what does God want?

[ArmsMerchant]

Over the years, the various answers to this question have caused an untold amount of suffering. In days of old, when knights were bold, a bunch of English folks thought that God wanted them to go on a crusade and "liberate" the Holy Land from the infidels--in the process, they killed and raped a lot of people, robbed and pillaged to boot. The streets of jeruselum literally ran red with blood.

A little later, the guys who wrote the Malleus Maleficarum thought that God wanted them to persecute women they called witches, and hang them or burn them--mostly, in reality, for the crime of being female.(By the way, this book was pretty much the law of the land--both among Protestants and Catholics--for two hundred years.)

More recently, many Catholics thought that God wanted them to refrain from eating meat on Fridays, and He was so vehemant about this, that He would send you to Hell forever if you scarfed down a Big Mac on Friday and failed to 'fess up. (Apparently God changed his mind on this one.)

Today in the Middle East, a lot of people think that God wants them to strap on a belt of explosives and blow themselves and as many other people as possible to bits. Here in America, many people seem to think that God wants us to torture and kill people who think like that. Others in America think that God wants us to deny basic civil rights to gay people. Still other folks, of the Jewish persuasion, believe that their God wants them to sexually mutilate their infant sons. Once at an NA open meeting, a young woman who had relapsed was wallowing in guilt and shame, sobbing as if her heart would break because "God wants me to be clean and sober. . . .I let God down."

Clearly there is, and has been, a lot of confusion on the issue of what God wants.

Try this notion on for size--God wants nothing.

No matter what you do or fail to do, God will not punish you. No matter what sacrifices you may make, God will not single you out for some special reward. In other words, God is not Santa Claus. God does not make a list of who's naughty and who's nice.

God is love, unconditional and infinite. To want something means that you do not have it, that you lack it. God is everything, and therefore cannot lack anything.

You do not have to pray to God for anything because you have already have been given everything. All the wisdom and courage and strength and compassion you will ever need is within you right now--you need only to find it, own it, and use it.

This, in brief, is the message of the latest book from Neale Donald Walsh--"What God Wants". His name may ring a bell--he has already written five books which were New York Times best-sellers. (None of which the Times bothered to review, I might add.) He takes seventy-five pages to lead up to the Big Answer, however, but to me and many other people, he will be largely preaching to the choir. For me, the really good stuff--the stuff that changed my life, filled me with such a sense of empowerment that now, every day of my life is just exactly as good and rich and wonderful as I choose it to be--is roughly from page 182 to page 211.

It is not a big book. It is, however, a great enough book to change humanity, one life at a time. With all the earnestness at my command, I urge everyone to read this book. The publishers' price is $23; it is less expensive on Amazon. If you choose not to make that investment for any reason, go to your local library and read it for free. Just read it, think about it, and act on it.

[the beat]

I would say the only thing that God would "want" is to experience itself. But then I guess you could say God already "has" that, as our human lives are one of the ways in which this desire is manifested.

I guess, if anything, God just wants to learn through experience; that is to say through us and through other lifeforms in the universe.


:confused:

[danmega]

I would say the only thing that God would "want" is to experience itself. But then I guess you could say God already "has" that, as our human lives are one of the ways in which this desire is manifested.

I guess, if anything, God just wants to learn through experience; that is to say through us and through other lifeforms in the universe.


:confused:

In my more depressed moments I find the only agreeable excuse to mans suffering is entertainment. God, by definition, is eternal. But where's the fun in that? you know from non-conception to non-death how every moment of your existence will happen, instantaneosly. also known as boring. Thus free will. Its a wild card, a random, and makes things interesting.

But how to enjoy this best? by gaining individual experience and bring it to the whole. And how does one gain experience? through suffering. thus each of us is a god, or at least a small part, so share in our suffering. Without going off on a wild tangent, i want to say that i agree, just same answer with different reasons.

[Built To Last]

You do not have to pray to God for anything because you have already have been given everything.

;) The secret of life is that we've been fooled into thinking we should always be something else.

[Cookies]

"What god wants? God gets!" quote from a Roger Waters song that pretty much sums up this thread. We are only humans, the only thing we can do is make up stories about mighty beings and have mystical beliefs. If there is a God, I can with certainty says that God simply wants. He takes, never gives. If there is an omnipotent God then he is not almighty, he is a mere observer.

I do not wish to get into any religious flame wars but merely state my opinion.

[lostmyface]

i dont believe the entity called god wants anything. god just is. sadly, it is up to humans to figure out what we are here for. no magical man in the sky is going to tell us.

[Obbe]

These quotes explain my opinion quite well:

Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, "Why, why, why?"

Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

[ArmsMerchant]

i dont believe the entity called god wants anything. god just is.

St Bernard shares your opinion:

"Who is God? I can think of no better answer than, He who is. . . .If you call God good, or great, or blessed, or wise, or anything else of this sort, it is included in these words, namely, He is."

[Oral B]

From what the Holy Bible says, God wants you to live to preach his word and have children and give everything you have to the less fortunate. Thats about it.

[ArmsMerchant]

^Actually, that is sort of a mix of OT and NT God-speak.

Don't forget, Jesus specifically repudiated some of what "God" said in the Old Testament.

[Lysergic Rain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qefgOPS3rS8

[ArmsMerchant]

^please refrain from posting links with no explanation or elucidation.

Rhyme and/or alliteration is optional, however.

[Nachismo]

I don't think God needs anything.

But at this point in my life I feel like he would be pleased if we simply found a way to love ourselves and each other, as much as he loved us.I feel we have too much in common as humans, to deny the goodness of this basic human need.

Pain and suffering is hard to watch.

[Cegstar]

If there is an omnipotent God, He requires nothing. But if omnipotent beings have feelings, he may want acknowledgement from us "down below".

[Dread_Lord]

If I were god I would want people to stop trying to tell other people what to do or think based on their own ideals disguised as the word of god.

[MarqueeMoon]

If there is an omnipotent God, He requires nothing. But if omnipotent beings have feelings, he may want acknowledgement from us "down below".

Would you care if earthworms, ants, germs etc. acknowledge you or not? I've always found the idea of God 'wanting' something to be a little paradoxical, kind of like the whole 'could God make a(n) [whatever] he couldn't [whatever]'. I know it's insanely ignorant to even pose this question, but if you had knowledge of everything in existence and had the power to do anything would you really want anything after awhile? Anything you want you could instantly get and then move onto the next thing. If God wants something from us he might already have gotten it and moved on.

[Actor]

What about contacting God in a lucid dream and asking him/it what it wants?

[T.K. Baha]

I don't think god is a conscious entity. How I see things is life is god, and god has consciousness through us and the plants and the animals, but god is a collective entity with a collective consciousness with no real needs or wants other than to survive and build itself into more complex forms.

[Slapshot]

Attributing a human fallacy to a divine being = epic fail. Wants and needs arise as a result of greed and human frailty.

[Vizier]

It depends on the convencience of people using the 'god' excuse to do stuff.

[Cegstar]

Would you care if earthworms, ants, germs etc. acknowledge you or not? I've always found the idea of God 'wanting' something to be a little paradoxical, kind of like the whole 'could God make a(n) [whatever] he couldn't [whatever]'. I know it's insanely ignorant to even pose this question, but if you had knowledge of everything in existence and had the power to do anything would you really want anything after awhile? Anything you want you could instantly get and then move onto the next thing. If God wants something from us he might already have gotten it and moved on.

I'm not religious, so my point isn't very valid. My guesses are like a hardcore Christian who knows nothing of science to dispute gravity.

But if God modeled us after Him, and He is a jealous creature (wanting to create beings to worship him), that may be what He requires.

[AllThatIs]

Over the years, the various answers to this question have caused an untold amount of suffering. In days of old, when knights were bold, a bunch of English folks thought that God wanted them to go on a crusade and "liberate" the Holy Land from the infidels--in the process, they killed and raped a lot of people, robbed and pillaged to boot. The streets of jeruselum literally ran red with blood.

A little later, the guys who wrote the Malleus Maleficarum thought that God wanted them to persecute women they called witches, and hang them or burn them--mostly, in reality, for the crime of being female.(By the way, this book was pretty much the law of the land--both among Protestants and Catholics--for two hundred years.)

More recently, many Catholics thought that God wanted them to refrain from eating meat on Fridays, and He was so vehemant about this, that He would send you to Hell forever if you scarfed down a Big Mac on Friday and failed to 'fess up. (Apparently God changed his mind on this one.)

Today in the Middle East, a lot of people think that God wants them to strap on a belt of explosives and blow themselves and as many other people as possible to bits. Here in America, many people seem to think that God wants us to torture and kill people who think like that. Others in America think that God wants us to deny basic civil rights to gay people. Still other folks, of the Jewish persuasion, believe that their God wants them to sexually mutilate their infant sons. Once at an NA open meeting, a young woman who had relapsed was wallowing in guilt and shame, sobbing as if her heart would break because "God wants me to be clean and sober. . . .I let God down."

Clearly there is, and has been, a lot of confusion on the issue of what God wants.

Try this notion on for size--God wants nothing.

No matter what you do or fail to do, God will not punish you. No matter what sacrifices you may make, God will not single you out for some special reward. In other words, God is not Santa Claus. God does not make a list of who's naughty and who's nice.

God is love, unconditional and infinite. To want something means that you do not have it, that you lack it. God is everything, and therefore cannot lack anything.

You do not have to pray to God for anything because you have already have been given everything. All the wisdom and courage and strength and compassion you will ever need is within you right now--you need only to find it, own it, and use it.

This, in brief, is the message of the latest book from Neale Donald Walsh--"What God Wants". His name may ring a bell--he has already written five books which were New York Times best-sellers. (None of which the Times bothered to review, I might add.) He takes seventy-five pages to lead up to the Big Answer, however, but to me and many other people, he will be largely preaching to the choir. For me, the really good stuff--the stuff that changed my life, filled me with such a sense of empowerment that now, every day of my life is just exactly as good and rich and wonderful as I choose it to be--is roughly from page 182 to page 211.

It is not a big book. It is, however, a great enough book to change humanity, one life at a time. With all the earnestness at my command, I urge everyone to read this book. The publishers' price is $23; it is less expensive on Amazon. If you choose not to make that investment for any reason, go to your local library and read it for free. Just read it, think about it, and act on it.

What God wants? Progression and spread of love. Everything else matters not.
All these awkward suggestions(like the jewish one) are things PEOPLE(priest,popes) told you to do. NOT God. God is love. Everything else, just is.

science to dispute gravity.


gravity is actually a PUSHING force. lets get started.

[Azure]

God wants people to stop saying they know what he wants.

[ArmsMerchant]

Why am I not surprised that Azure has missed the point?

The point is, God has no preference regarding our behavior.

[DJ Meaty Cheeks]

God wants you to hit that bong.

http://www.synchronium.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bong-smoking-jesus-200x300.jpg

[Tigger Nits]

He wants to watch us suffer

[Valheru]

God doesn't exist.

[Stock Market Anomalies]

God wants whatever you think he wants, and that's the beauty of God.

[DJ Meaty Cheeks]

He wants to watch us sufferhttp://lolthulhu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/roger-been_sleepin.jpg

[Rizzo in a box]

According to the Gnostic scriptures, the Father doesn't want anything because that would imply deficiency. However, the spirit saw the unclean root of Mind which was ignorant of the Father, and so went down to it to show the glory of He Who Is. Lots of drama ensued, including the creation of humanity.

[Figure-8]

^ Yes, it's all a game of expression, and wanting to learn.

Sometimes we forget to realize that we already know everything, and begin fighting about who's right.

Then the nukes come.

[AllThatIs]

I'm not religious, so my point isn't very valid. My guesses are like a hardcore Christian who knows nothing of science to dispute gravity.

But if God modeled us after Him, and He is a jealous creature (wanting to create beings to worship him), that may be what He requires.

yes because God is love(truth) and wants love to progress into perfection.
And he loves and only wants the best for you.

[Azure]

Why am I not surprised that Azure has missed the point?

The point is, God has no preference regarding our behavior.

In your rushed reply, you seem to have gotten a little confused, no doubt the senility getting to you. How you can pathetically attempt to discredit my understanding of the subject when we more or less have the same outline is beyond me.

Then again, so is talking to rocks and making a fool of myself on internet forums, so what do I know?

[Uriah Heep]

God, wants my cock, not even joking.

[Ambient]

God wants you to hit that bong.

http://www.synchronium.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bong-smoking-jesus-200x300.jpg

So very true, I will look up the bible quotes that support it later, there on my laptop somewhere.

[Sentinel owl]

1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

2) Love your neighbor as yourself

no fap jokes.

[Mr. Dazed and Confused]

To me, God wants you to treat others well, not judge others, and help the unfortunate. I'm really not a overly religious person but that's the God I "believe" in.

[Uriah Heep]

1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

2) Love your neighbor as yourself

no fap jokes.

God is such a fascist.

[ArmsMerchant]

God is such a fascist.

If you mean the micromanaging deity portrayed in the Old Testament, I'd tend to agree.

The God I know is nothing like that, however.

[dirty thong puller]

I believe that God is subjective experience in an objective environment. God is the very source of reality, both the physical environment, and the conscious entities contained within the environment. Our reality is composed of two elements: a physical environment, and conscious entities. We are the daydream of the single entity of consciousness that is referred to as God. There is no separation between "God" and existence. All that is existence, is god.

Why do people daydream? Why do people have desires and fantasies? These daydreams are simulations within our minds, which have the sole purpose of creating meaning and experience. When we dream at night or think of these fantasies, we are creating meaningful experience without really changing any thing physically. God works the same way. Our reality and lives are contained within a consciousness, serving the purpose of entertainment and experience.

Human beings exist as isolated sub-units of the God consciousness which have both free will, and an ignorance to the true nature of reality. This is necessary to give meaning to experience. The veil of separation between humans, the ego, the sense of "I am" creates the medium for which God to express itself. If there was no such thing as humans, what purpose would God have? How could God, or the universal consciousness, create meaningful experience without separating itself into smaller units; and allowing them to interact with each other?

I believe that our universe itself is the representation of consciousness. I think that the Big Bang came from a singularity point I will refer to as the primordial consciousness. The Big Bang was an explosion of space, matter, and time. It was also an explosion of consciousness. The singularity is the unified existence of God. The Big Bang is the expansion of the initial singularity into a playground of matter, energy, and consciousness. The laws of nature and physics are the parameters which set up an environment for conscious entities to develop, and become mini units of expression of the universal consciousness.

The universe is set up to go through cycles of creation, transformation, and unification. The ultimate goal of the game is to end up back at the start, the singularity, the unified existence of consciousness called God. Reality is the never ending story. The Big Bang separates the unified God, and the cycles of evolution all have the ultimate goal of coming home, unifying reality back into the source from which it came. When the individual units of consciousness finally come together into peace, love, and perfect harmony; we will know the true nature of God, and the true nature of ourselves as God. I think at some point many millions of years from now, there will be a moment of realization when all the conscious entities understand the true nature of reality. At this moment, all conscious entities will feel the love and connections with each other and the cycle of this universe period will be complete.

The end goal of reality is to reach this moment of pure love and unity. The journey will be complete, the dream will end. We will wake up and there will be no "we." There will only be an "I" once consciousness re-unites all of its individual entities into it's open arms. At this point, the physical matter of the universe will be re-united into the singularity and single consciousness known as God. This moment of pure bliss and love will ultimately end with another Big Bang, another cycle.

[cheech]

God wants a 21-speed mountain bike, his mum and dad to get back together, and his puppy to not have been run over by a car.

[AllThatIs]

At this moment, all conscious entities will feel the love and connections with each other and the cycle of this universe period will be complete.

The end goal of reality is to reach this moment of pure love and unity. The journey will be complete, the dream will end. We will wake up and there will be no "we." There will only be an "I" once consciousness re-unites all of its individual entities into it's open arms. At this point, the physical matter of the universe will be re-united into the singularity and single consciousness known as God. This moment of pure bliss and love will ultimately end with another Big Bang, another cycle.

This. Thats what i meant by spreading love. The Universe is going for perfection.

[Jerry]

What does god want, what does god need, whatever makes god happy and he's thanking you for knowing exactly
What a god wants
What a god needs
Whatever keeps him in your arms
And he's thanking you for giving it to him