Someone asked this on Facebook. Here's the answer I gave him:
We are supposed to be good because we are made in God's image, and God is all good. God wants us to come home to Him. If we disobey His Commandments, and deny His son, Jesus Christ, and choose hell over Heaven, then that's your choice. He's not going to stop you. But He wants you to be with Him. That's actually all God desires. He loves you and wants you for Himself. Satan also wants you for himself. Satan is trying to steal your soul because your soul is infinitely valuable. It's your decision to make because God gave you free will to decide.
When you think about it long enough, it becomes logical to conclude that God must remain hidden from us. He can't intervene in every event nor right every wrong. If he did, then we humans would lose all moral agency as we would depend on God for everything and stop spiritually growing.
Thomas Acquinas takes it even a step further and says that a world in which God intervened to right every wrong would violate natural law thus make the world incomprehensible for humans. Thus, it is a gift that he doesn't constantly intervene since it gives us a world we can come to understand (ie. science, medicine and 99% of human knowledge wouldn't exist if God constantly intervened).
Amen! Very well said @freetx !!
Old Testament God vs New Testament God
God was quite capricious and mercurial in the Old Testament
If we are God's children and He's a good father why would He not what us to avoid that which is destructive? If we are eternal beings why would God want us to be to harm his other children or ourselves?
If I as an earthy father would warn my children about danger and even punish them for doing evil. How much more would God do this?
He does want us to avoid that which is destructive.
He does not want us to harm his other children or ourselves.
If you think either of these things are false, then I implore you to read the Bible yourself (God's own words). Study the source material and reassess the questions you're asking from a first principles standpoint. Because your questions show me that you have little knowledge of God and what he wants and what he did/does for us.
That's what I'm saying. When people say our God is just a selfish and mean they sound like teenagers.
edit Oh yeah, okay, I misunderstood how you were saying what you said in your OP. Sorry about that
No worries
Answering your question in the negative. Has any religion ever explained why God would care if we do evil? If we flawed people want to keep our own kids from evil and becoming bad surely a good God would as well. Even if you don't beleive in God this question is really an easy one philosophically.
God cares so much that He became man and died to save his children from evil. He laid down his life for his creation. He lived as a man and was unjustly killed. I'd say He cares in a way we struggle to understand.
The tough questions are why would He give us a choice. But that's another topic.
Why are you still using Facebook? I deleted my account in 2020 after the George Floyd riots and nonsense
I haven't actively used it since like 2013. But I recently reactivated it to publish ads for my events. And I've gotten ticket sales already. I don't sell any tickets posting to X, despite my semi-large following. So I had to adapt and succumb to FB, unfortunately...you have to reach the normies somehow...and they ain't on SN or X
That's a good reason, congrats on getting ticket sales from FB
You are right about SN and X
thank you!
We as individuals are sometimes motivated by selfish ambitions but we are in truth part of the family of humanity.
When we follow selfish motives we are often undermining the wider community of which we are part...and upon whichj our well being and security relies.
Religions codify principle this but often still fail to prevent groups of humans of different faiths from perpetrating violence and war against each other.