28 thoughts on “The answer to a burning question”

  3. I’m with you on the general pointlessness of existence, the ubiquity of pain and suffering, and antinatalism.

    Epictetus wisely said (among other things):

    “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

    Distinguishing what is and is not in your power is essential. But if you lament the indifference of the cosmos, or the fact that there is suffering in the world, which you can do nothing about, it’s much like lamenting that Earth has only one moon.

    http://saynotolife.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-is-life-accomplishing.htm

  9. “Why did God create us?”

    The most common answer I’ve encountered is some variation of “to love and be loved.” The idea is that God needed human beings in order to manifest the most perfect state or states of love.

    There are a lot of problems with this (even if you’re not dealing with the People of the Book but some vague Spiritual Essence.) For one thing, if God is Perfect Love why the need for tinkering? What about the Problem of Evil, and the subsequent problems with all the theodices which attempt to answer this problem?

    But what bothers me the most is the very concept of relationship-level values antedating any actual relationships. Love, like hunger, evolved. It requires agents in an environment. More specifically, it requires an environment in which one is interacting with others.

    Starting out with a complex thing like love, something that is love, something that needs love, or whatever absent anything else or anyone else makes no sense. As the phrase goes, “it is in need of explanation.”

    1. I was listening to a debate recently between an atheist and a philosophy/theology student (Christian).

      The Christian noticed no contradiction in pitching a God who was Omni and Perfect, but nonetheless “had to” create an external universe and humans in order to achieve the full measure of Perfect Goodness.

      Even more amazing: the atheist brought up the problem of honest non-belief, and how could a God who demands a personal relationship for salvation leave so many honestly lacking belief in His existence.
      The atheist pointed out “You can’t have a Personal relationship with someone if you don’t even hold any belief in their existence.”

      The Theology student replied essentially: “Why should anyone think that a problem?”

      I laughed out loud only to be further amazed that the Christian said he’d constructed some sort of philosophical concept of having a personal relationship with someone you have no belief in, presented it to his professor, who said essentially: “sounds legit.”

      The mind boggles.

      1. Heh. You can have a “personal” “relationship” with “someone” you “don’t” even “believe” in.

        The more ambiguity you introduce, the less obvious a logical contradiction is. Some fervent believers carry around a bag of “scare quotes,” just in case the need arises. “Believe” it.

  12. Well, I think that is a great question!

    If you are an Omni-perfect god, you certainly wouldn’t need anything else to make you happy (i.e. there was no reason for us to come into existence).

    If you were a just and all-loving god and thought you needed more sentient beings to give more love to, there certainly would be much more love than suffering in the world than what you currently see.

    If you were a just and all-evil god and thought you needed more sentient beings to give more pain to, there certainly would be much more pain than happiness in the world than what you currently see.

    So, if a god created life for himself, he either is not perfect, or bungled badly, or was definitely a bungling idiot not worth worshiping.

    Of course there is the third alternative; A supernatural force created the forces behind the big bang and then moved on to other things. But, again why would we care about such a creator?

  14. That answer is brilliant in all its conciseness.

    For good, old-fashioned christian bafflegab, scroll down to the answer of Sean Cruz:

    [God’s] goal is that we will, eventually co-exist in a perfect community between Creator with creation. Not because he needs it, but because he wants to share the beauty, love, and goodness of perfect community with creation.
    […]
    God also made us for other reasons: for his glory. To show us how much he loves us by humbling himself to a man, and dying in our place to save us from sin.

    Cool story, bro. Who told you this?

  15. Well, of course science can ‘only’ answer HOW he created us.
    Theology (the logy of Theo) answers WHY…

    So: Why…well, why not…
    How…He magicked us…

    (Apologies to Karen Armstrong for speaking the unspeakable. Words fail His immenseness. From now on, I will only use Wingdings when referring to …

  16. A perfect explanation of how to get a universe from nothing, the subject doesn’t take a book length treatment after all…

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