God and Scarce Resources

[KUJustin]

2 questions

Does God work with scarce resources (in our world)?
Is God restricted by scarce resources (in our world)?

I'm asking this from a Christian perspective. Though i haven't been on this board much at all, I'm guessing I'm in the minority with that outlook. I'm interested to hear from all perspectives though.

My "gut" take, that I'm debating at many levels:
God does work within the scarce resources of this world; he doesn't create more resources in our world that weren't previously there. However, his omniscience and infinite intelligence make these "scarce" resources more than sufficient to carry out anything in his will. Thus, he operates within those laws but is not restricted by them.

Thoughts?

[MidGe]

Are you for real, dude?

What next? Does god knows about every hair on everyone's head (except for greys maybe)? How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?

[KUJustin]

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Are you for real, dude?


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Yes.

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What next? Does god knows about every hair on everyone's head (except for greys maybe)?

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Yes (No exception.)

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How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?

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How would this answer affect how you live your life?

[MidGe]

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How would this answer affect how you live your life?

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It would not at all and neither would whatever the answers to your questions[ Does God work with scarce resources (in our world)? Is God restricted by scarce resources (in our world)?] which really are no different in substance! But I guess by answering my questions you have answered yours to your satisfaction. How is whatever others may think about it affect you and you life?

[KUJustin]

How others think about it (or really why others think about it the way they do) influences how I think about it. Which in turn can have very dramatic effects on how I live my life.

For example, if God is limited by scarce resources then one who wants to see God's will carried out here on earth ("His kingdom come") would likely feel a calling to do as much as possible (within moral bounds) to accumulate these resources and then direct them to the advancement of the kingdom.

This is just one of the dozens of examples of how this discussion can affect how one lives his life. I hope I was able to make this a little easier to understand.

[MidGe]

Ok! I think god is a bogus concept. All evidence points to, at the very least a non benevolent and therefore not worthy of worship, god. I hope you wake up and it changes your life!

[KUJustin]

Haha, yeah I was just reading another post of yours that shed some light on this.

No offense, but an answer of "there is no God" is fine to have, but it really contributes nothing to this thread.

I don't want to get off-topic, but I'm curious if you are saying suffering and an "O3 god" are mutually exclusive? PM me perhaps, I'd be very interested in hearing what your thoughts are on this stuff.

[MidGe]

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No offense, but an answer of "there is no God" is fine to have, but it really contributes nothing to this thread.

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No offense but this thread really contributes nothing to this forum. It would be better to ask this on a believers forum, of which I am sure there are too many, on the internet.

If you can't take the heat, and the fact that your question is totally pointless, don't ask it.

No PM for me. I have nothing to hide. It's a good idea to read all my posts, because I hate to repeat myself, but feel I have to sometimes, when the same questions come up over and over again, from believers.

Personally, I find the christian and muslim position an odious one, most of the time. Their acceptance of, and need to turn every one into a serf to their tyrant, akin to those that felt resistance was of no worth in nazi germany or nazi occupied countries, maybe due to cowardice (fear of eternal pusnishment) or to greed (wanting the "just" rewards of heaven). I only hope that I would have joined the resistance in such circumstances and I surely want to be part of it against the totally inhumane view where more than half the population of the world ever (that's even more atrocious than "just" [sarcasm] the holocaust), is excluded from rewards or punished for where it was born, eternally! I also don't think benevolence and making life hard are compatible even if it is only a little pain vs a great reward. If that is your interest, go and keep hitting your head gainst a wall, you will be enormously gratified when you stop. So much for scarce resources.

[Darryl_P]

God decides what resources there are for others such as humans on Earth. His own resources are limitless as He could have made the universe any way He wanted. Our job is to figure out why He made it this way, and what He expects from us, how He expects us to use OUR scarce resources, etc.

[FortunaMaximus]

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How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?

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I'll repeat something an esteemed authority said in another thread. Tongue firmly in cheek.

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Well over a googol, well under a googolplex.

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[TuNeCedeMalis]

I'll give you my Christian perspective, with the caveat that it is not necessarially a "conventional" Christian perspective.

I think that the only resource God deals with is love, which is infinite.

However, I don't really share what I think is your perspective that "God works in the world". I think people work in the world, and I think we can comfortably claim they are doing "God's work" to the extent that they are creating life through love, rather than destroying life through hate and violence.

There are two levels on which I don't think "God's work" (creation) is restricted by scarce resources:
1) what people really want is to be loved, and there is no scarcity of love
2) through cooperation (ie, capitalism) the productive output of the physical resources of the world can be immensly expanded to support the physical needs of ever larger populations

[John21]

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2 questions

Does God work with scarce resources (in our world)?
Is God restricted by scarce resources (in our world)?


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Since man determines what a resource is and man's knowledge/technology determines its scarcity - I don't see how God could factor into the equation.