# Bible question: Why did god create humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 2, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130 "2011-03-02T00:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/21 "2011-03-02T03:36:19Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Psalm 8: Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/22 "2011-03-02T04:27:16Z")
For people talking about angels not really having free will, what about the rebellion and fallen angels? It would seem to me that angels have as much free will as humans do. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_E.Zephyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/dc4da7/32.png) [@Nathan\_E.Zephyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_E.Zephyr)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/23 "2011-03-02T09:20:38Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > For people talking about angels not really having free will, what about the rebellion and fallen angels? They were programmed to turn out that way. With free will, humans may choose to love God, or reject him. It makes each human journey far more interesting to witness, and pleasurable for God to torture for eternity. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/24 "2011-03-02T09:45:05Z")
Considering how often God is referred to as “father”, the answer might be: for the same reasons all parents make children. > [@Nobody](#): > > For people talking about angels not really having free will, what about the rebellion and fallen angels? It would seem to me that angels have as much free will as humans do. That’s not in the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/25 "2011-03-02T09:50:51Z")
Interesting. [I guess you’re right](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_angel). ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/26 "2011-03-02T12:06:43Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Because you missed the second half of the answer. It’s “God created us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and enjoy eternal happiness with Him in the next.” It still implies that in order to gain eternal happiness one must first,know God(which is impossible since he keeps himself hidden, and one must depend on another human’s intrepratation of God ) serve Him even if one doesn’t know how,and love Him even if he is unknown, and doesn’t act loveable. If God is Love, as Christians believe, why would he need more love? Why did the angels who saw Him, knew Him etc. rebel? For them Heaven must not have been that fullfilling!! If I remember right, Man was made a little less than the angels, but were punished with death because they did not know as much as Satan( A fallen angel) and listened to him! ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/27 "2011-03-02T12:13:03Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > God made Creation in order to have purpose. God existed in a void. What does it mean to be ‘good,’ (or “evil”) when you are surrounded by nothingness? What does complete power mean when you are swimming in a pool of nothing? > > So God made creation. A huge model train layout. But there was one thing He could not directly create. He cannot directly made Praise. Angels cannot praise God in any important way. They lack the choice to turn away from Him. Their praise is simply hollow. > > To get real praise (respect, fear, whatever), you need a creature who has the free will to reject God. Only such a creature can make the thing God cannot make. > > I am a bit surprised at the OP. This explanation is accepted by all your major-brand Abrahamic religions. It would seem the creation story contradicts that theory, God was said to punish the Angels because of the rebellion of Lucifer,and the one’s who followed him! So the bad angels tempted man away from God! Yet God allowed it so didn’t care too much for humans he created, to allow a monster he created destroy what he was supposed to love! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/28 "2011-03-02T12:16:47Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Considering how often God is referred to as “father”, the answer might be: for the same reasons all parents make children. I know the reason a lot of kids are created, so I’ve got to ask-Just who is God having hot supernatural sex with? ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/29 "2011-03-02T12:16:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Considering how often God is referred to as “father”, the answer might be: for the same reasons all parents make children. > > That’s not in the Bible. It would seem to me a good parent would have children to have an extension of their love for each other, and to have some one more to love, not have a child to love them, that is a selfish desire! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/30 "2011-03-02T12:18:58Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > It would seem to me a good parent would have children to have an extension of their love for each other, and to have some one more to love, not have a child to love them, that is a selfish desire! Good point. That is the reason a lot of teenage girls have children, and we don’t praise _them_ for that reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/31 "2011-03-02T12:43:10Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > It would seem to me a good parent would have children to have an extension of their love for each other, and to have some one more to love, not have a child to love them, that is a selfish desire! I don’t disagree. Frankly, I don’t know where this whole “God created people for the sole purpose of loving him” thing comes from. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/32 "2011-03-02T14:31:47Z")
It does seem to follow from the characterisation of God in the early books, IMO. God is quite needy, impatient, insecure and extremely jealous when people pay attention to other gods. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/33 "2011-03-02T14:39:23Z")
I’ve never really seen it that way. God, at least in the beginning, is portrayed much like a king - and what king likes it when his subjects disobey his decrees, or worse, pay tribute to other monarchs? This whole attitude of religion as a lifestyle choice is a very modern invention. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/34 "2011-03-02T15:02:58Z")
In the priestly version of the creation, I can read God as kinglike, but in the J-text version, I don’t think God is exactly dignified. > [@JPS translation of Genesis](#): > > Then God formed _adam_ out of the earth of the ground, and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life; and _adam_ became a living soul. And God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there put the person God had shaped. God is very hands-on in sculpting _adam_ and planting the garden. The picture is of the deity with muddy knees, a trowel and a bag of tomato seeds, not a royal robe and throne. I’m not sure what you mean by “religion as a lifestyle choice” - do you mean compared with a cultural/national identity? I agree if so. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/35 "2011-03-02T15:23:42Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > In the priestly version of the creation, I can read God as kinglike, but in the J-text version, I don’t think God is exactly dignified. > > God is very hands-on in sculpting _adam_ and planting the garden. The picture is of the deity with muddy knees, a trowel and a bag of tomato seeds, not a royal robe and throne. Considering Jewish history, in the earliest days of Israelite identity, “king” meant a tribal leader - someone who demands absolute loyalty and obedience, but at the same time loves his people and cares about their well-being. Tribal leaders had no problems getting their hands dirty. > [@SecondJudith](#): > > I’m not sure what you mean by “religion as a lifestyle choice” - do you mean compared with a cultural/national identity? I agree if so. That’s exactly what I meant. To the Israelites, worshiping strange Gods was not just a betrayal of the Almighty, it was a betrayal of one’s fellow Israelites. It was treason in the political sense, not just the religious. It seems clear to me that according to the Bible, religion and worship were intended to benefit humanity, not God. God, being eternal, doesn’t need our worship - we need to worship him. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/36 "2011-03-02T15:39:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The OP asked for a specifically Biblical answer. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. People can infer and extroplate, but the Bible gives no clear answer as to why God created people. I agree - of course, the creation myth is a giant ‘just so’ story, so the end is simply assumed to be the purpose. The only actual biblical commentary is given in the first version of the creation myth, Genesis 1 - though admittedly, it isn’t detailed. God makes plants, the sun and moon, and crawling and flying creatures, and in each case his reaction is: > [@](#): > > And God saw that it was good. Finally, God makes people, and his reaction after that: > [@](#): > > And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. In short - creation without people is merely “good”, but creation with people in it is “very good”. Why, the text doesn’t say. It is certainly not because God wanted an equal. That is made perfectly clear in the second creation story, as God expells humans from Eden to avoid that exact possibility: > [@](#): > > Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/37 "2011-03-02T16:05:58Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > In the Bible the order is man was made a little lower then Angels and animals were made lower then man. We can see why God made animals in Genesis, He made it for us, can we assume God made us for the angels? So God made us to provide wearable skins, meat and slave labor for angels? I’m calling dibs on this concept for my great American novel. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/38 "2011-03-02T16:16:11Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > So God made us to provide wearable skins, meat and slave labor for angels? I’m calling dibs on this concept for my great American novel. Think sex slaves. Genesis 6: > [@](#): > > 1When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in[a] man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Assuming “sons of God” = “Angels”. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/39 "2011-03-02T17:20:52Z")
God created us for God to love, as well as for us to love him. I think the “why to we want to have children” is a good start to trying to answer the question. Some people do it for selfish reasons, but at it’s most pure, we have children so we can love them and watch them grow. This is not spelled out in the Bible but I think it is consistent with what the Bible says about God’s loving and creative nature. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/40 "2011-03-02T18:18:10Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > God made Creation in order to have purpose. God existed in a void. What does it mean to be ‘good,’ (or “evil”) when you are surrounded by nothingness? What does complete power mean when you are swimming in a pool of nothing? > > So God made creation. A huge model train layout. But there was one thing He could not directly create. He cannot directly made Praise. Angels cannot praise God in any important way. They lack the choice to turn away from Him. Their praise is simply hollow. > > To get real praise (respect, fear, whatever), you need a creature who has the free will to reject God. Only such a creature can make the thing God cannot make. > > I am a bit surprised at the OP. This explanation is accepted by all your major-brand Abrahamic religions. Wouldn’t that mean that good and evil are relative, contradicting what god is all about according to pretty much all major religions? After all, if there is nothingness and thus good is meaningless, does that mean doing evil in nothingness is ok? Didn’t some angels turn away from god? They had a war and everything. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > I still remember my catechism from Confirmation (about45 years ago): > > Q: Why did God create us? > > A: To share his happiness in heaven. > > Can we close the thread now? 🙂 Why not just create something happy and already in heaven? Why put us mortals through earth and the possibility of spending eternity hell? Seems like if what Paul said is true, there was no evil and suffering in existence. God created the universe and man in order to make sure that some suffering and evil was possible, just so that some others could make it to heaven. And then what? What good comes from humans being in heaven? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130.md?page=3)