# 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:** 3
**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, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/41 "2011-03-02T18:29:12Z")
> [@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. Are we suppose to infer that god has a parental instinct to create? Ok, not in the bible, then what is Satan? Who staffs the torture chambers in Hell? > [@Alessan](#): > > 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. A king and his kingdom can be harmed, disposed of. Assuming there’s no way for anything to usurp god, why should he care so much that some of us disobey him? It would never harm him and he could simply create more, as he did with man even though he already had angels. > [@Malthus](#): > > 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: Why was the temptation in Eden in the first place? If I wanted a child to learn not to touch a hot stove, I don’t turn on the stove and wait for him to burn himself. > [@Skammer](#): > > 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. But humans create children because of a biological drive. If you think about it, there’s also plenty of other reasons to have kids. Our current Western ideal of love and family is not at all reflected in the majority of history. Children were property, they were a way of passing down your legacy, and a way of having free manual labor. Plus, humans have kids because that’s the easiest way for us to get this love. God can just create beings already in love with him, or flip a switch in the minds of angels to give him whatever it was that humans were supposed to give him ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/42 "2011-03-02T18:36:38Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Are we suppose to infer that god has a parental instinct to create? > > Ok, not in the bible, then what is Satan? Who staffs the torture chambers in Hell? Hell is not in the Bible either. Satan in the Old Testament and in Jewish tradition is an angel who works in service to God. He is the “adversary” in a rhetorical sense. His job is to challenge God and keep him on his toes, but he’s not an enemy of God or the Devil of Christianity. In the New Testament, Satan is basically the evil, devil anti-God of convention, but he doesn’t dwell in Hell. Revelation says he will be thrown in a lake of fire at the end of the world (but that lake is only for “Satan and his demons”). Satan in the NT is basically a tempter. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/43 "2011-03-02T19:45:31Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > So God made creation. A huge model train layout. But there was one thing He could not directly create. He cannot directly made Praise. > > […] > 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. > > . Being perfect and all, god cannot lack or desire praise (or feel alone, or feel the need to have kids, or wonder about the meaning of life in the absence of anything else, etc…) That’s why there can’t be a rational explanation for the creation. It has to be a matter of faith. ---
**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, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/44 "2011-03-02T19:51:17Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Being perfect and all, god cannot lack or desire praise (or feel alone, or feel the need to have kids, or wonder about the meaning of life in the absence of anything else, etc…) > > That’s why there can’t be a rational explanation for the creation. It has to be a matter of faith. Creation didn’t come from God’s need or lack; it came from God’s overabundance. ---
**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, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/45 "2011-03-02T19:52:33Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Creation didn’t come from God’s need or lack; it came from God’s overabundance. How can a perfect being have an _over_abundance? ---
**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, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/46 "2011-03-02T19:55:53Z")
Why can’t one? “Perfect” is pretty meaningless when talking about a deity, anyway. What do we measure it against? Perfect by what standards? “God is perfect” is pretty much a tautology. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/47 "2011-03-03T00:31:50Z")
> [@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. > [@Alessan](#): > > That’s not in the Bible. Angelic rebellion isn’t in the bible? Or did you mean something else? [QUOTE=Revelation 12:7-9] 7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. [/QUOTE] ---
**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 3, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/48 "2011-03-03T00:33:41Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > Angelic rebellion isn’t in the bible? Or did you mean something else? That’s Revelations-it hasn’t happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/49 "2011-03-03T02:11:10Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > 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!! I think the answer would be that we don’t know, love, and serve God for God’s benefit, but that we do it for our benefit It’s a god who loves us and wants us to be happy, and knows that the best way for us to be happy is to know, love, and obey him. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/50 "2011-03-03T02:27:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > That’s Revelations-it hasn’t happened yet. But you’ll agree it’s in the bible? 🙂 And that playing by the rules of the thread it can be offered as evidence of the ability (or arguably destiny) of some portion of the heavenly host to rebel? ---
**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 3, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/51 "2011-03-03T02:34:55Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > But you’ll agree it’s in the bible? 🙂 > > And that playing by the rules of the thread it can be offered as evidence of the ability (or arguably destiny) of some portion of the heavenly host to rebel? _Maybe_. Remember, since it is in Revelation, it is open to interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/52 "2011-03-03T02:47:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > _Maybe_. Remember, since it is in Revelation, it is open to interpretation. I’m happy to go with the events of Revelations not yet having happened… although by logical extension then there are no demons or fallen angels, and Satan is still currently an officer in good standing in the celestial court. ---
**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 3, 2011, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/53 "2011-03-03T05:44:16Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > Angelic rebellion isn’t in the bible? Or did you mean something else? Sorry. I don’t read fanfic. ---
**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 3, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/54 "2011-03-03T06:15:50Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > I’m happy to go with the events of Revelations not yet having happened… although by logical extension then there are no demons or fallen angels, and Satan is still currently an officer in good standing in the celestial court. That’s the way it reads to me. How’d you like to be Satan, though-predestined to be the biggest screw up in the history of the universe, everyone already knows about it, and there isn’t a damn(sorry-had to) thing he can do about it. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/55 "2011-03-03T06:35:30Z")
Now that’s a plot for a novel. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/56 "2011-03-03T07:45:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Sorry. I don’t read fanfic. Errmm… the Book of Revelation of St John the Divine is fanfic? :dubious: Oh, OK, I thought it was canon… unlike his Jesus-Judas-slash stories. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/57 "2011-03-03T07:51:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > How’d you like to be Satan, though-predestined to be the biggest screw up in the history of the universe, everyone already knows about it, and there isn’t a damn(sorry-had to) thing he can do about it. I’m thinking it would make me darned angry… perhaps angry enough to do something rash… 🙂 ---
**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 3, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/58 "2011-03-03T08:02:33Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > Errmm… the Book of Revelation of St John the Divine is fanfic? :dubious: > > Oh, OK, I thought it was canon… unlike his Jesus-Judas-slash stories. 😃 Look at my location. Try to guess what I consider “the Bible.” And yeah, God/humanity is definitely slash, Jesus is a total Mary Sue, and don’t get me started on the retcons. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/59 "2011-03-03T08:14:13Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Jesus is a total Mary Sue Well, come on, he’s a major character! Of course they were going to bring him back! Uncle Ben is the only one who stays dead. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130/60 "2011-03-03T11:08:45Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Look at my location. Try to guess what I consider “the Bible.” :smack: 😃 Shalom **Alessan**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-question-why-did-god-create-humans/573130.md?page=4)