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Meaning
If God gives humanity purpose and meaning, what gives God purpose and meaning?
Is God meaningless and purposeless?! If so, wouldn't that mean that humans are just meaningless and purposeless, and that their "meaning" and "purpose" given by God is purely arbitrary?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
god is whatever we believe him to be. he is different for everyone.
we are humans and we are what we choose to do. if our choices make us purpouseless and meaningless, then we are all of those things.
so its whatever you make of it yourself. i wouldnt ask god or anyone olse to give MY life purpose and meaning.
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no one knows all the answers but think about it If God gives humanity purpose and meaning than humanity probably gives god purpose and meaning it probabley works both ways
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God is a belief, so are you then asking if people that don't believe in God have no purpose or meaning? If that's the case, I think not, because I believe that all people have purpose and meaning regardless their religion or beliefs. We give ourselves meaning and purpose by living our lives. For those that do believe in God or gods, he gives himself purpose and meaning simply by being his divine godly self.
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God doesn't give humanity purpose and meaning.
You give yourself purpose and meaning. No one is going to do that for you.
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Well, the premise, "Something has to have been created to have meaning" doesn't really have a warrant. You can't necessarily prove this premise, it's sort of an assumption we've come to believe. I would argue that this is due to the inundation in the Christian dogma that your life can't have meaning without God. Thus, we've come to believe that something must have been created to have any meaning. Again, this claim isn't necessarily true.
As someone else said before him on this topic, God can find meaning in its own existence just as humans do for themselves. Consider the possibility that there is no God (a possibility, that, as an atheist, I accept). From this point, it is still possible for humans to find meaning in their life - I find meaning in mine everyday. If anything, life has more meaning because life becomes more precious. There's not a fairy-tale afterlife when all this is over, so it makes one cherish the time they have in this life.
Additionally, from a purely logical standpoint - God is supposed to be all-powerful. So, logically, God could simply will meaning for his existence into existence, if that makes sense.
I'm sure there are a number of other arguments on the subject, but the point is - God doesn't necessarily have no meaning just because it was created. In answer to your second question: from this argument, we can also conclude that humans are not just meaningless and purposeless, even if God doesn't have meaning, for the same reason. Humans don't need God to have meaning.
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well thats the mystery of life now isn't it?
and maybe you just can't handle the truth
but in my opinion i think its a weeding out process
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by weeding out i mean its sorta like a test to see if you will follow Him through the temptations of earth and if you do than you stick with him and if you don't than....have fun in hell
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well very important question to ask, I do know the answer (or at lest part of it), however, it is not my place to tell you the answer, so I will tell how to reach it. If you want to know about the nature of God, you must first know God. I don’t mean like “I know believe him” or “I put my faith and trust in him”. I mean you must strive to know God personally, one a one-on-one lv.
How is this done, you may ask? Well when we talk to God, it is done with a prayer, (now depending on what you believe in at this time, will depend on how this is done). I suggest that you talk to him, don’t not try a rehearsed prayer but a meaningful one, and believe you will find an answer.
Now that you that are doing this, what’s next? Now comes the hard part. Listen to words of those who give religious talks, read Holy Scriptures, and find the truth. Once you think you have the truth, pray to know if it is true.
Buddha once said that everyone can receive enlightenment. I know it is true.
I hope this helps you, let me know if it does.
~Teen Guru
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religon is everybodys own opinion. think about it for yourself.. maybe even read the Bible here and there for answers..
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I'm sorry, but all matters concerning religion are a matter of opinion because there is no proof that he/she exists or doesn't exist. If you ask me, he doesn't exist, and therefore has no meaning or purpose to me, but if you ask someone else, they may say exactly the opposite. I'm afraid that you really have to make this deeply personal decision for yourself. If there is a god, he/she'd be really lame if he punished you for following your heart and making your own decisions.
Do some soul searching, what do YOU think on the matter? You can't let other people make your decisions for you.
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This is where Philosophy class comes in handy.
I don't know if you're Christian, or some other religion who believes in God, so I hope you won't be offended by my inability to find God in my perceptions of the world.
When you ask questions like this, you have to decide on definitions of every word you use. What kind of God are you talking about?
I'll presume that we're talking about an all powerful, all loving, all knowing God.
There are a lot of problems when you go in to this definition, but I'll leave them asside.
Why do you suppose God would have given humanity purpose or meaning?
Everything in this is a question in its-self. To ask what gives God meaning, you have to ask how God exists... If God cannot be a person (Which Jesus was) because it would mean they were less perfect than a true "God" should be, then how can you ever know God exists?
If God did exist, and we don't question that, then perhaps God's only purpose would be to exist. God's meaning and purpose was to exist, and create, and love. Personally I think that is a little hollow.
Faith is a wonderful thing. It can give people the strength to do extra-ordinary things. To believe in something is important, because it gives you purpose, and when that purpose is for good, then perhaps God is nothing but the good in everyone.
If you take away God, then a purpose is actually clearer in my mind. To live well. God should not have to be around to tell you what is wrong or right. A kind, loving God wouldn't need Christians to apollogise for sinning every day, and feel bad about themselves. I could probably go on forever about it, but I don't know if any of this really relates to the way you asked the question anyway.
The best place I can reccomend is [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
If you're interested, go there and look up God, and Meaning or Purpose.
-K
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See, we tend to think of God the same way we think of ourselves. God is not some person, waltzing about the store on Wednesday night during double-coupon madness... we cannot apply the same logic to God... it just doesn't work that way. It is difficult for us to fathom the concept of something being truly ultimate - a true pinnacle that has no higher thing than itself. We see things as infinite - time passing forever, space stretching outwards forever... but we fail to see infinity as a limitation to our understanding - instead it is our crutch to getting things to fit our observations. Yet we have these hints that there are things that we aren't able to observe and it throws our "laws" into chaos.
Purpose and meaning are what we find for ourselves. That line of thought cannot be applied outside the concept of our lives and our society. Perhaps it is simpler to say that God's purpose is to be God. God's purpose could also simply be what God did - make stuff.
Now, the purpose for people.. this actually gets complex, but less heady... I mean, for life to continue, you need more life... thus we have babies. That, in a sense, could be said to be our purpose. But doing that alone isn't enough... we formed societies and complex social interactions... so not only do we make babies, but we have expanded into the concept of trying to make our lives better - make life easy, more productive, conducive to creating stuff from the materials at hand. So it is arbitrary? Is it design? I mean, the world around us is happening and we can either live in it, or try to hide from it.
Anyway, that's enough late-night rambling... ;)
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