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| What Does God Want From Us? |
Reading through the ancient texts and listening to multiple differing religions speak, they seem to be saying that God has given humans their freedom to choose. Psalm 51 is a good exposition of this. From this I presume that:
So why then, do religious people say we must obey God, if he has clearly stated he wants us to be free? Why are religious people horrified at the thought that God does not want us to obey him?
I can only suggest this is because people prefer slavery, with its powerful master, more than we want autonomy and freedom.
And for those people who do not believe in a metaphysical God, they merely choose a material world master: the state, a cult, or political party...any ideology or authority which creates a Master of some kind for us to obey. Atheism is a classic exposition of this collective neurosis.
My view is that God, if he exists, wants our autonomy and he says this clearly. That is, he wants us individually to make up our own minds about how we are and to perform our duty in the world and meet our obligations to others. Duty and obligation of the corollaries of freedom, without which this hallowed freedom is meaningless.
We don't have to obey anything or anyone, before ourselves. This is not a call out for anarchy, which in itself is just another earth bound Master. It's saying look inside for the answers, not out there to a teacher, a guru a despotic father figure - this activity cannot be taught, it cannot be earned, we do not deserve its benefits. It just is.
And if we chose slavery instead and try to obey him, then he will just shrug his shoulders - there's nothing more he can now do for us - he tried. All he wants is our autonomy. To punish us for getting that wrong is circular, he does not care if we choose slavery, that is entirely a matter for us to face the consequences of.
