I apologize for posting to such an old thread. A search for my question, “Why did God Create us.” did not return any results in this forum. It was only through Google that I was able to find this thread.
Also, I’m concerned that this question hasn’t received more attention from members of a Catholic forum. I’ve always felt that this is simply a natural question for anyone on the quest to understand “why” we are.
As a born and bred Catholic, and student of the Catechism, I’ve never found or have seen the answer to this question. While young and in grade school I remember one of my classmates asking our teacher, a Nun, that question. The answer was that God wanted us to love. Which makes sense to me, in a way, because I know that He did not create us to be solitary beings. The Bible tells us that God created us in His (I believe the actual ancient text was “Their”) image. I have never felt that this image was restricted to our physical image, ie., hair, eyes, ears, etc… But I believe God created us IN HIS IMAGE, which means to me that we are capable of love, or adversely hate, that we desire to love others, and that we have free will to choose either to love or to hate. We know from the Bible that God has both abilities to love and to hate. And so the idea that God created us out of love and/or the desire to love makes good sense to me. At least that is what I feel when I look internally at my own self, which I must believe is the image of God Himself.
Of course God’s will is not always known to us, at least not the why’s of it. And I don’t always feel it is ours to know the reasons behind His will. If the story of Adam and Eve does nothing else, it should at least convince us of that. But this particular question, “Why did God created us,” is key to understanding why we are here and the answer should act as a big picture view of what God expects of us. I have my own theories on that but am anxious to know if anyone else has come to similar conclusions.
There are certain things that we can know for certain. Among those is the knowledge that good and evil both exist in this plane of existence that we are living within. Also known for certain is that we have free will to choose between the two. So with that logic it is quite apparent to me that we are here to be tested. Therefore the logical answer is that God created us, in this life and plane of existence, to test us. The problem with this is that it only opens the door for the more obvious question, “Why would He want to test us?”
So dispensing with the argumentative answers I’ve seen so far in this thread, which by the way had nothing to do with answering the original poster’s question, in my opinion, and in the view of at least accepting the notion - hypothetically or not - that we are here to be tested, I’m wondering if any of you have some belief or reasoned logic as to why God would want to test us. I have my own suspicion, which is that we are being tested because we have previously proved ourselves to be untrustworthy to God and so He sent us here as a second opportunity to accept and desire love from Him and from others. But as you know that would suggest we had a previous life or some sort of existence before this one, and that any memory of that existence was wiped clean away upon birth here.
It doesn’t fall outside my knowledge that some Catholics will be offended by this notion of a previous life, as it is somewhat central to other, non-Christian religions such as Buddhism. I want to apologize up front for any affront or belligerence that you may feel from this notion. Please believe me when I say it is not my intention to cause any strife in your beliefs. But I am also asking that you not argue with the logic here. I’m not looking for arguments against the idea that God is testing us. That logic and understanding is just too blatantly obvious, and in my opinion arguments against it will only serve to cloud the topic and to hinder intelligent discussion about it. I can assure you that I am Catholic and am not here to dissuade anyone else from any fastly-held beliefs. The notion I’m expressing here is not beyond the realm of Catholic beliefs (if the the Catechism can be held as a repository for those beliefs.) It is not beyond Catholic belief to question if earth and life itself could be akin to Purgatory, a place where we are sent to atone for past sins. And as for other, non-Christian religions and those who fall outside Christian beliefs or knowledge, the Catechism teaches us that even they can attain salvation simply by following the guiding light of the Holy Spirit within their own hearts. Christ died for ALL men, to bring the light of God to ALL men, to bring the Holy Spirit into the hearts of ALL men. Frankly it is an affront to my own beliefs when I hear others proclaim that they must do anything other than follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to attain salvation. To suggest that Jesus Christ would ever require that we kneel or bow to Him and/or accept and praise His name in order to be saved is an absolute smack in the face of my belief that He is the single most selfless, loving, and giving human that has ever walked this Earth. He shed His own blood for us and sacrificed His very life for us. So please don’t respond that my Christ could possibly be so vein as to require anyone to praise Him. The only advice He ever offered on the subject was to “Love the lord, your God, with all of your heart, mind, and soul. And love one another. Do these things and you will reach Heaven.” I simply am not interested in listening to any reasoning falling outside the logic of what Christ Himself handed down to me through the Bible.
With that in mind can you answer the question “Why would God want to test us?”
Your thoughtful and respectful answer will be appreciated.
-John
