Why Would God Care?

So far I don't see that you've shown that God claims to care.I see that some religious people claim God cares and I see that some people care, but I don't see where God claims to care.I think the question really is, why do people care about things others do that don't impact them?Why do some people feel the need to control nature and what happens naturally?When you find out why people care, then you will know why "God" cares.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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If he doesn't, any restriction people place on their behavior for the sake of religion alone is a pretty major waste of time.

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It may be a wasted effort, but not a waste of time. People place restrictions on their behavior for many different reasons and not all of them deal with religion.But you still haven't shown that God claims to care about the trivial matter in question.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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The trivial matters I'm talking about are the ones forbidden by major religions.

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I know you are, but the OP concerns masturbation. You say your OP scenerio is forbidden by major religions, but you haven't shown that it is.The OP scenerio is not forbidden by the Jewish or Christian Bibles, which are believed to contain information from God.So we are back to the idea that some religious people claim God cares about juvenile masturbation. Although if we looked at the reasoning behind the thought, I'm not sure that juvenile masturbation is really their issue with masturbation. It is more about what could lead to offenses that do harm others.So why would some religious people feel that God cares about juvenile masturbation?Given that people can have an interest in every minute detail of an ants life, myrmecology, it is not a stretch for some religious people to feel that God is concerned with every minute detail of a human's life even though he does have all creation to deal with.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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For... I dunno, maybe the fifteen or sixteen THOUSANDTH time... if masturbation doesn't fly with you, GO AHEAD AND PICK ANY OLD SIN YOU PLEASE.

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I have no idea what "sins" you take issue with so I picked the one of the OP and you still didn't answer.You say your OP scenerio is forbidden by major religions, but you haven't shown that it is.

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The second we see myrmecologists punishing ants for acting in ways the myrmecologists think are bad, and trying to instruct them in how to behave better, this will be a valid comparison.

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The limitation in the ant scenerio is that we can't (as far as I know) communicate clearly with ants. If we could communicate, we probably would be telling them to change their behavior. Since we can't, we just destroy the ants that annoy us. We don't even give them warning. I'd be surprised if the majority of myrmecologists allow ants to run freely around their house. Hopefully they have better choices other than destruction to keep unwanted ants out of their house.Humans, on the other hand, are supposedly created in God's image. God can and has communicated with humans. So like the humans who have a special interest in ants, religious people believe that God has a special interest in humans; and since God can communicate with many humans it is not surprising that the religious people feel God would care about their behavior.So since the OP scenerio is not forbidden by the Jewish or Christian Bibles, which are believed to contain information from God; God is not concerned with that particular action.It isn't about whether our actions will hurt God, but how our actions hurt each other or hurt those special to God.If there was one ant in the myrmecologist's ant colony that was disrupting or destroying the colony, my guess is it would be destroyed.So to understand why God cares about something specific, we need to know if he actually claimed to care about that specific action.Speculating why God would care about something that he doesn't claim to care about is, as you put it, a waste of time.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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Any of them. Take your pick. Seriously. Anything from making graven images to coveting your neighbor's oxen. Go hog wild.

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That's 16,001.

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I did pick. Still sticking with the OP.

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Why on Earth would we do that? If they're off in their anthills, neither harming nor helping us, what possible cause would there be for trying to dictate what they do?

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Which brings us back to what I was talking about in Message 52. Some people have no problem sticking their noses in other peoples business. There could be many reasons that humans who could talk to ants would want to change their behavior. Even if it is just to publish a paper. It all depends on how it would benefit the humans.

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Please continue to ignore the fact that I did not ask if this was the case, but instead asked why it would be the case.

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I've shown that it isn't an issue, so it is difficult to speculate why it would be an issue when it isn't one.You actually want to know why some religious people think God cares about issues that don't hurt anyone.The point I've been trying to make is that without looking at the specific laws, traditions, etc. it is difficult to bring understanding to why some religious people feel the way they do about those taboos.As I said in Message 77. You may not care to change the behavior of ants if you could communicate with them, but some people would.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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Lust is a pretty big sin as far as I know.

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Show me where God claims that lust is a sin.

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PD writes:

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God can and has communicated with humans.

so you say.

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Per the OP, God does exist for the purposes of this discussion. The Holy texts show that God has communicated to humans.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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Fine. Explain why God would care. If you don't think he would, we're done. Your answer is, "I don't think he cares."

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In the OP you stated: Since God exists, his words answer your question. As I said in Message 92. I've shown that it isn't an issue, so there's no need to speculate why it would be an issue when it isn't one. Message 99

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Gosh, it's a good thing you're here to tell me what I really want to know. It also keeps you from having to answer what I actually asked! Good fun all around.

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In Message 72 you stated: I did answer in Message 77. IOW, they feel that God cares because he has a special interest in us and we care about things we have a special interest in. In Message 91 you even said: And in Message 95 you agreed that God does care about humans.

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Unless those people have a reason, they're being irrational. Is it your stance that God cares because he's irrational? Or do you have a reason you'd like to share with us?

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From Message 99: I've already shown that God doesn't care about the OP scenerio and I've shared my thoughts on why some religious people would feel that God cares about the OP scenerio. IMO, it is the thought behind the action that brings out the guilt, not the action itself.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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Is God affected by what humans do? and the answer would be No. God is God and nothing that anyone does is going to diminish Gods glory, power, emotion, will, or any other attribute of God, by definition.

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But God is affected by what humans do. Our actions cause him to get angry, jealous. An outcry of from the populice can moved him to destroy cities. He can be persuaded to change his mind.Would we be affected by something we don't care about? I doubt it.God's emotional responses again show that we are of special concern to God which is why he cares about our behavior.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

But you haven't shown that God claims lust to be a sin or that God commands us not to lust.What you've shown is Jesus teaching that we have a responsibility to deal with our "evil inclinations".The seven deadly sins aka vices, are not from God. Actual sin is a direct violation of God's law.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Well Ringo covered much of what I would have said.
(Now I know what woke me up last night. Ringo in my mind.) So I'll try to cover what he didn't.Today, lust means any strong or excessive desire. The proper word in the OT also seems to carry that meaning, but the NT carries the meaning of desire for what is forbidden.Today, covet means to feel eager or inordinate desire for something belonging to another. In the OT covet simply means desire, but in the NT althought it means desire it is used with the meaning of desiring what is forbidden.As Ringo alluded to, God is concerned with actions and not thoughts.
God did not say we could not covet (desire). If you look closely at Exodus and Deuteronomy you will find that God was specific about what one was not supposed to desire. Essentially we are not to desire what belongs to another.So Paul (who is not God) makes a statement that we are not to desire what is forbidden.Now back to the OP. If the young boy is desiring a married woman not just fantasizing, then that falls under one of God's prohibitions and there are deeper meanings to the purpose of this law, but beyond the scope of this thread.The act of masturbation is not forbidden by God, the desire for something that belongs to another is.So in the NT lust and covet seem to carry about the same meaning, but that isn't where God handed down laws.

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If a christian chooses to base their life on the bible it seems unreasonable that they should cherry pick or interpret as they see fit. The "Word of God" fast looses any authority.

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It really is no different than what people do on a daily basis.Some choose to follow laws, rules, guidelines, to the letter. Others pick and choose. Some stop at all stop lights, signs, etc., but have no problem running five miles or more over the speed limit.Some claim every penny they earned on their taxes, others don't mention the cash they received for mowing a neighbors lawn all summer.Why do you expect religious people to act differently than secular?
The religious person gets words of wisdom from their holy writings and the secular person may get words of wisdom from the Reader's Digest as could the religious person.

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As Dan has said, If the bible (the Word of God) advises against an action or forbids an action we can only assume God cares whether or not we do it.
the question is: Why?

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Why does advising against an action assume caring?How much do our law givers care about us individually? What is the purpose of our laws? (These are rhetorical questions)God may have simply taken on the task of guiding the Hebrews because he found them interesting or possibly needy.In the OT God handed down laws for a specific civilization. In the NT Jesus dealt with teaching the individuals of that specific civilization how to abide by those laws.You can't understand the ocean if you only stand on the beach and view the surface. Some Christians only see the surface.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

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189 posts and all of them are dodging the question. It's pretty simple.
There's a God that has feelings, why would he care about us doing something that's immoral, or sinning if it doesn't hurt anyone?

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The simplest answer is that he doesn't.You ask "Why would he care about us doing something that's immoral or sinning if it doesn't hurt anyone?" No one has shown that God does care about actions that don't hurt anyone else.

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My answer for the question would be. I have no idea why God would care about us sinning or behaving immorally if it doesn't hurt anyone. If it did hurt someone, then I can understand why God wouldn't like that. He would be concerned of us not hurting each other. Why? We are also concerned if someone hurts someone and if God has feelings even superficially like ours, he wouldn't also like anyone being hurt.

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Which is also what others have brought up. So why are some people concerned about the actions or thoughts of others that don't hurt them or anyone else?If this God has feelings even superficially like ours then looking into why some people are concerned about such situations would help us understand why a God might care.If that concern is not natural but learned, then again the odds are that God is not concerned and it is a human creation.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

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But I think we're talking about the god of the bible here. The bible clearly says that you shall not lie with another man. So the bible is against homosexuality. Which I don't see how it would hurt anyone.

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Yes it does say that in Leviticus 18:22, but a statement of law doesn't always give the reasoning behind it. Now go to the beginning of the chapter. The God of Abraham wants the Hebrews to follow him, but they have been living in Egypt for what over 300 years.
So if you don't want your chosen people to follow another religion, deem their practices bad. Isn't that SOP for people? Deem the opponent or their practices bad.So is the concern actually for the action or control issues to steer his people away from that religion?
Were these practices causing problems in Egypt that the God of Abraham wanted to avoid for his people?To understand the laws of Leviticus we need to look at what was going on at the time to try and understand the reasoning behind the law.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

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We can't know what was God's reason(ing) for deeming those actions bad, we can just speculate.

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Exactly! So since we have no way of knowing the actual thought process behind the rule, which is over 2,000 years old, we also shouldn't say that that rule shows that God cares about our actions or thoughts that don't hurt anyone else.

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What we can know is that some actions (or even thoughts) are considered bad by the God of the Bible.

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What we know is that some actions at the time of the rule were considered bad by the God of Abraham.

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Are you saying that some of Bible's teachings do not concern us anymore but were just for the people of that time?

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I'm saying they were based on the actions of the people of the time.The book of Leviticus was supposedly written by the Priestly writer and considered to be written after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722BCE.I don't have time to get into more detail right now, but will get back to it, but think about what the author may have considered to be harmful to himself or others during that time.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

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We can't know what was God's reason(ing) for deeming those actions bad, we can just speculate. What we can know is that some actions (or even thoughts) are considered bad by the God of the Bible.

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In several Jewish arguments it seems that the Jews don't know what God had in mind either, but looking at the comments in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 54b) the verse is associated with the verse against sodomites. When we look the meaning of the word sodomite we find that it means male temple prostitute.I guess the question would be did religious ritual sexual acts hurt people? Some articles and stories I've read give me the idea that being a temple prostitute may not have been a choice for some.Some feel the verse concerns only anal sex, but the wording doesn't include women. IMO, that would mean there is more to it than just that action especially since several on this board have stated that one can have a homosexual relationship without that specific act.Even though all we have is speculation, we have to come to some conclusion as to what was expected of the israelites and yes how and if it pertains to us today. It is also the only way we can determine if God was concerned about things that don't hurt others.Right now I would say God was concerned about those that ritual sexual acts did hurt.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz