What is the meaning of life on Earth?

kelly1

kelly1 wrote:

Wicknight, you must have a very limited understanding of God to say this. Don't you think an omnipotent God is capable of creating ever-new and unending joy in our souls? Boring would be out of the question! Don't you ever have a longing to break out of this finite world into something far bigger and beautiful? Don't you ever stop and think "Is this all there is to life"?

If you learned to be happy here and now, you wouldn't have to resort to a "grass is greener on the other side" type of view.
It's all very well imagining things are better far away, another time another place, when they're made better for you, but it's more challenging and satisfying to be happy with what we already have.

Zombrex

kelly1 wrote:

God is perfect.

Well to be truly perfect something cannot exist, so if God exists he cannot be absolutely perfect, because there will always be a more perfect version in abstract that doesn't exist. As soon as something exists it becomes less perfect that the abstract concept it is based upon.

kelly1 wrote:

No, if you do get to Heaven, and I sincerely hope you do, you will see the wisdom of God's decisions.

You know this because ... Have you been to heaven?

kelly1 wrote:

We don't have God's wisdom and scope of vision so we don't understand His ways.

Yet you claim to understand them enough to know they are perfect. Can you see the problem with that?

The whole "you don't understand God" argument only ever seems to appear when someone is saying something that theists consider negative. It is completely ignored when people start preaching about things they consider positive.

When was the last time anyone said "God is Love" or "God is perfect" and a theists when "You can't say that!! You don't understand God enough to say that!!"

kelly1 wrote:

What can God do if someone rejects Him?

Put them into heaven anyway.

That would seem like the logical thing to do. Why is it necessary to worship God to be in heaven? Surely heaven can be made up of everyone, as Earth is.

But then that wouldn't fit into the very earthly idea of religion. If a religion taught that everyone was getting into heaven then there would be no point in joining the religion, and as such the religion would have no power. Religions need the "them and us" feeling in its followers to unify them in their beliefs.

kelly1

Zillah wrote:

What a fuzzy world you live in Noel. Do you apply such self-pleasing nonesense to every aspect of your life? If your morning newspaper is swiped, do you sit there reading thin air because life is nicer if you didn't have your paper stolen? If you don't have enough money to pay the bills, do you just insist you do have enough money and ignore all the consequences? When it rains on you, do you just choose to believe you're still dry? It must be very liberating to simply decide what the universe is like according to your desires.

No, I face reality the same way all of us have to. I don't know where you got your ideas about me.

kelly1

OK, I quit. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Zillah

kelly1 wrote:

No, I face reality the same way all of us have to. I don't know where you got your ideas about me.

Aside from all that soul/grace/God stuff that you just kind of make up?

OK, I quit. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

There are none so blind as those that will not blindly accept preposterous claims about the nature of the universe at face value.

Gegerty

kelly1 wrote:

OK, I quit. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Tut tut. What does the bible say about giving up mmm?

But seriously Noel, do you honestly think you have it all figured out just because you read it in a book? How do you explain all the evidence discovered by science? What makes you so special? I bet you're a dirty sinner really....I bet you do lots of unholy things. What if your sins really aren't cleansed when you go to confession? I bet thats a worry isn't it?

Dades

Lads, Noel has the right to quit. He stuck it out longer than most.
It was an interesting discussion that reached it's inevitable conclusion.

kelly1

Thanks to all of you who contributed. It's been an "interesting" discussion.

Zombrex

kelly1 wrote:

OK, I quit. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I'm not quite sure what you expect us to see.

Kelly1 you just seem to not be very happy with your life, so I imagine you dream of a better life some where else, some where else including the after life. Which you are of course perfectly entitled to do so.

But it is a bit presumptuous to assume that everyone is as dissatisfied with their existence as you are, and therefore everyone will long for this "higher purpose" that you seem to long for, a purpose that a lot of people around here find far less meaningful than anything they themselves could come up with.

Sitting around waiting to die so that God can make you happy doesn't seem like much of a purpose TBH.

Ekancone

kelly1 wrote:

With respect Ricky, you're working from the very big assumption that God doesn't exist. I for one am not going to limit myself to being a random and meaningless product of a giant explosion. To do this is a real tragedy. Our dignity is far higher than all the rest of creation because of the gift of divine grace in our souls. We are created in God's "image and likeness" but of course sin can destroy this grace.
The German theologian Matthias Scheeben says that what happens when divine grace is created in a human soul is far, far greater that the creation of the entire universe. This happens every day in baptism and in the sacrament of reconciliation. Divine grace should be more highly prized than all the riches in the world combined. Sadly, the vast majority of people don't know about this.

Regards,
Noel.

How horribly egotistical.

Zillah

The Atheist wrote:

Lads, Noel has the right to quit. He stuck it out longer than most.
It was an interesting discussion that reached it's inevitable conclusion.

As the victors we retain the right to nab the self righteous last word.

Zombrex

Zillah wrote:

As the victors we retain the right to nab the self righteous last word.

We certainly do ....

Zillah

Yup, that we do.

stevejazzx

And i'd like to add 'well done, bravo'