Is God Bored Watching Us Live Our Perfect Lives?

[Willowz]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row. Then, it dawned on me. If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row. Then, it dawned on me. If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

It's the absolute control that makes for the boredom. What would you do to solve this problem if you had the problem?

 

[Willowz]

What would I do to solve the problem? I would constantly distract myself and concentrate on trivialities. I would amass money only so that I could spend it. I would look for a woman only so that I could be more obsessed with her looks than with myself. Oh, but I would be so empty!

EDIT: The fact that I didn't sleep well tonight is probably one of the reasons I started this thread. Must get a good nights sleep.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Oh, but I would be so empty!

Then dig deeper.

 

[turbo]

If there is a God, and he is bored, look out! Job didn't have an easy time of it.

 

[Willowz]

If there is a God, and he is bored, look out! Job didn't have an easy time of it.

Indeed!

 

[daveb]

From The Devil's Advocate (not a great movie, but Pacino did get to rant).

Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha. And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin' His sick, f****n' a** off! He's a tight-a**! He's a SADIST! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? NEVER!

 

[AlephZero]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock.

Mind how you go. The boys from the Rock Protection League don't like to see that sort of disrespect happening in their neighborhood...

 

[Willowz]

Mind how you go. The boys from the Rock Protection League don't like to see that sort of disrespect happening in their neighborhood...

 

[Maui]

If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

I don't know why but it just doesn't sound too bad to me.

 

[Willowz]

That's because things don't happen according to your wishes.

 

[Maui]

That's because things don't happen according to your wishes.

Sure, but he/she supposedly has an infinity to choose from

People shouldn't be too worried about the well-being of gods anyway(i thought there were children starving in Africa)

 

[Willowz]

Starving children in Africa? They got to help themselves. Every man woman and child for themselves!

 

[Willowz]

Anyway, my brain feels floppy. Gotta play some more games.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If I had total control and had made so many googleplex universes and watched them expand and contract, or die of heat death or the other googleplex - 2 ways for universes to end and had done that googleplex times, I too would feel bored. The problem is total control and the solution is to delegate. Do you want G-d to save those starving children in Africa? He's been there done that a googleplex times. What are you doing about it? You have free will, he's not in complete control. But what does he want? What is the one thing that the genie can't do for him? Did you see the film?

 

[jobyts]

God really wants to help the starving children in Africa. To begin with, he had to pick a random number of starving children.

Due to his damn omniscient nature, he's just stuck at picking the random number.

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

Well, if God exists he probably doesn't have human emotions like boredom.

 

[DevilsAvocado]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row ... blah. Just so boring.

From The Devil's Advocate

From DevilsAvocado:

Welcome to God’s QM casino, if you hit that rock twice, you’ll win a Nobel and US$1.4 million!

 

[Danger]

There is no "Supreme Being", but if there was one it would probably alleviate boredom by inventing something like George W. to give everyone a good laugh. There was a good chance of mass panic for a while, until everyone realized that the bastard couldn't possibly remember the launch codes. They were probably presented to him in a bowl of carefully arranged Alphabits, which he ate before memorizing them.

 

[chiro]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row. Then, it dawned on me. If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

Whoever god is, they might spend all of there time creating new things that they haven't already created. Given the state space is what is possible, I think god is going to be pretty damn busy.

 

[Willowz]

Brilliant!

 

[wuliheron]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row. Then, it dawned on me. If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

Alan Watts described god as "Playing peek-a-boo" with himself. Hey, if God can lift a rock so big even he can't lift it boredom is not a problem.

 

[Willowz]

Wow. This Alan Watts guy. He is something. I don't know where to start with his lectures. (Watching them now on youtube attentively)

 

[wuliheron]

Wow. This Alan Watts guy. He is something. I don't know where to start with his lectures. (Watching them now on youtube attentively)

He's a popular author on Zen and Taoism and a good introduction to Asian thought. Its a very different headtrip in just about every respect. For example, every Taoist temple is guarded by a ferocious demon and they teach that the human body alone has as many a 8,000 gods inhabiting it, yet a Taoist priest can be agnostic. Its the underlying philosophy stressing simplicity, spontaneity, and acceptance that supports such an apparent contradiction and that most westerners find interesting.

 

[Danger]

they teach that the human body alone has as many a 8,000 gods inhabiting it

So you are saying, essentially, that they are the most schizophrenic people in the history of the human race...








Yes, I know that dissociative personality disorder is not actually a part of schizophrenia, but that would have screwed up the joke.

 

[wuliheron]

So you are saying, essentially, that they are the most schizophrenic people in the history of the human race...

Yes, I know that dissociative personality disorder is not actually a part of schizophrenia, but that would have screwed up the joke.

No, they believe everyone has the same number of gods inhabiting them, so they're no more or less schizophrenic or multiple personality then anyone else. As far they are concerned the issue isn't how to integrate them all into a single personality, but how to promote harmonious relationships between them.

 

[Danger]

As far they are concerned the issue isn't how to integrate them all into a single personality, but how to promote harmonious relationships between them.

Do you realize how many pharmaceutical companies would be forced into bankruptcy if that philosophy is adopted by the general public?!

 

[ThomasT]

So yesterday while watching a sunset I was throwing some rocks at another rock. By luck I hit the rock I was aiming for two times in a row. Then, it dawned on me. If there is a God, s/he must be soooo bored. Everything happens according to your wishes and blah. Just so boring.

Maybe it wasn't luck, and god has gifted you with a certain rock flinging skill. Thus, you might embrace this in a revelatory spirit and re-engineer your circumstances to maximize this skill, rather than speculating on the inevitability of god being bored (which I wasn't sure how you got to, but then you mentioned that you needed more sleep and it made sense, sort of).

 

[wuliheron]

Do you realize how many pharmaceutical companies would be forced into bankruptcy if that philosophy is adopted by the general public?!

Nah, they'd just market them as "promoting inner harmony" instead of "anti-psychotics".

 

[Willowz]

Soon there will be pills that will let us unleash 8000 gods within us. And the power will be unlimited!

 

[wuliheron]

Soon there will be pills that will let us unleash 8000 gods within us. And the power will be unlimited!

The power is called "Chi" and according to legends if you cultivate enough power you become immortal and even capable of flying. The earliest legends of enlightened beings say they couldn't be killed in battle, they were too spontaneous, and they had the most serene smile on their face as the chopped your head off. Not a sadistic smile, just someone totally at peace with what they had to do in the moment. Think David Carradine's "Kung Fu" and you get the idea. Masters of disguise these people are said to still wander among us to this day.

 

[Willowz]

The power is called "Chi" and according to legends if you cultivate enough power you become immortal and even capable of flying. The earliest legends of enlightened beings say they couldn't be killed in battle, they were too spontaneous, and they had the most serene smile on their face as the chopped your head off. Not a sadistic smile, just someone totally at peace with what they had to do in the moment. Think David Carradine's "Kung Fu" and you get the idea. Masters of disguise these people are said to still wander among us to this day.

Scary stuff... I think I'll stick with Watts sensible serenity.

 

[wuliheron]

Scary stuff... I think I'll stick with Watts sensible serenity.

Yeah, Star Wars is often used as an example of Taoism too. However, Forest Gump and Peter Sellers' "Being There" are even more classic examples. The idea is that it isn't really your power, but the power of the universe flowing through you and surrender/acceptance is the only way to keep it flowing.

 

[Willowz]

Yeah, Star Wars is often used as an example of Taoism too. However, Forest Gump and Peter Sellers' "Being There" are even more classic examples. The idea is that it isn't really your power, but the power of the universe flowing through you and surrender/acceptance is the only way to keep it flowing.

That seems like trivialising it a bit? How should a westerner understand Taoism or whatnot?

 

[wuliheron]

That seems like trivialising it a bit? How should a westerner understand Taoism or whatnot?

Unlike a lot of western religions and philosophies Taoists love to make fun of themselves, so trivializing Taoism is perfectly acceptable. They especially appreciate a very subtle tongue in cheek sense of humor that offends no one and can be easy is miss altogether. They can even view everything as having a humorous side include God, religious dogma, or a physics textbook.

That's actually a good example of how Asian philosophies tend to differ in general. They stress attitude and affect as much as logic, metaphysics, and epistemology. Hence the emphasis on meditation where the idea is to clear your mind and become more spontaneous. To many westerners they resemble psychologies more then philosophies or religions, but they really are at heart philosophies and religions. Just very different ones in ways that are hard to explain because the differences are as much emotional as rational and to a Taoist the idea of having one without the other is a contradiction.