Current Events > Does God want us to feel guilty? IP locked.

(+) Yeah! (+)

To clarify, this means the God of Abrahamic religions. So Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Also Baha'i Faith, Yezidi, Druze, Samaritan and Rastafari.

not really but the people who supposed to have received God's messages needed power and make sheep obey

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The Abrahamic God ultimately embodies this philosophy that even the most wise should be made to suffer, and we must thrive from the fruits our labor. Some acts of God are so large that they sweep everyone away with them, even if you didnt necessarily do anything wrong. God is thought to be good, but at the end of the day all we can do is hope anyway. If you think God wants everyone to feel guilty somewhere in that knot of ideas, Im all ears.

Trying to make you feel guilty is the corner Stone of religion

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That guy is such a fucking dick. He's like a creepy abusive boyfriend that's also incredibly sensitive and prone to fits of totally disproportionate rage.

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Personal answer? God doesn't want us to feel guilty, because God doesn't exist. Life boils down to a cosmic side-effect bolstered by billions of years worth of incremental change that led to our existence through sheer luck, and when we die, there's nothing left for us. We become nothing.

The only being we were being faithful to was ourselves through the values we chose to embody throughout our lives, so to ask if God wanted us to feel guilty is basically asking if you wanted yourself to feel guilty - or if the church wanted you to feel guilty.

Serious answer pertaining to the topic:

I don't think an omnipotent God would want us to feel guilty. And my understanding is that Shi'a Muslims and possibly a broader stroke of faiths under the Muslim banner understand that concept quite well.

Apologies to any Muslim folks if this is butchering the concept, but my understanding is that in Islam, there's this idea that you serve God out of faith and piety. To worship God out of fear is disrespectful to you both - to worship out of fear or guilt is the faith of a slave: it does you no good, and it paints God in a negative light, so the worship of God should be carried forth in your actions and your emotions and your will to do so.

So already, we're seeing a disconnect between the Christian/Catholic idea of a vengeful god within the Abrahamic religions.

Personally, I think if God were to exist, I think he'd want people to live pious lives - but I also think he'd want us to carry our faith forward in our day to day interactions. Smiling at a stranger, helping out a neighbour. Understanding the difference between right and wrong, and working to get back on the good path should you err.

So to a degree, I do think God would encourage some guilt. But only insofar as to encourage people to stand by a strong set of ethics and personal morals. To make the world a better place for you and everyone else.

I don't think God would want gay or trans people to feel guilty for being gay or trans. I think he'd want them to carry the essence of faith - to be kind, to have ethics and morals, to make the world better for everyone around them. Regardless of the receptacle you keep your soul in, I think as long as you exemplify what it means to be a good person, you would be good with God.

So to sum all that up:

Assuming God exists, the only guilt I think he would want people to feel is in regards to straying from a kind and loving set of ethics and morals. Basically - don't be a piece of shit, and love openly as you would like to be loved, and I think you'd be good with God. Any guilt present would be in service to getting you back to that path.

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you guys should believe in my god instead

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MrMallard posted...

Personal answer? God doesn't want us to feel guilty, because God doesn't exist.

The mind of an atheist

Xethuminra posted...

The mind of an atheist

Yeah?


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Even if you don't believe in god, do you have the fear of god, are you worried that you might be wrong and you will be judged upon death.
Indeed.

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MrMallard posted...

I think if God were to exist, I think he'd want people to live pious lives - but I also think he'd want us to carry our faith forward in our day to day interactions. Smiling at a stranger, helping out a neighbour. Understanding the difference between right and wrong, and working to get back on the good path should you err.

The mind of an atheist

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God doesn't exist.

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MrMallard posted...

The mind of an atheist

Forget to switch to an alt?

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Lonestar2000 posted...

Forget to switch to an alt?

The mind of an alt theist

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Lonestar2000 posted...

Forget to switch to an alt?

Someone highlighted the first line of my post and went "the mind of an atheist", so I decided to highlight a more pertinent quote from later in the post and make the same comment as a joke.

I don't have any alts. In the event of this account going down, that's it - I'm not remaking, I'm not lurking, I'm leaving.

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bulletproofvita posted...

Even if you don't believe in god, do you have the fear of god, are you worried that you might be wrong and you will be judged upon death.
Indeed.

Not really

Are you afraid aliens will turn tomorrow and burn your alive in green goo?

it's the same thing.

Religious people don't realize how absurd their beliefs are if you haven't been indoctrinated into accepting them as normal.

Then they think non believers are being disrespectful by not accepting the random absurdity.

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God does not exist, and therefore feels nothing. On the other hand, if a God or Gods do exist, what the want is unknowable.