I've been reading a book with that title for a while now, I decided to stop though. It was becoming too confusing for me. The facts I'm sure about concerning God are still sinking in. The content of the book was starting to mess with them.
For the first 13 chapters it went on and on about how the world thinks they know what God wants and are acting upon it while in fact, they know nothing. The writer discussed how thinking we know what God wants affected our beliefs about all different things in life such as gender roles, war, life and death, homosexuality.. etc. He was quite right about how huge and deep the scar is, but it was nothing new. 13 chapters was way too much for that. I kept reading and hoping that what I actually got the book for, would emerge, sometime.
Untill I hit chapter 14, which was said to contain the real essence and bottom line of what God wants.
It was two blank pages
The writer suggested that what God wants, is nothing.
I didn't finish the book, so I'm not a proper judge. But I read a bit after that. He justified that by saying that if God is perfect, flawless, the essence of all life, and can do anything he wants. It's irrational to suggest that he would want something. He said there's a difference between wanting and preferring. Wanting is needing, God doesn't need anything. But he does have preferences, and his preferences are what we want, because of some other theory he suggested about God being the collective of all life, meaning that If no life existed, God wouldn't exist. But that's not the point anyway.
My point of all this is, It is irrational that God would want anything. Even prefer anything. Wanting and preferring are both weaknesses. They both mean you'll end up just a little less happy or satisfied if you don't get your preference. It's irrational for God to have desires, since - being so powerful - he can fulfill them all. It's irrational for him to put his preferences in our hands, the flawed fallen humans.
So where does the sin/good deed theory stand on this? If it stands at all, being contradictory to it?
If God can't want anything, and doesn't have preferences, why would it matter if we 'sin' or we don't?
This is getting very confusing, I'm even confused as I write.
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3 comments:
I wanted not to reply, but couldn't resist, so I'm sorry!
Okay, first of all, the dude who wrote this book seems to be a Pantheist (the all life is god thing... seriously funny!)
Anyway that means that logic won't be his strongest attribute!
Now I'd like to say something.
Wanting is NOT needing, that is an inaccurate & highly subjective statement.
I can want my kids to get good grades in school, I don't need it though. Moreover, I can't say I prefer them to get good grades, because I don't just prefer it, I WANT it.
So you can see the difference. Wanting happens to be quite a seperate thing from both needing & preferring!!
So based on that, there is nothing contradictory between "wanting" and being "perfect". A simple example would be how the better off you get (money-wise for example), your needs may be less, but your desires pretty much stay the same. If you love your mother and want her to be happy, that won't change no matter how rich & "perfect" you get.
Tell me, when you want something, do you feel weak? I personally don't! In fact, when I want something, I feel strength inside me unlike any other. The less desires a person has, the more like a vegetable he becomes. Again I'd like to draw a thick line between wanting and needing.
And oh, I personally don't believe God puts his desires in our hands alone, that wouldn't be terribly smart :)
I don't care much for his logic, I felt the same about all the all life is god thing.
law enta 3ayez weladak yegeebo grades da ma3nah enak te7eb enohom yegeebo grades, mesh hayefre2 ma3ak fe 7aga bas enta 3ayezhom yegeebo grades, that's preferring, you want them to do something over something, you prefer them getting good grades to not getting any.. fahem asdy?
ya3ni ana shayfa en law heya mosh far2a m3ak teb2a preference mesh desire..
I do believe wanting is a weakness, because not getting what you want will make you a little less happier, mesh daroory weakness, bas 7aga zay keda.. vulnerability, mesh 3arfa ala2y kelma sa7
law rabena 3ayez 7aga, w howa perfect w kolly el kodra, leih maye3melhash? leh yeseeb nafso in a state of wanting?
Okay, it seems this will be a long discussion, I suggest we do it sometime.
But I'll be brief here:
Maybe the example of my kids had to do with my parents, since it wasn't really a preference for them!
So how about the other example? You love your mother, and you want to see her happy. I doubt you can say you merely prefer her happiness (especially not to her, I doubt she'll like to hear that!), and you can't really say you need her to be happy either, even if her happiness might make you happy, it hardly qualifies as a need.
Wanting means that it will make a difference to you whether it happens or not, while needing means the same, the difference is that with needing, it's all about you... The reason you'll try to make it happen is to satisfy your need. While your attempts to make your loved ones (by definition, real love is selfless and revolves around others rather than yourself) happy is hardly about satisfying your needs at all. Is this distinction a bit clearer?
Apply that concept to God.
Wanting is not a vulnerability (check example above), however wanting something and then not getting it is another matter.
So okay, if God doesn't get what He wants, while he trully wants it, that should be a sign of vulnerability.
That's one of the reasons I know God must realize His will, it is against logic that he might not.
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