Why Earth?

[Jainarayan]

So a God can be a toddler, has a mouth, isn't that human-like? Thus seems very more unlikely.

Why unlikely? He can do anything He wants or needs to. He Himself says that when righteousness declines and evil rises in the world, He incarnates to set things right. He has incarnated as animals, a man-lion (Narasimhadeva), men, and He's predicted to come again. It's not always as a human. He could be here right now working "undercover".

 

[InformedIgnorance]

Well why create us this small? Why create us in this place in the universe?

Why aren't we bigger than the galaxy? Why aren't we the only species on the planet bigger than the galaxy? Why isn't that galaxy planet in the center of the universe and extremely large, the only galaxy in existence?

I take it the 'us' refers to our planet rather than our species or even individual members of our species right? In which case why would it matter what size we are or where we are? Why assume that 'we' are the only such group, perhaps there are many other species scattered throughout those arms all asking similar questions. Why would the existence of some 'god's, or even that god(s) personal involvement in our lives require that the universe be structured in such a way? Perhaps those very same 'god's (or different ones) are also personally involved in the lives of other species on other planets - in which case why should OUR planet be of any greater importance than the others - or some intriguing/endearing speck of dust for that matter.

My simple answer is a question, even if some 'god' out there created us and was involved in our existence in some way - why would we be the only planet (or species) in existence or even simply be more prominent?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Why unlikely? He can do anything He wants or needs to. He Himself says that when righteousness declines and evil rises in the world, He incarnates to set things right. He has incarnated as animals, a man-lion (Narasimhadeva), men, and He's predicted to come again. It's not always as a human. He could be here right now working "undercover".

But why any earth beings? He'd be so small the universe wouldn't see him or know what he is even if they could see him

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

But God didn't really need them if he can do anything.

Is what God does, fulfilling a need or a desire.?

How are you sure there is no life in the universe not made of star dust?

Because before the stars refined the other elements, there was only hydrogen and may be helium. All the other elements were formed by fusion.

Why would that be God? Anything could have life on it, even if it's not a planet, we just look for the big, not the microscopic, and that's why we don't see any.

I do not see that any particular size is a requirement for life. Scientists are concentrating on looking at the microscopic, for signs of extraterrestrial life on objects retrieved from space.

I'm not talking about aliens, they are probably just as unimportant as we are to the universe, I'm speaking of all animate things in the universe (beyond imagination in largeness)

All Life elsewhere in the universe is by definition "Alien"

 

[Jainarayan]

But why any earth beings? He'd be so small the universe wouldn't see him or know what he is even if they could see him

In this case, Earth needed Him. We can't know on how many other worlds He's appeared for those inhabitants. If He were visible to us in His divine form (vishvarupa), we would not be here. We would be with Him, and all this would be moot. He gave Arjuna special sight to see His divine form.

This part of the Gita gives me goosebumps.

[Arjuna speaking] "O greatest of all personalities, O supreme form, though I see You here before me in Your actual position, as You have described Yourself, I wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours." B.G. 11.3

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, O son of Pritha, see now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine and multicolored forms." B.G. 11.5

"But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give you divine eyes. Behold My mystic opulence!" B.G. 11.8

"Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths, unlimited eyes, unlimited wonderful visions. The form was decorated with many celestial ornaments and bore many divine upraised weapons. He wore celestial garlands and garments, and many divine scents were smeared over His body. All was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding. If hundreds of thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form. At that time Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands." B.G. 11.10-13

It's what we believe.

 

[Quintessence]

I don't really know what else to say to you, Sum. The questions you ask suggest you're assuming a classical monotheism that I don't adhere to, so I really am having trouble figuring out how to respond to you. The questions you ask are somewhat nonsensical questions if you understand the divine in the way that I do. If you have a pantheistic/polytheistic/animistic conception of the divine, a comparison involving people makes a great deal of sense. If you can't see that, I'm not sure how else to explain it. Note that I'm by no means suggesting you have to agree with me, but I'm not sure we're going to reach an understanding here because my deity concept seems very foreign to you.

As I mentioned in my first post, a lot of the initial quandaries don't apply very much once you get outside of classical monotheism. I have relationships with individual deities/spirits, some of which "care" about me and some of which don't. Just like people, their relationships with me vary depending on who/what deity/spirit I am dealing with. I'm not sure how else to put it.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Is what God does, fulfilling a need or a desire.?

Why is it a need to make us out of stars?

I do not see that any particular size is a requirement for life. Scientists are concentrating on looking at the microscopic, for signs of extraterrestrial life on objects retrieved from space.

I don't mean that there are any on close-by planets, I meant that a planet really isn't a requirement for there to be life on. I agree that scientists have searched for microscopic signs of life, but when people think of 'alien' a lot of times they think of tall beings at least the size of a cat.

All Life elsewhere in the universe is by definition "Alien"

True, I forgot that.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I don't really know what else to say to you, Sum. The questions you ask suggest you're assuming a classical monotheism that I don't adhere to,

No it doesn't.

The questions you ask are somewhat nonsensical questions if you understand the divine in the way that I do. If you have a pantheistic/polytheistic/animistic conception of the divine, a comparison involving people makes a great deal of sense. If you can't see that, I'm not sure how else to explain it. Note that I'm by no means suggesting you have to agree with me, but I'm not sure we're going to reach an understanding here because my deity concept seems very foreign to you.

Animism could answer the OP I guess. But why are 'humans' ones that God looks after as individuals, when we are made of cells, on each individual being there are more individuals. So why does God look at humans as an individual and not many?

As I mentioned in my first post, a lot of the initial quandaries don't apply very much once you get outside of classical monotheism. I have relationships with individual deities/spirits, some of which "care" about me and some of which don't. Just like people, their relationships with me vary depending on who/what deity/spirit I am dealing with. I'm not sure how else to put it.

Fine by me, I hope you're not taking these lots of questions offensively, because I really don't intend them to be that way.

 

[Quintessence]

No offense taken at all, Sum! I just feel a little headspun that I'm probably not communicating things in a way that is being understood and/or I'm not interpreting things in the manner you intend. It happens rather often with complex topics like this.

Why are individual humans the ones particular deities/spirits look after? Why not? Not all deities/spirits would do so, but some of them do. The spirits I work with most closely look after me because we have a relationship similar to human friendships. We do things for each other and we bear a mutual respect for each other. Some of the relationships I have with deities are more one-sided. When I honor Sun Spirit, I don't get the impression that big ball of burning hydrogen in the sky "cares" about me.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

No offense taken at all, Sum! I just feel a little headspun that I'm probably not communicating things in a way that is being understood and/or I'm not interpreting things in the manner you intend. It happens rather often with complex topics like this.

Why are individual humans the ones particular deities/spirits look after? Why not? Not all deities/spirits would do so, but some of them do. The spirits I work with most closely look after me because we have a relationship similar to human friendships. We do things for each other and we bear a mutual respect for each other. Some of the relationships I have with deities are more one-sided. When I honor Sun Spirit, I don't get the impression that big ball of burning hydrogen in the sky "cares" about me.

Well why are we not much larger and live in the center of the universe? It'd be much easier for the gods to find us.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Why is it a need to make us out of stars?

Because we share the elements that are only generated by fusion in stars.

If we were made out of totally different "stuff" we would know by now.

Of course we know Matter is mostly empty space, that is why they are making such a fuss about the Higgs boson as no other particle accounts for mass.

 

[not nom]

Also, some people claim there is furniture in heaven, human made furniture.

I would be excited to learn more about this!

 

[Quintessence]

Well why are we not much larger and live in the center of the universe? It'd be much easier for the gods to find us.

I disagree that us being larger or at the center of the universe would make us easier to find. That would depend on which deities/spirits you're talking about. Some deities/spirits are very local while others have a broader domain. I don't see any need to relate to the spirits at the center of the universe because they're so far away from me and don't have much of an impact on my existence. My path is nature-centered and and locally-oriented; I work with the aspects of the sacred that more directly cross my path. For example, as much as I love the ocean, I live in the middle of a continent; I can't really work with Ocean Spirit very well in my location, so I don't. I will, though, work with the Spirit in local bodies of water like the stream that runs through the woods nearby my apartment complex. All the gods don't need to find me and I don't need to find them. I work with the little corner of reality that I happen to occupy and am content with that. I cannot transcend these limitations anyway (except in the context of the otherworlds, but that is something else entirely).

 

[PeasantCopasetic]

I don't see any need to relate to the spirits at the center of the universe because they're so far away from me and don't have much of an impact on my existence.

Sorry Quint. I had to pick out one of the only things you said that didn't inspire me. It seems like a very human thing to want to relate to spirits and/or God in terms of how far away they are, but why-in-all-creation would supernatural motes of consciousness care about physical distances? I view "spirits" as aspects of a single "God" so right there, you and I may have some deeply rooted differences, but how can we expect something as transcendental as spirits/gods/souls to be limited by movement?

This ties into the OP's question of

Why would something smaller than an electron compared to the universe even matter?

I believe all consciousness matters. And whether something is "smaller than an electron" or larger than the universe, that's just a physical measurement of space. And yeah, I don't think measurements of space could mean much to supernatural beings.

 

[Sgloom]

i dont know why earth... maybe every galaxy has its own god at the center that creates life within its own galaxy, that would mean billions of gods. or maybe just one god but hes created life all thru-out the universe.
That would make more sense to me than a single god that created the entire universe and then only populated earth alone with life, what would be the point of the rest of the universe then. i dont believe in any gods but its fun to think about the what ifs