Man's Response to God

[Meriweather]

So whose will of god should I follow?

You do not believe in God, so the question is superfluous. Note that in my earlier response to you, my recommendation made no mention of God, simply that you follow the best instincts of your own heart.

 

[zaangalewa]

So the guys who flew the planes into the WTC would say that they had their ideals "written on our hearts. In everything we do, we should choose the best, the most loving, or the ideal way of acting." And then "BOOM"!

Actually the Middle Eastern belief's foundation is that one cannot so much as lift his little finger without it first being the will of God. Therefore, flying the planes into WTC was the will of God because it could never have happened had it not been the will of God. Another plane went down in Pennsylvania only because that was the will of God. You want to be mean to someone? Will of God. You want to be nice to someone? Will of God.

So whose will of god should I follow?

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And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
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[zaangalewa]

So god is like an ATM? Or just as smart as an ATM?

The point is not to expect--or treat--God as your own personal genii. That is not His role, nor is it His relationship to you. If you want a genii, find a genii. If you want a relationship with God it starts with first discerning, then following His will. It would be more accurate to think of yourself as His genii, or for the more humble, His servant.

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

If it is reasonable love what you like to do then it is god's will. If you are not able to trust in the bible or other written informations, to trust in yourselve, to trust in words of others or to trust in the signs in the world all around you, so you are not able to find god's way for you, then try to do a psychotherapy to find first your own real self. If all this fails do not worry: God cares. You will find your way when it is your will and god's will to find it.

So why does god tortured babies with deformities, pain, and retardation?

Counterquestion: Do you know the difference between philosophers and lawyers?

 

[Taz]

So whose will of god should I follow?

You do not believe in God, so the question is superfluous. Note that in my earlier response to you, my recommendation made no mention of God, simply that you follow the best instincts of your own heart.

But I'm looking for god's will. Not mine.

 

[Taz]

So the guys who flew the planes into the WTC would say that they had their ideals "written on our hearts. In everything we do, we should choose the best, the most loving, or the ideal way of acting." And then "BOOM"!

Actually the Middle Eastern belief's foundation is that one cannot so much as lift his little finger without it first being the will of God. Therefore, flying the planes into WTC was the will of God because it could never have happened had it not been the will of God. Another plane went down in Pennsylvania only because that was the will of God. You want to be mean to someone? Will of God. You want to be nice to someone? Will of God.

So whose will of god should I follow?

-----
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
-----

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So you don't know. Got it.

 

[Taz]

Counterquestion: Do you know the difference between philosophers and lawyers?

The lawyer can find a job in his field.

 

[zaangalewa]

So the guys who flew the planes into the WTC would say that they had their ideals "written on our hearts. In everything we do, we should choose the best, the most loving, or the ideal way of acting." And then "BOOM"!

Actually the Middle Eastern belief's foundation is that one cannot so much as lift his little finger without it first being the will of God. Therefore, flying the planes into WTC was the will of God because it could never have happened had it not been the will of God. Another plane went down in Pennsylvania only because that was the will of God. You want to be mean to someone? Will of God. You want to be nice to someone? Will of God.

So whose will of god should I follow?

-----
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
-----

-----

So you don't know. Got it.

What do I not know?

 

[zaangalewa]

Counterquestion: Do you know the difference between philosophers and lawyers?

The lawyer can find a job in his field.

no comment

 

[Meriweather]

But I'm looking for god's will. Not mine.

You don't believe in God. However, if it helps, it is the Bible that says God's law is written on everyone's heart. Those who do not believe in God will be judged by their own heart.

 

[ding]

So god is like an ATM? Or just as smart as an ATM?

The point is not to expect--or treat--God as your own personal genii. That is not His role, nor is it His relationship to you. If you want a genii, find a genii. If you want a relationship with God it starts with first discerning, then following His will. It would be more accurate to think of yourself as His genii, or for the more humble, His servant.

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

Wouldn't you have to believe in God first to be able to find God's will?

No, people who don't believe should be able to find god. So let's start with god's will, where is it?

You don't believe. Did you found God?

 

[ding]

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

The law for humanity is written on our hearts. In everything we do, we should choose the best, the most loving, or the ideal way of acting. When we are uncertain, we should talk it through so we can hear words. And/or, we should clear our minds and exist in silence for a time.

So the guys who flew the planes into the WTC would say that they had their ideals "written on our hearts. In everything we do, we should choose the best, the most loving, or the ideal way of acting." And then "BOOM"!

You are asking the question that naturally begs to be asked which is if there is a universal code of common decency that is independent of man how come we all don't behave the same way when it comes to right and wrong? The reason man doesn't behave the same way is because of subjectivity. The difference between being objective and being subjective is bias. Bias is eliminated when there is no preference for an outcome. To eliminate a preference for an outcome one must have no thought of the consequences to one's self. If one does not practice this they will see subjective truth instead of objective truth. Subjective truth leads to moral relativism. Where consequences to self and preferences for an outcome leads to rationalizations of right and wrong.

Man does know right from wrong and when he violates it rather than abandoning the concept of right and wrong he rationalizes he did not violate it. You can see this behavior in almost all quarrels and disagreements. At the heart of every quarrel and disagreement is a belief in a universal right and wrong. So even though each side believes right to be different each side expects the other to believe their side should be universally known and accepted. It is this behavior which tells us there is an expectation for an absolute truth.

If there were never a universal truth that existed man would never have an expectation of fairness to begin with because fairness would have no meaning. The fact that each of us has an expectation of fairness and that we expect everyone else to follow ought to raise our suspicion on the origin of that expectation.

 

[ding]

So god is like an ATM? Or just as smart as an ATM?

The point is not to expect--or treat--God as your own personal genii. That is not His role, nor is it His relationship to you. If you want a genii, find a genii. If you want a relationship with God it starts with first discerning, then following His will. It would be more accurate to think of yourself as His genii, or for the more humble, His servant.

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

If it is reasonable love what you like to do then it is god's will. If you are not able to trust in the bible or other written informations, to trust in yourselve, to trust in words of others or to trust in the signs in the world all around you, so you are not able to find god's way for you, then try to do a psychotherapy to find first your own real self. If all this fails do not worry: God cares. You will find your way when it is your will and god's will to find it.

So why does god tortured babies with deformities, pain, and retardation?

He doesn't. Maimonides explains...

MEN frequently think that the evils in the world are more numerous than the good things, that just isn't the case. He who thinks that he can have flesh and bones without being subject to any external influence, or any of the accidents of matter, unconsciously wishes to reconcile two opposites, viz., to be at the same time subject and not subject to change. If man were never subject to change there could be no generation: there would be one single being, but no individuals forming a species. It would be in vain to expect to see living beings formed of the blood of menstruous women and the semen virile, who will not die, will never feel pain, or will move perpetually, or will shine like the sun. Whatever is formed of any matter receives the most perfect form possible in that species of matter: in each individual case the defects are in accordance with the defects of that individual matter. The best and most perfect being that can be formed of the blood and the semen is the species of man, for as far as man's nature is known, he is living, reasonable, and mortal. It is therefore impossible that man should be free from this species of evil. You will, nevertheless, find that the evils of the above kind which befall man are very few and rare.

So if you are going to bash God for imperfections in matter, which are extremely rare, when are you going to credit God for everything else, which is vast and overwhelming?

 

[Taz]

So god is like an ATM? Or just as smart as an ATM?

The point is not to expect--or treat--God as your own personal genii. That is not His role, nor is it His relationship to you. If you want a genii, find a genii. If you want a relationship with God it starts with first discerning, then following His will. It would be more accurate to think of yourself as His genii, or for the more humble, His servant.

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

Wouldn't you have to believe in God first to be able to find God's will?

No, people who don't believe should be able to find god. So let's start with god's will, where is it?

You don't believe. Did you found God?

So one has to believe first or you won't find god?

 

[ding]

So god is like an ATM? Or just as smart as an ATM?

The point is not to expect--or treat--God as your own personal genii. That is not His role, nor is it His relationship to you. If you want a genii, find a genii. If you want a relationship with God it starts with first discerning, then following His will. It would be more accurate to think of yourself as His genii, or for the more humble, His servant.

So where do I find god's will? And don't say the bible, that has nothing to do with god.

Wouldn't you have to believe in God first to be able to find God's will?

No, people who don't believe should be able to find god. So let's start with god's will, where is it?

You don't believe. Did you found God?

So one has to believe first or you won't find god?

Did you find God?

 

[Taz]

Did you find God?

Not yet.

 

[Meriweather]

So one has to believe first or you won't find god?

Not precisely. Jesus talks only about faith the size of a mustard seed. If you have that amount of faith that you can find God is much different from having no faith at all. And, if the belief there is no God, there will be no search for God. You know this. Your search is not for God, but for data and logic indicating there is no God.

 

[Taz]

So one has to believe first or you won't find god?

Not precisely. Jesus talks only about faith the size of a mustard seed. If you have that amount of faith that you can find God is much different from having no faith at all. And, if the belief there is no God, there will be no search for God. You know this. Your search is not for God, but for data and logic indicating there is no God.

No, I'm agnostic, I see no proof for or against a god but leave the door open...

 

[Meriweather]

No, I'm agnostic, I see no proof for or against a god but leave the door open...

About a half mm?

 

[deorro 1]

By his Revelation, the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company. The adequate response to this invitation is faith. By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith".

To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.

The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land. By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice. Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen: Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Because he was strong in his faith, Abraham became the "father of all who believe. The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith. The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the ancestors who "received divine approval. Yet "God had foreseen something better for us": the grace of believing in his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word. Elizabeth greeted her: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary blessed. Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.

Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me." We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him.

One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit", who "searches everything, even the depths of God. . No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God." Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God.

When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"

Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of. . . intellect and will to God who reveals", and to share in an interior communion with him. In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.

What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".

Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives." "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."

"Faith seeks understanding": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts" to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood." In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe."

Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.

To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act." "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus." Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom. . . grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."

Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"

Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith." To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith.

It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope. . . believed against hope"; to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

Who said or where is it mentioned that God speaks or walks with man as a man does to his friend as The LORD did with Moses?


One of the very reasons why the revolt of Korah occurred was because of the 'friendly' disagreement they had towards their bloodlined relative, Moses and Aaron's 'serious" relationship they had with The LORD and God. Holy, Holy, Holy IS The LORD God. Almighty, too. Not just 'friendly'.

 

[ding]

Did you find God?

Not yet.

There's your answer then.