Why does God exist, and why is he the way he is?

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The question is not IF he exists, but why?
Why is God the way he is, and not some alternative version?

Not sure if my question makes sense, but for other questions there are answers, why do we exist, because God created us, and loves us, but why does God exist. He is Alpha Omega, beginning and end, but why is it like that, and why is he the way he is?
 
vtech2009 said:
The question is not IF he exists, but why?
Why is God the way he is, and not some alternative version?

Not sure if my question makes sense, but for other questions there are answers, why do we exist, because God created us, and loves us, but why does God exist. He is Alpha Omega, beginning and end, but why is it like that, and why is he the way he is?
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No one can fully answer that question.

I will just say God is existence itself, why are we here, why is the universe here? Questions people have been asking since man existed.

If we are here, God must exist outside of here. What that looks like, the whys and how’s we can never know. It’s beyond us immensely.
 
Yeah I know we can’t comprehend, but can anyone take a stab at it ? 🙂
 
Maybe the paradox is trying to explain reasons for the existence of “something” that has no beginning and end…
 
vtech2009 said:
Maybe the paradox is trying to explain reasons for the existence of “something” that has no beginning and end…
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Our universe (or all the multiverses) could not exist without something fundamentally different from which these things sprang. That thing is God. That is why he is infinite because everything else is temporal and does in fact exist so there must be God or there would not be us.
 
Jon_S said:
Our universe (or all the multiverses) could not exist without something fundamentally different from which these things sprang. That thing is God. That is why he is infinite because everything else is temporal and does in fact exist so there must be God or there would not be us.
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Yes but my question is not if he exists, or why he is infinite. I understand that.
My question is why is he the way he is. He is God of Love, why is he not God of [xxx]?
 
To answer this question would be to dare to speak on behalf of God, or to claim to understand His inner-workings… which is something I dare not do, nor do I kid myself to believe that any man has the ability to do so. 🙂

Awesome question, just not one we are meant to know the answer to. 😉
 
vtech2009 said:
Yes but my question is not if he exists, or why he is infinite. I understand that.
My question is why is he the way he is. He is God of Love, why is he not God of [xxx]?
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Ultimately, even though this is beyond our present means to know, God is the Absolute Necessity of Being. God exists as “ens a se.” In other words, it is impossible, ontologically speaking, for God NOT to exist.

blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405106795_chunk_g97814051067956_ss1-60

The difficulty for us, is that we cannot know THAT with certainty because we do not possess certain knowledge of anything, since we, in and of ourselves, are ontologically contingent. Only God could know and appreciate his own necessity.

Love is – in the deepest sense possible – an appreciation of what it means “to be” and willing the fullness of being for all that exists. God cannot help but will the fullness of being for all that exists since, ultimately, he is the ground for that fullness in everything that DOES exist.

Evil is the privation of being – whatever it is that removes some aspect of being from any particular being. Evil acts contrary to the creative effulgence of God. We do evil when we make those around us and ourselves less than what we are or could be. Some of that may be unintentional – we just don’t know any better, but some may be from willfulness or sin on our part.

When we love at a human level, what we do is act intentionally in harmony
with the real good of others – that is, act to promote the fullness of what the beings around us truly are.

God does that purely in the act of creation. Love, for God, is identical with creating and sustaining all that exists.
 
vtech2009 said:
The question is not IF he exists, but why?
Why is God the way he is, and not some alternative version?

Not sure if my question makes sense, but for other questions there are answers, why do we exist, because God created us, and loves us, but why does God exist. He is Alpha Omega, beginning and end, but why is it like that, and why is he the way he is?
Click to expand...
I don´t think anybody knows that. Our brains are still trying to grapple with the fact he has always existed! Some things, due to our brains, we can´t comprehend. I just accept it, leave it at that.

Some of my students will ask me WHY, in English, it is a certain way. It reaches a point where I just throw up my hands, say it started that way, has been that way ever since.

I try to work on understand things that I CAN understand, instead of what I know I can´t. 😉 THIS blows my mind. So, I just say, “I don´t know”, and I find some degree of comfort in admitting the truth. Then, I’m at peace.
 
It reminds me a little of the story about St. Augustine´s trying to understand the Trinity.

Then, he received a vision of some kind, of a boy putting water into a small hole. Augustine asked him what he was trying to do. He said he was putting the entire ocean into that little hole. Augustine said that was impossible.

The boy told Augustine that what he was doing, trying to comprend the Trinity, was equally as impossible.
 
ClearWater said:
I don´t think anybody knows that. Our brains are still trying to grapple with the fact he has always existed! Some things, due to our brains, we can´t comprehend. I just accept it, leave it at that.

Some of my students will ask me WHY, in English, it is a certain way. It reaches a point where I just throw up my hands, say it started that way, has been that way ever since.

I try to work on understand things that I CAN understand, instead of what I know I can´t. 😉 THIS blows my mind. So, I just say, “I don´t know”, and I find some degree of comfort in admitting the truth. Then, I’m at peace.
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Thanks, I am completely at peace with it, just try to find more answers 🙂
 
ClearWater said:
It reminds me a little of the story about St. Augustine´s trying to understand the Trinity.

Then, he received a vision of some kind, of a boy putting water into a small hole. Augustine asked him what he was trying to do. He said he was putting the entire ocean into that little hole. Augustine said that was impossible.

The boy told Augustine that what he was doing, trying to comprend the Trinity, was equally as impossible.
Click to expand...
haha good one. Ok I thought maybe there is some answer, but I guess there’s no answer to my quesiton. Usually all my questions are answered, so I feel proud for finally asking a question no one has an answer to 🙂
 
vtech2009 said:
Yeah I know we can’t comprehend, but can anyone take a stab at it ? 🙂
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I know this will sound like a non-answer. I struggled with trying to figure everything out. I wanted, and demanded answers to my questions. Then, when I watched Father Barron’s series, Catholicism. He compared our understanding of this life, in this world, as being akin to a dog in a library. We can see the globe and the books, just as the dog can. The dog can’t understand every book. It is not all for the dog to understand. That is where faith comes in. Once we accept there is a God, and Creator, we are graced with the peace that comes with not knowing everything there is to know.

Thank you for your curiosity and inquisitiveness. It is good to want and look for answers to life’s biggest questions. None of us can offer the full explanation that you seek. For we are all just dogs in the library. I do believe, however, that with faith and works, I might be fortunate enough to get the answers to these questions in the next life.
 
Took2Long said:
I know this will sound like a non-answer. I struggled with trying to figure everything out. I wanted, and demanded answers to my questions. Then, when I watched Father Barron’s series, Catholicism. He compared our understanding of this life, in this world, as being akin to a dog in a library. We can see the globe and the books, just as the dog can. The dog can’t understand every book. It is not all for the dog to understand. That is where faith comes in. Once we accept there is a God, and Creator, we are graced with the peace that comes with not knowing everything there is to know.

Thank you for your curiosity and inquisitiveness. It is good to want and look for answers to life’s biggest questions. None of us can offer the full explanation that you seek. For we are all just dogs in the library. I do believe, however, that with faith and works, I might be fortunate enough to get the answers to these questions in the next life.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing 🙂
 
God necessarily exists because he is existence. He necessarily meets his own definition. The real question is: why is existence necessary?
 
blase6 said:
God necessarily exists because he is existence. He necessarily meets his own definition. The real question is: why is existence necessary?
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Ok im renaming the thread then 🙂 Why is existence necessary ? 🙂
 
To human reason, it makes more sense for nothing to exist than for anything to exist. Nevertheless, things exist. So human reason is worthless in this regard.
 
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