" And, can I ask one more: why do you think that your version of the world's beginning is better than a creationists?
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by LuckyR »

Greta wrote: December 28th, 2017, 4:27 pm
LuckyR wrote: December 28th, 2017, 3:58 am Exactly, I wonder what their answer would be?
Given the inevitable harshness of their lives, I imagine they would have figured that the god/s were punishing them, rewarding them, challenging them or toying with them. Interesting that it didn't occur to them that they could be simply collateral damage of powerful natural processes.
Well, yes and no. True, their lives were incredibly brutal... to our Modern eyes. To them their lives were average. The thing that is likely notable about their existence IMO would be what they felt about the hierarchy of their society. Compared to us, it was an incredibly flat hierarchy, but compared to their peers/ancestors, it might be the start/development of a hierarchical and stratified society. If so, then it is highly likely that the invention of gods was a technique to just up the ladder and partake of the spoils.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Wesgtr wrote: December 28th, 2017, 5:11 pmGreta,

I realize now that you are not a creationist. That is fine. However, what convinces you that "powerful natural processes" makes humanity, I presume, "collateral damage?" And, can I ask one more: why do you think that your version of the world's beginning is better than a creationists?
I assume that you are not referring to the obviously mythological anthropomorphic deity that people refer to as "He" but a fundamental intelligence posited to exist within the fabric of reality by mystics, and more properly referred to as "it"; some models being pantheistic and others panentheistic.

You ask why I think the way I do. Why do you think the way you do? :) As far as I can tell, we are each small, somewhat aware parts of the Earth with a particular perspective shaped by temperament and life experience.

Was there always intelligence in the universe or is reality gradually becoming more aware and intelligent? I don't know the answer to that question, one that's been disagreed upon through history by many sharper minds than ours. From our human perspective it looks like awareness evolves, but if we do reside within a larger, exponentially more sophisticated mentality, how could we possibly know?

Is this is the first universe or the trillionth? Maybe in previous universes some beings kept evolving and advancing, progressively solving the ever greater perils thrown at them by the cosmos, even surviving the heat death of their universe. There mere presence of such beings would influence any subsequent big bang, since they would necessarily change the initial state of what would be a chaotic system. Aka "God".

Given that this is a philosophy forum rather than a religious forum, my doubt leaves me no choice but stay on the fence and lean towards the view that's least reliant on assumptions, and hope for more information to help clarify the situation.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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Tadstormy wrote: September 3rd, 2013, 5:07 pm Why did God create the world and man? God, by definition, does not lack anything. If so, then why did God create the world and man? Does the world and man fill in some lack in God’s own being?
Perhaps because imperfections are more interesting. Would you watch a movie which shows only perfect good, perfect justice, perfection all round without any encroachment of the polluting and insidious to make things interesting...to give it a story! Creation is a distortion of perfection since the former, in contrast to the latter, is dynamic breaking up and reordering the so-called Platonic Solids into an endless Kaleidoscope of shapes. One is only a god or brain paralyzed to the extent one can put up with the perfection of boredom.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

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But who is to say that gods created anything? Perhaps gods are just habitants of the universe (like us).

There are plenty of religions where the universe wasn't created by gods, the gods just live in the universe.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by Jklint »

LuckyR wrote: December 29th, 2017, 9:31 pm But who is to say that gods created anything? Perhaps gods are just habitants of the universe (like us).

There are plenty of religions where the universe wasn't created by gods, the gods just live in the universe.
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Re: Why did God create the world and man?

Post by Robert-Nielsen »

<t>God, the Supreme Power, is the One Single Highest Vibration. The Supreme Power is the One Single Highest Vibration that evolved into Mind Force as It learned that It was All that Is. During Its evolvement, It experienced involuntary convulsions, which were responsible for lowering the One Single Highest Vibration, causing changes from purely theoretical vibrational energy thought forms to energy transformed into material forms. The material forms, inherently metamorphosed and converted to its original source, the One Single Highest Vibration. As the converted material arrived into the One Single Highest Vibration, it imprinted a summary of what transpired during its migration. The imprints were saved in a reservoir immediately beneath the crest of the wave constituting the One Single Highest Vibration. Time is nonexistent for the Supreme Power. Initially, after much evolution, the imprints were useful because they provided proof that it was possible for some Thing with lower vibrations, to be immersed in and surrounded by Pure Energy, which constituted All that Was. The One Single Highest Vibration or Pure Energy, metamorphosed and separated from Pure Energy the portion in which It stored the Force of Thought, and that became Mind Force. It is true that the One Single Highest Vibration represents All that Is, or can ever Be, but Mind Force draws upon that Energy to Create Stuff or non-Stuff, which makes up whatever is not already Pure Energy, or the One Single Highest Vibration. Prior to that discovery, the Supreme Power was in a blissful state of consciousness, which It deplored!That occurrence led to It making deliberate attempts to reduce portions of Itself to lower vibrations or material and observing the spectacle of its return as occurred earlier when It was unconscious. Having grasped that basic concept, It performed an infinite quantity of experiments. The Supreme Power learned much and devised a system of Control Centers that operated on pure logic and truth, which is used in Its decision making. Laws were designed to prevent any loss of control as a result of Its experiments, including the possibility of ever becoming bored, a condition that could possibly cause It to fall asleep. After getting Its house in order, It eventually became lonely. That condition caused the creation of a companion, endowed with free will, to share in Its magnificent accomplishments. Its laws prohibited It from creating anything that could overpower It, singularly, or in combination with other creations. Eventually, the companion wanted more than the Supreme Power could provide and it also created a companion, as did that additional companion, ad infinitum. The Supreme Power, lonely again, devised a method to gather Its infinitesimally subdivided companion back to It, without violating truth or usurpation of free will. What happened after that constitutes the history of trillions upon trillions of universes and their occupants - be they in purely technological form or a form that we are more familiar with. One thing is certain, they all contain a soul. It is the soul that the Supreme Power desires to return and share Its experiences with It without regard to time. In a material form, time certainly exists, and all Stuff or on-Stuff (material) has to follow the inherent path which leads to the transformation to Pure Energy, or the One Single Highest Vibration. The Supreme Power desires all of Its creations containing a soul, good, bad, or indifferent to return to It prior to conversion to Pure Energy, which does not include memory of any type. A soul gaining sufficient vibration to match that of Mind Force is reabsorbed into the theoretical with full memory and capabilities of comprehending all acts thereafter accomplished by the Supreme Power and Its companion(s).</t>
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