Should we not strive to be God-like?

Many Christian fundamentalists are horrified at the notion that we humans should strive to be God-like. Such arrogance and hubris!
But I would ask you, Why would we not seek to embrace the moral perfection that is God?
Is God's ideal of humanity less than perfect?
I can worship no god that seeks a less than perfect subject.
Should we not strive to be God-like?

originally posted by: Diderot
Many Christian fundamentalists are horrified at the notion that we humans should strive to be God-like.

I've never heard a christian say we should not emulate Christ. (well once on ATS, but she only meant herself)

Where are you hearing this?

Oh ya, we don't really know enough about GOD to emulate him and we don't have the power.

So ya, emulate Christ, not God...

Are we not created in GOD image?

biblehub.com...

I hate to think that GOD looks like me. Balding, beergut, long grayhair and beard, myopic, and arthritic feet and hands.

a reply to: Diderot


sure we should
we humans have nothing else to strive for other than purity... sure we wont even become close to godlike and are prone to our humanish flaws
but its not a sin to try
its a sin to be pridefull to the point meer humans say they ARE godlike

a reply to: Diderot

Yes, we should all strive to be imaginary.

a reply to: Diderot

And which God would you particularly like to be like? I find the whole idea of 'God-like' questionable. In the West we seem to have been forced down the road from groups of pantheons and then spirralled down into one with bits of each of the other Gods amalgamated in. In the East we seem to have jollied along with numerous and may I say particularly interesting Gods that link us to nature and the Cosmos.

Then we have the Man-God who seems to me to be the very best because one can relate to his being human and striving to deal with forgive others and indeed lift himself up from ordinary everyday irks into a superior being with a worldly view.

This "God" you speak of created you to be you. If you feel compelled to live by a high set of morals and values then do so. But do it because this god created you to choose for yourself how you should be. And if your morals and values have a negative effect on anybody else, then they are not good morals and values to follow. We were all created equal and as such nobody else is better then you, and you are no better then anybody else.

Even if unattainable, I believe we still should try to become perfect like God is suppose to be...

Now, what is perfection?
An entirely subjective ideology.

a reply to: Diderot

It depend's how you mean, I think we should strive to be God like but we tend to be more devil like, being god like is actually what christianity is about, trying to emulate christ.

But as a race should we strive forward to make ourselved more knowledgable, well why not but remember we can never reach the top of that particular hill as it is infinitely high and we can easily fall into the same trap as the greek parable of sysiphus the king doomed to roll the ball of stone up the hill to try to reach heaven but never quite make it only for the ball to roll all the way back down and have to start all over again, but we tend to arrogant and that is the sin we commit not the acheivement but our own belief in self superiority that show's a self agrandizement and self worship which is patently wrong, the greatest men have all be wracked by doubt but all achieved wonder's.

There is nothing anti christian about advancing the self so long as it is not at the expense of other's and so long as the self always realizes that it is not God and takes on the responsibility that each new stage give's it and not merely to serve the self, that the Ideal of God is an unacheivable goal and in essence that is what christians and in there way buddhists are all trying to do in different way's of course, they both understand that to get closer to God you must first defeat yourself, the old man that you where must die so that the new man you strive to become may live.

a reply to: Shiloh7

i think he means soul purity levels

a reply to: Diderot

Nah don't worry about this, those "Christians" are just a bit lost in their opinions. There are Christians that believe even space was put out there by god for us to explore, and with that logic, quantum physics and anything else were able to do was put here for us by god.

So I'd shrug off those guys and just think they're a bit misguided.

I do not know about being like GOD. I personally never met him so I can not say what he is like. I read some books about him but that is it. I am not saying I do not believe in GOD but that is the extent of our knowledge.

What I do think we should do is strive to be the best people we can possibly be at this moment in time.

originally posted by: Diderot
Many Christian fundamentalists are horrified at the notion that we humans should strive to be God-like. Such arrogance and hubris!
But I would ask you, Why would we not seek to embrace the moral perfection that is God?
Is God's ideal of humanity less than perfect?
I can worship no god that seeks a less than perfect subject.
Should we not strive to be God-like?

We will always strive to become God like and there is little anyone can do to stop that. Even if we didn't we would still continue to Create something God like anyway. Either through Genetics or Technology. The reason for that is because we are always trying to go one step further in what we perceive as progress.

I think you're being somewhat optimistic as far as the Moral Perfection goes however. While I'm sure perfect morality is a goal for some I doubt it takes top billing on the list of priorities for others. Many of those who are seeking God like abilities don't have Morality as high on their list as Immortality for example. Most I'm sure would settle for getting extended life, super strength, flight, sensory expansion, etc. with or without any moral change whatsoever, which is probably why actually achieving something even close to that is scary.

Obviously it would be the Rich and Socially Powerful that would obtain those abilities first which makes it even more dangerous for the rest of humanity. Imagine Donald Trump, G.W. Bush, etc. having such abilities while nobody else does and what they'd choose to do with them.

originally posted by: NotAConsumer
a reply to: Diderot

Nah don't worry about this, those "Christians" are just a bit lost in their opinions. There are Christians that believe even space was put out there by god for us to explore, and with that logic, quantum physics and anything else were able to do was put here for us by god.

So I'd shrug off those guys and just think they're a bit misguided.

There is a theory called Membrane theory and another called string theory, right in essence everything in the universe is one item, a single sheet or string and the dimensions we perceive are just that as we perceive them.
Matter is essentially a ripple like a wave on water similar to a puddle splash but instead of flowing outward if flow's with time.
In a place called superspace two, three or more membranes each with it's own rules and property's collided to create the universe, gravity emanates from one and is a unity of one gravity all over the sheet we percieve as the universe but of course where that sheet is scrunched together such as where there is matter in a volume of space the amount of gravity in reference to that volume of space is increased, this volume increase make gravity well's and at those point's the membrane from which gravity originates make the universe sheet/membrane that we live on much closer in nature and polarity to itself.
So gravity itself is a constant and even emanated from empty space at a unit of one but where matter has scrunched that empty space up the volume of space in the matter is such that volume to volume more gravity exists in that matter than in the unscrunched together or empty space around it.
This demonstrates that there is actually no such thing as empty space as all thing's even matter and so called empty space are actually made from the same stuff.
So it is all one thing, it was created as one thing and shaped by forces of superspace, yet order, symatry and life exist, How?.

originally posted by: Diderot
Many Christian fundamentalists are horrified at the notion that we humans should strive to be God-like. Such arrogance and hubris!

I think this is semantics at work. Theres a difference when you say be "God-like," or be "God." In the NT itself Jesus says "you will all be "like" me."

I dont think the Fundies would be horrified at someone saying "God like." But if you tell them you are going to be "God" then yeah...its probably blasphemy to them.

originally posted by: karmicecstasy
I do not know about being like GOD. I personally never met him so I can not say what he is like. I read some books about him but that is it. I am not saying I do not believe in GOD but that is the extent of our knowledge.

What I do think we should do is strive to be the best people we can possibly be at this moment in time.

The beginning of wisdom is to understand that you have non, this creates a clean slate to start anew.
Your reply is flawless.

a reply to: Elton

"I've never heard a christian say we should not emulate Christ."

Adam and Eve were banished from Eden because of Eve's temptation of the Tree of Knowledge.

The message was crystal clear: Truth is not the province of man. Submission does not allow inquiry.

Enlightenment is the craft of Lucifer, from wence came his name.

a reply to: Diderot


One possible point of view (an inflammatory one at that, perhaps) is that we humans only know the capabilities of the gods we've created. Thus, going by the "powers" of any one of the multitude of deities in all the known pantheons, my supposition is that yes, indeed our race has always striven to invent "god" in person or godlike power/technology for its own use. As an individual born into a Christian family/society, I have encountered Christians who do get up in arms over metaphorical comparisons wherein god's power is assigned or likened to objects, theories or living beings.

Should we human beings continue to actively aspire to be as the gods? In my subjective thought process once we've surpassed the abilities our gods, the time will have come to invent (no insult intended) newer, more powerful ones. Imagine for a moment if the adherents of a major religion idolized a deity who used a winged machine to fly through the heavens. What rapturous mysticism would such a god have held after the advent of the airplane? So, from a strictly religio-philosophical point of view, a major threat of mankind seeking godhood is the accidental destruction of our own gods.

a reply to: sootblack

"its a sin to be pridefull to the point meer humans say they ARE godlike"

To seek is not necessarily to attain. Our aim is true if we see that our goals bring us closer to perfection.

Pride is a virtue, but arrogance is a delusion.

a reply to: Diderot

The knowledge was there for them in the garden but the serpent wanted them to take before they were ready, they were still being moulded but he wanted to mould them himself to corrupt the unformed man and so pervert the image of god that man was meant to be, to become.

It was not about enlightening man but about stealing man for himself, the devil is called the father of lies what is further from true enlightenment, man was not meant to ignorant or blind but do you let your child watch the dirty movies when he has not even grown up yet.

What the serpent did was irreversible but God loved man so did not destroy him and instead since man no longer fit his purpose he sacrificed the world he had made to save man his child.

Even today the two natures are at war within us, the serpent placed corruption and slace to evil versus the man that try's to reach out to his loving father.

The light was perverted but why else did god create that tree if not for man when he was ready to eat of it, the serpent made him eat of it before he was ready and so he lost his innocence and damaged his godlike nature since knowledge and understanding are two different thing's, that light came from god not the serpent who broke the plan.