Why Would God Care?

I think I agree. Would it not be true that everything we do effects our neighbors, though?

That's pretty much precisely what I'm saying. Or we can not bother with worship at all, but that's neither here nor there. Since you've already stated your belief that anything people do that isn't selfish is just people "pretending to care," this whole tangent is already waving huge red flags that say "WASTE OF TIME" in enormous gold letters.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

Without being toooo graphic, can you tell us how Jimmy touching himself effects his neighbours?And if Jimmy likes to eat shrimp, doesn't that effect his neighbour, the shrimp-hunter, in a good way?

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If Jimmy buys too many naughty magazines, he is supporting the lifestyle of Larry Flynt, or whoever the seller is. I already said that God is less concerned with the action as with the overall focus of Jimmys passion. Humanity can either be passionate towards ourselves or towards something greater than ourselves. Its a daily choice.BTW I don't mean to suggest that we regress and go back to killing off our fatted calves and laying them at the temple altar.The idea of giving is a good thing.I'm just suggesting that IF society became altruistic as a unit, would we truly be selfless ambassadors for the universe? Or...being the refrigerator mold that we are, would we still have that deep-seated survival of the fittest mentality and look no higher than self preservation as an ultimate ideal?

I thought the whole question was whether God would care if Jimmy was wasting his time.I'm pointing out that if humanity seeks to pleasure itself, are we collectively wasting our time. And I am talking about the highest ideal that we seek to strive towards.

Whether God would care about anything Jimmy did, yes. Especially essentially trivial activities. If you'd care to return to that idea, post 27 awaits your attention.The waste of time to which I was referring was whether or not humans are inherently selfish. It is a tangent because the issue isn't whether humans would measure up to God's standards. It's whether God would bother having standards for us to measure up to.It's a waste of time because you've defined "not selfish" to mean "actually selfish but pretending to be not selfish." So any discussion will just be going 'round in circles. There's that magnificent collective destiny again, huh? Post 27, Phat.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

So he's helping out his neighbour, Larry Flynt. What's the difference if he buys Car and Driver or Christianity Today? That's the focus of this thread: Why would God care what the focus is, as long as the focus benefits Jimmy's neighbours? And God (Jesus) said specifically that the way to be passionate toward Him is to take care of our neighbours. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Nobody's suggesting that we should be "selfless ambassadors for the universe" - just our own neighbourhood.And "selfless" is overstating it too. Love thy neighbour as thyself. You don't have to sacrifice yourself for your neighbour - just equalize. "Survival of the fittest" doesn't even apply at the individual level.It's not about selfishness, it's about what's good for our species/society.

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so when jimmy whacks off, he's actually whacking jesus off?I can't decide whther that's good or bad... what would jesus do?

Jesus was talking about interpersonal relationships, not intrapersonal relationships.

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Quite honestly, much of what I tentatively believe was taught to me. Not all of it, though. The core anchor of my belief is the times that I honestly believe that i have communed with Gods Spirit. I only regret that I cannot prove it to you, but perhaps its better for you to arrive at your own conclusions.Its also good for us to discuss these things openly with others. How boring and mundane it would be if everyone on Earth meekly agreed and sang choir hymns 24/7 while dressed in shiny white robes. Then again, we have no real idea what the future communion with God will be like aside from what we have read and what others patiently attempt to indoctrinate us with! Come to think of it, that makes sense when you consider that God can create endless resources and according to the Bible He is all too happy to Bless His children with them. The issue is when there are limited resources and some humans think they have dibs on most of them.

quote:

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perhaps you may foreknow that these humans may someday catch the vision that endless pursuits of pleasure for pleasures sake is not the best way to fulfill their collective destiny.

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OK...back to square one.

Imagine that you think as God would think. Why would you be concerned with trivial actions that humans make?
My answer would be that humans are important to me....seeing as how I foreknew that a incarnation of my Spirit would one day communicate with humanity. I honestly can admit, however, that it is bruising to my individual Ego to think that I was created (or even evolved) for no special purpose other than to have fun, eventually mate with a woman, and have kids whom were my spittin image and who I taught to do the same thing I did. It just seems so pragmatic and non sensational.

Fair enough. Meanwhile, there are any number of believers who think that because God can create endless resources and is all to happy to Bless His children with them, we can just go ahead and take whatever we want, and atheists who think, "People, this is all we got! Let's conserve!"We can go back and forth, vice versa on that one all day. The magnificent destiny is just to talk with God?If he's keeping close tabs on Earth, he'll no doubt notice that we've reached the point in our development where we have cell phones. Why? I know for a fact that fun and mating are great. And I'm so far childless, but having little versions of me running around who think I rule sounds pretty cool.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

That may be why God is so pissed. (If He in fact is.. )He wants us to be little versions of Him running around...and we want to do our own thing instead!Think about it. If you as a human Dad somehow had the ability to make your kids obey you and do whatever you wanted them to do and be whatever you wanted them to be, would you force your will on them?Edited by Phat, : add by edit

Again, why? I don't feel a pressing need to squint angrily at an anthill, wag my finger, and tell the ants they should go make sarcastic comments on message boards. Why would I? Even if the ants somehow managed to get it, what good would it do me? 'Course not. But if we continue the father metaphor, and even go ahead and work under the assumption that God does have some reason why he thinks of us as children, and not ants, wouldn't he be proudest of us when we moved out of the house, so to speak? When we realized we could get by fine without him? (Whether or not we're living in a way he might consider wise?)

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

I certainly would sentance them to an eternity of hellfire and brimstone for utilizing the freedom I gave them

YESHUMANS are the only one, or thing in the universe that can make a choice.Just because I believe it that does not make it true.