Why do you love God?
- Thread starter NDS
- Start date
everything in the universe loves god. everything moves and tries to get back to equilibrium. for example a galaxy: in the center of the galaxy is god. all the stars dance around the center and worship it, and they all want to merge with god.
god is the center of everything. where is the center in this infinite universe? when you think you love someone, you actually only love god. you only love your self, which is the center of the universe. we only love someone because it makes us happy. happiness/peace/equilibrium is god.
that's why the bible says that god rests on the 7th day. http://www.mathaware.org/mam/00/master/essays/dimension/JPG/figure23.jpg
god is the center of everything. where is the center in this infinite universe? when you think you love someone, you actually only love god. you only love your self, which is the center of the universe. we only love someone because it makes us happy. happiness/peace/equilibrium is god.
that's why the bible says that god rests on the 7th day. http://www.mathaware.org/mam/00/master/essays/dimension/JPG/figure23.jpg
the ultimate separation from god is when you love someone, and that person doesn't love you... so there is an imbalance... but if you are connected to god, you don't need someone else to feel god.
i guess you could say that god is "nothing". nothing is not really nothing, it's just where everything is in balance. when we die we come closer to heaven, which is much closer to nothingness. but nothing can ever stay in nothing, because the "devil" always makes us eat the fruit from the tree of duality.
god is the tree of life which gives life to the tree of duality with its eternal being. the world wouldn't exist if we wouldn't be here.
i guess you could say that god is "nothing". nothing is not really nothing, it's just where everything is in balance. when we die we come closer to heaven, which is much closer to nothingness. but nothing can ever stay in nothing, because the "devil" always makes us eat the fruit from the tree of duality.
god is the tree of life which gives life to the tree of duality with its eternal being. the world wouldn't exist if we wouldn't be here.
Last edited:
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
He chose to do it that way and it is a wonderful demonstration to both Angelic populations and Human populations. It gives both a chance to be won over to His will, not by His decree but by our choice.
No He loves those who love what is right, and hates those who take joy in unrighteousness. This unconditional love thing is a straw man construct set up long ago to be knocked down later. But God is who He has always been, not a straw man in a box.
God is Just to all, But his Love is only given to those who respond to His Justice.
Faith is trust and there is no real service is trust. What you are mixing up and attempting to roll into one is faith and good works. My salvation is based on my faith in Jesus not in performance in Works. You have been told this on many occasions but alas you refuse to listen.
Once again it is no works to trust another. It is the rejection of Gods will that leads one to the Eternal Lake of Fire. Not failing on ones service to God.
God loves those who embrace the Love of the truth.
H
Yes all those who will go into the Lake of Fire are Hated by God.
I hope i would be able to forgive them if they sought my forgiveness. And as God has demonstrated through the Love of the Truth that is Jesus, He will forgive those who come to Him seeking forgiveness.
Nope not double standard but two standards. Very different things.
One standard proper for God who has total wisdom and total situational awareness.
And one proper standard for followers of God who do not have total wisdom and total situational awareness.
A double standard can only happen if the two standards appy to two equal parties. But God and Humans are not equal, God is an entire level above.
We are in agreement on that point. The eternal suffering in the lake of fire is beyond imagining because it is both extreme and eternal.
All Praise The Ancient Of Days
we didn't split from the apes, they split from us.
but the world would be here even if humans would not be here. when i said that "we" have to be here for it to exist, i meant all living beings, including atoms.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Duh.. if you consider everything alive it's obvious that the world wouldn't be here if there was no life.
It's like saying if the world wouldn't be here, the world wouldn't be here.. :shrug:
okay here's one:
for the strength of your 'tribe', to bond with others in a belief.
loving the idea gives you a common base with which to bond with others in creed and purpose.
god is a particularly interesting notion in its enormous capacity for mass appeal.
my question is, if you love god, why isn't it a sin to choose a religion? shouldn't that be blasphemy?
well no of course not because again, god is about the society and societies developed mostly independently, sort of. each one has a different set of manipulators bent on bending the members of society to their will.
what is logical depends wholly on the assumptions made before applying any notion of logic. what is 'true' to the subject will depend wholly on this process. if i assume 'god is lovable' or whatever, before reasoning or without questioning... well then all logic flows from god. if i do not assume god fundamentally, then I am free to question it when asked about it. of course I may not possess the intellect or will to bother refuting godly assertions.
either way is fine.
those who believe in god - should.. IMO. because they are better off for it, their lives gain purpose.
those who don't believe in god, well... meh. we don't need to or we wouldn't have bothered to ask all those nagging questions. surely some are on the wrong side of the belief system in the sense of what would give them the most satisfaction in life, but it's all a giant balance of sorts.
Well you can't argue with the truth of that statement. As it says in Eugenics 1.19:
"Verily I say unto ye that the absence of the world means no world."
lightgigantic said:
Oh, so God's the one who sends the sun and rain.
Who sends the famines?
Who sends the earthquakes?
Who sends the floods caused by that very rain?
Who sends the tsunamis?
Tornadoes?
Hurricanes?
All of the above causes suffering, death, and starvation on a massive scale.
Why does God send these things and/or allow them to occur if he, as you claim, is out for us and is always providing us with necessities?
Sounds to me like he takes necessities (and lives) away with natural disasters, not provides them.
Could God have created a world with no natural disasters or famines? Yes. So why didn't he?
Actually, human energy has brought us from a starving, hunting, dictatorship, communist, socialist based people to more of a free market, capitalist people where our standard of living as a whole is BETTER THAN EVER TODAY.
Think about all the war, suffering, starvation, and slavery of the past. Now think of the technology, medicine, immense food surplus, and standard of living today.
What has brought about this positive change? HUMAN ENERGY.
Sure there is war today, but religon is the cause of any war today (yes, even Iraq indirectly. The Muslims want to destroy us and Israel).
True, but I don't have to serve my friends, nor they me. And that's fine.
Also, Jessie made a good point on the last page. We have to first define love before we can debate about it.
So, LG, what is your definition of love?
Here's mine off the top of my head:
Love - A strong attraction and appeal to someone or something in which the person who loves will sometimes make certain sacrifices for that person/thing
Jesus defined it well for me:
John 15:13
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
NKJV
So maybe we can quantify or measure love by the level of sacrifice one is willing to make for someone. Fair enough, LG?
So why should I make a sacrifice to a God who never talks me, who never gives me orders, and who seems non-existent? I guess that's my question.
Yes, I understand the THEORY of God. He is some supernatural, spiritual being living in the "heavenly realm" which created the universe, created us, and threw us onto some planet called earth and has left us to fend for ourselves.
Now tell me, Why should I love this God? The ONLY reason you have given me so far is "because he gives us necessities." This is a horrible reason to love someone. "Wow, thanks for giving me what I need to survive. Awesome, I really love you."
What if a parent just gave their children the necessities to survive, but never talked to them or directed them on their life journey. Would those kids love their parents. NOPE. Therefore "providing necessities" is not a valid reason to genuinely love someone. You're gonna have to do better than that.
So I'm still waiting on a valid reason to love God. Hell, you've apparently "served God" for years, right? This service has probably led to love. So now that you've developed this love for God, please, tell me WHY you love God after serving him all these years. If you can answer that, then you'd really be helping me.
HOW DOES SERVICE LEAD TO LOVE?
So, LG, what is your definition of love?
Here's mine off the top of my head:
Love - A strong attraction and appeal to someone or something in which the person who loves will sometimes make certain sacrifices for that person/thing
Jesus defined it well for me:
John 15:13
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
NKJV
So maybe we can quantify or measure love by the level of sacrifice one is willing to make for someone. Fair enough, LG?
So why should I make a sacrifice to a God who never talks me, who never gives me orders, and who seems non-existent? I guess that's my question.
Yes, I understand the THEORY of God. He is some supernatural, spiritual being living in the "heavenly realm" which created the universe, created us, and threw us onto some planet called earth and has left us to fend for ourselves.
Now tell me, Why should I love this God? The ONLY reason you have given me so far is "because he gives us necessities." This is a horrible reason to love someone. "Wow, thanks for giving me what I need to survive. Awesome, I really love you."
What if a parent just gave their children the necessities to survive, but never talked to them or directed them on their life journey. Would those kids love their parents. NOPE. Therefore "providing necessities" is not a valid reason to genuinely love someone. You're gonna have to do better than that.
So I'm still waiting on a valid reason to love God. Hell, you've apparently "served God" for years, right? This service has probably led to love. So now that you've developed this love for God, please, tell me WHY you love God after serving him all these years. If you can answer that, then you'd really be helping me.
HOW DOES SERVICE LEAD TO LOVE?
Last edited:
Simon Anders
Valued Senior Member
I think most people have very mental versions of love. This is not restricted to theists, but with theists, since most of the time they are not in direct contact with God, it is easier to be mental and THINK that what one feels is love and THINK that having the thought that one should love God is actually love and THINK that fear or the sense of following rules is love.
Seriously?
If you couldn't draw up an understanding of love and evil (or benefit and loss) in your life it would be very difficult to understand how you could function in any given 24 hour period.
Of course there can be issues of communication and crossed channels that may make it confusing to determine exactly who actually has loving affection for us (just tune in to any televised soap opera for a complete run down) ... its not clear why one would have to be god to simply be introspective
generally our issues of love (in terms of who deserves it and teh details of how it should be expressed) can be explained in terms of values ... so it's completely useless to use words like "should" when discussing something like "who should I love".
As for "how", that is more easier. You love someone by doing something (and generally we derive satisfaction from such service when it is reciprocated with). For instance if you said you love me, I would start to question on what basis you make that statement ... I mean its not apparent in what ways I am any different from a bar of soap ... so it wouldn't really be a successful attempt to secure any sort of reciprocation from me (so you would probably get dissatisfied). If someone asks themself "what does this person love about me" and draws up a blank or an array of misinformation, it probably won't go far. I mean maybe you secretly read all my posts on sciforums or something (or some other sort of "service" that enables you to become familiar with my "qualities") ... but I doubt it.
and back to the topic, service to god begins to become approachable when you know something about his qualities ... otherwise it's just like eulogizing some anonymous figure on sciforums or something ....
Last edited:
Again, could you expand? I can't see how God giving you the gift of choice is a reason to love him.
If God created you with the ability to choose to love him, and then tortured you brutally for years, would you love him? Of course not. Therefore choice is not a valid reason to love someone.
I love God for a couple reasons.
The first and most basic is He loved me first.
He made me what I am - and although not perfect, I'm something He can work with. I'm a better man than I was in the past, and not as good as I will be in the future.
I love God because the more I get to know Him, the more lovable, the more love worthy, He becomes.
Why should anyone else love God? Certainly because He loved that person first. God gives us all we are. (Someone made a comment about God not doing such a good job; perhaps if that someone didn't ignore God's directions for life, life might work better. At any rate, ignoring God's direction and then blaming Him when things go wrong is a true measure of hypocrisy.)
The first and most basic is He loved me first.
He made me what I am - and although not perfect, I'm something He can work with. I'm a better man than I was in the past, and not as good as I will be in the future.
I love God because the more I get to know Him, the more lovable, the more love worthy, He becomes.
Why should anyone else love God? Certainly because He loved that person first. God gives us all we are. (Someone made a comment about God not doing such a good job; perhaps if that someone didn't ignore God's directions for life, life might work better. At any rate, ignoring God's direction and then blaming Him when things go wrong is a true measure of hypocrisy.)
Not for all.