# Did you know that God has only THREE requirements.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 13, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508 "2005-01-13T04:54:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/21 "2005-01-13T17:46:57Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > In addition, in Judaic thought, there is the concept that one should perform the commandments, even if for an ulterior motive. The idea is that if you do good deeds for an ulterior motive, you will eventually come to do them for their own sake. C. S. Lewis says much the same in _Mere Christianity_ ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/22 "2005-01-13T19:04:51Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > And I thought you were going to go with “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” > > ah well. Who, me? Those are specific things that can happen as a result of loving your neighbor as your self. The Golden Rule is a broader application; not only love your neighbor as yourself, but treat them as you want to be treated. If you seek mercy, show it to others as a reflection of the mercy you experience you as you walk humbly with God. Justice is the result of applying the Great Commandment and Golden Rule. Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/23 "2005-01-13T19:25:22Z")
Does this mean we can FINALLY kick Paul off his pedestal and put him with the other people who had good ideas on how to behave but, being mere humans, were not always right, like Augustine, Hillel, Aquinas, the Buddha, Mohammed, Luther, and Ann Landers? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/24 "2005-01-13T20:03:44Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Does this mean we can FINALLY kick Paul off his pedestal and put him with the other people who had good ideas on how to behave but, being mere humans, were not always right, like Augustine, Hillel, Aquinas, the Buddha, Mohammed, Luther, and Ann Landers? Of course, I’d say that anyone who’s all for that has already kicked Paul off the pedestal. The problem is convincing the Christian Pharisees that it’s a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/25 "2005-01-13T20:04:58Z")
> [@Vlad/Igor](#): > > Well, hang on a minute. One of the functions of spirituality and religious belief is to improve yourself, and it isn’t backwards. There is a hidden implication in the Great Commandment that many miss. To wit: > > \*You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as **yourself**. > > I give you a new commandment: that you love one another. **Just as I have loved you** , you should also love one another.\* > > Before you are able to understand and show this love to anyone else, you first have to love yourself. You have to see yourself as acceptable and loved in the eyes of God despite your flaws, faults, sins or shortcomings. Once this divine love is accepted with humility, you are then able to extend it to others who are sinful and flawed like you. Accepting God’s love doesn’t make you better than anyone else, but it gives you the ability to lift others up to your level and see them as just like yourself. > > So, following the spirit of the OP, you live your life in quiet acceptance of divine love despite your sins, and you offer that same acceptance to your neighbor as a natural reflection of the love you experience. > > Vlad/Igor …as the Episcopalian Mafia gathers around **Vlad/Igor** and softly sings a backup rendition of Whitney Houston… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/26 "2005-01-13T21:23:54Z")
Lovely bit of proseltyzing, **Polycarp** ; though of course you’re one of the Famous Dopers, I think this is my first real exposure to you. Delightful. If you don’t mind a tangential comment, the passages you chose refer indirectly, but substantially, to the religious topic my Mom and I discuss most often: Faith. Whenever there’s a problem, we say it’s always a matter of faith. In fact, I wonder if you would agree that faith is more important than knowledge. I think that’s what Jesus is referring to when he talks about birds being fed and flowers growing; that we never have certain knowledge of tomorrow, and that faith is the healthiest way to face our fear (as opposed to hoarding and cheating and lying to create “security”). There are only two states, fear and love; faith is a way to bridge them. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/27 "2005-01-13T22:02:11Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > What? No Pauline _expansions, additions, and interpretations?_ How the hell are you supposed to run a religion with two or three measly little rules? Lovingly. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/28 "2005-01-13T22:20:07Z")
“Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” How can someone do that? I presume by heart you don’t mean that meaty beating pump in my chest? What’s the differenct in loving with the hear, loving with the soul, and loving with the mind? You make an OP as if it was all easy three simple rules, but what are the details when you get down to it? An dhow do you know that you understand those details? Also if you use all your mind for loving God, there won’t be any mind left for thinking with (though of course this could explain certain fundamentalist’s views 😉 ). ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/29 "2005-01-14T01:54:14Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” > > How can someone do that?.. Also if you use all your mind for loving God, there won’t be any mind left for thinking with (though of course this could explain certain fundamentalist’s views Unconditionally, no-holds-barred. Us Pepsi-copalians have a theology that rests on three legs (although they are trying to modernize the image): scripture, tradition and reason. Take away one of the legs, and you fall down. So, we tend to be a bit more cerebral than our more conservative brethren. It doesn’t mean you abdicate reason, rather you use it in your quest for salvation and understanding of your relationship with God. [WH] 'Cause Yoooooooooooooooooou, I will always love yoooooOOOOoOOOooOOoOou, I will always love yooOOoooOOooOooOoooOOoooooo… [/WH] Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/30 "2005-01-14T03:13:03Z")
> [@Vlad/Igor](#): > > Unconditionally, no-holds-barred. Us Pepsi-copalians have a theology that rests on three legs (although they are trying to modernize the image): scripture, tradition and reason. Take away one of the legs, and you fall down. So, we tend to be a bit more cerebral than our more conservative brethren. It doesn’t mean you abdicate reason, rather you use it in your quest for salvation and understanding of your relationship with God. Precisely. > [@](#): > > [WH] > > 'Cause Yoooooooooooooooooou, I will always love yoooooOOOOoOOOooOOoOou, > I will always love yooOOoooOOooOooOoooOOoooooo… > > [/WH] > > Vlad/Igor So I reopened this thread to respond to the most recent posts. Can you _guess_ what WRAL 101.5 is playing right at the moment? :smack: (BTW, I assume you got that I was referencing “The Greatest Love of All,” and are just riffing on my post now…:)) ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/31 "2005-01-14T03:16:20Z")
Hey, **Vlad** , couldn’t you at least play the Dolly Parton version? 😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/32 "2005-01-14T03:50:16Z")
I’ve always been rather fond of [this comic strip](http://www.shadowculture.com/wtbr/bestof/lifeofchrist.html). (“The Life of Christ–Condensed Version”) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/33 "2005-01-14T03:53:10Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > I’ve always been rather fond of [this comic strip](http://www.shadowculture.com/wtbr/bestof/lifeofchrist.html). (“The Life of Christ–Condensed Version”) God, that’s beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/34 "2005-01-14T04:07:50Z")
Or, as Douglas Adams put it, > [@](#): > > …nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change… ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/35 "2005-01-14T15:03:53Z")
I’m going to bump this thread, as provided for in the rules, to bring it to the attention of Ron ( **Amazing Grace** ), who has returned as **Zev** requested him to. ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/36 "2005-01-14T16:44:44Z")
**Polycarp** , oh my. That was a very moving post. Those friends of mine who are Christians have tended to be fundamentalist Biblical literalists. One such friend is the most intelligent, rational and moral person I know. All her virtues are rooted in her faith, but it is still repugnant to me. If I died this moment I would suffer eternally for not worshipping the God of her book (whose flaws she ignores) – and she finds nothing injust about this. It’s as if her surface virtues – mercy, humility, charity in all senses – get perverted and inverted deep inside. From this and other things I thought that the Christians’ redemption from original sin could never be reconciled with my Jewish and atheistic belief in human worth. **Polycarp** , thank you for showing that we’re really aiming at the same thing after all. It’s not all about pasting stickers in textbooks, or saving yourself for marriage, or playing the appropriate gender role, or cutting your hair like Paul says you should, or keeping away from “The World”, or a million other things. It’s really about being good to people. (Hillel, too, summed up the Torah like Jesus did in Matt. 7:12.) And thank you for saying smart things like this: > [@Polycarp](#): > > My God doesn’t have a leather cover and India-paper insides. And He doesn’t talk in red ink. You’re a credit to your faith. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/37 "2005-01-14T18:53:05Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > I’ve always been rather fond of [this comic strip](http://www.shadowculture.com/wtbr/bestof/lifeofchrist.html). (“The Life of Christ–Condensed Version”) In other words: Don’t be a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/38 "2005-01-14T19:00:41Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > My God doesn’t have a leather cover and India-paper insides. And He doesn’t talk in red ink. But His native tongue is still Elizabethan English, right? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/39 "2005-01-14T19:24:12Z")
Loving God with my mind means that I should seek to know Him. It’s why we do exegesis, it’s why we dig and dust and extrapolate. We want to understand what God wants of us and for us, and it would be shortsighted of us to assume that He expects us to act like a citizen of Corinth whose world has been dead for 1500 years. Perhaps the ancient Corinthians needed to maintain insularity by wearing certain weaves, keeping women’s heads covered, and not marrying outside the faith. Or perhaps Paul simply thought they did. Be that as it may, I am no less of a Christian whether I wear flannel or polyester. However, I do recognize the importance of maintaining community with my fellow Christians, and it is by examining Corinthian society, the lives of Christians within it, and Paul’s circumstances that I am able to contextualize the text and, through prayer and study, divine the importance of community among the archaic “cultural static” of headcovers and differing weaves. My God has seen fit to give me a mind capable of great things. I am reasonably sure that he would think me a silly creation indeed if I spent more time trying to find a Paul-of-Tarsus-approved shirt than ministering to my fellow man. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508/40 "2005-01-14T20:09:11Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > But His native tongue is still Elizabethan English, right? 😛 Hell, YEAH! With a proper Royal Shakespeare Company accent, too. > [@Polycarp](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by dropzone > What? No Pauline expansions, additions, and interpretations? How the hell are you supposed to run a religion with two or three measly little rules? > Lovingly. Give a man a straight line and he tells a single joke. Make a man a straight line and he becomes a joke forever. Like Jerry Falwell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-god-has-only-three-requirements/284508.md?page=3)