Although I have had this idea for quite a while, I must confess that Dan Barker’s essay “Dear Theologian” really helped me flesh it out.
Let’s begin.
Christians often say that the point of human existence is to worship and love God and that the whole universe is just there to praise and give glory to God.
But if this is true, it raises an interesting conundrum – What, then, is the purpose of God’s existence?
Now, if the former allegations are true, God is the greatest egomaniac there could ever be. But, still, stroking his ego by creating slaves and pet universes can’t be all THAT interesting after a certain point. After all, God cannot be friends with his creation. He would know everything they know and everything they would say or think, rendering conversation pointless.
Since it’s hard to respect someone who only exists to worship you, he must get lonely.
What does he do with his time? What is the point of his existence?
Would he just dwell on human occurances? It seems doubtful, as that would imply that God is man’s slave, obsessed with them, when Christians say that it is the other way around (this is a great proof for atheism, showing that God is an invention of the human mind used to validate their own politics and pursuits, fooling Christians into thinking that someone gives a shit).
He can’t talk with Jesus or the Holy Ghost, since they are paradoxically all the same being. He can’t talk with angels, since they are just his slaves, too. He can’t talk with Satan, because word is that God and Satan had a teensy-weensy falling out over something or another (lol).
God cannot think, as an all-knowing being would already know what he would think and since thinking is used to solve problems, decide things, and talk yourself through things, God cannot think.
He can’t go for a walk since he transcends time and space – he can’t physically walk because he’s not a physical being. UPDATE: Additionally, god is omnipresent, so he can’t move – which walking requires – since he’s already everywhere at once.
He can’t enjoy TV since he already knows all the jokes and how they end (lol).
He can’t worship anything since, being all-knowing and what have you, he would know that he was just kidding himself.
He can’t look forward to anything, since he already knows everything that will happen and, besides, nothing really goes on anywhere that would concern an all-powerful, all-knowing being.
Summarily, if God did exist, which he doesn’t, his existence would be boring (for him) and pointless.
Thanks for your time.
UPDATE: PS – if you were God, would you really want to spend your time listening to pimply teenagers praying for new cars and WBC nut jobs asking you to kill all gay people and little kids asking you watch out for their dead grandparents? Wouldn’t all that interaction with lesser beings get pretty damn annoying after about a minute, Bruce Almighty-style?
Hi Chillin’
Love this post…just one small point…
>>He can’t go for a walk since he transcends time and space – he can’t physically walk because he’s not a physical being.<<
He looks like us…so he has legs
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the praise.
As for the legs… Even if he had legs they would be useless since god is all-present, so he can’t move anywhere since he is already everywhere at once.
Bruce Almighty-style?
that’s exactly what i was thinking.
That was a pretty good movie, wasn’t it?
“Back to you, fuckers!”
Ugh.
Only a created being can have a PURPOSE. Since God EXISTS and CAUSES TO EXIST, purpose cannot apply to God.
So the question is a fallacy.
I created an answer for this over on my “Answered Questions” page. Read it and if you don’t understand it then ask questions about why you don’t understand it.
The page can be found here:
test
Oops…”test” should have been “Here”
Wow, I read that letter and am again astounded by the things people come up with.
God Bless,
Chris
So God’s existence is pointless? He has no reason at all to exist?
None?
PS God is a created being, considering that he is just a product of the human imagination.
Hi Chris, I read the answer you gave on your blog and just wanted to query a couple of things:
“What is the purpose of God’s existence. Well, since God is not a created being, then we cannot apply terms such as “Purpose” to God’s existence.”
You seem to be suggesting here that God doesn’t have a purpose…which would make it’s existence meaningless, wouldn’t you say?
“God Exists. And His purposes are absolute.”
Now you’re suggesting God’s purposes are absolute, which would suggest it does have purposes, wouldn’t you say?
“Whatever He wills, it is done.”
Here you’re suggesting something which has no relevance to whether God has a purpose or is meaningless.
“He is the beginning and the end and everything in the middle AT THE SAME INSTANT.”
This has no relevance either and doesn’t really say anything. Sounds lovely…but means nothing.
“Also He says He is the first and will be WITH the last.”
This seems to have been an afterthought on your part, so I’ll let it pass.
Anyway, I’m certainly not mocking you for failing to answer the oddities of the God theory that this post brings up.
Have a lovely day,
Lucy
Lucy, you did not understand the answer.
God in Judeo-Christian theology is NOT a created being. He EXISTS. Neither beginning nor end to God.
There is no TIME before God. There is NO ‘after’ God.
So, “purpose” does not apply to the existence of God.
You cannot say that God has purpose, or God has no purpose because those terms only apply to something that is created/built/made/structured etc. God just “is”.
So God Exists. In His existence, He creates (and destroys). So He purposes to create Man for example. See the difference? Purpose does not apply to a being that “exists”, but this being purposes (intends) to perform actions.
God Bless,
Chris
I understand the answer, but I still consider it a bad one.
It is saying that god has no purpose, rhyme or reason, he’s just there.
I think Lucy said basically the right things – like how you are saying that god is pointless and how antithetical that seems to your faith of choice.
Then you do not understand the answer.
Purpose is something for us. It has no meaning to an self-existent God.
Chris
No, I know what you mean, but it does seem harmful to your faith that your god’s existence is pointless. lol
But I know what you mean – we fashion things so they can serve a purpose, and thus god would have to be fashioned to serve a purpose.
I do think he was fashioned, though, and his purpose is to give humans justification for their own worldview that they don’t deserve and to fill any holes in reality humans haven’t figured out yet – weather, for example.
He is pointless in your eyes, though, in which he exists.
But Chill, God and the devil do talk. In fact they like to make wagers. Try reading Job.
So God does have a purpose…it is to beat the devil in their bets.
Great post.
I’ll respond on my blog. It makes me feel more imporant to respond to questions posed in my ask section than just to give a simple comment on someone else’s blog. Gotta feed the ego.
Response post posted. Enjoy!
But if this is true, it raises an interesting conundrum – What, then, is the purpose of God’s existence?
God works in misterous ways. It’s nto for us to undrstand them al.
But what’s the point of this qustion. What’s eth point of evolution?
Chris:
I don’t see a response anywhere… Care to direct me to it?
Angryxtian:
Uh… I meant the purpose of him existing, the point of his existence, not how he works.
As for the point of evolution, it is the method by which biotic lifeforms become stronger and better adapted to their environments via natural selection and the method by which weak lifeforms and mutations become extinct. The purpose is the creation* of higher, better animals.
*By evolution, not magically “poofing of things into existence”
http://undergroundreformation.wordpress.com
The title is “Is God Purposeless”
Chris:
Oh, I’m sorry! I thought you were Chris Taylor! I just read the “Chris” part. No wonder I couldn’t find a response!
I’m having this same conversation with him.
I’d already read your response. I might respond to it later if the urge strikes me.
Religion and God are bullshit. If god were a man, why did he create dinosaurs first? Why would he not create a being that was like him first? The whole theory of Adam and Eve is ridiculous. Does that mean we are all imbreds? Not only that, but the flood wiped out all the people when Noah built his arc. Doesn’t that mean that him and his wife had to start the whole cycle over again? We are descendants of two people twice. Talk about a crock of shit.
Church is just another scam that helps control society like the government does and squashes peoples inhibitions. So While you get up every Sunday to go to church to listen to fairy tales, know that I am comfortably in my bed sleeping in as I am sure your God intended it to be.