Your questions don't make sense. God wasn't "created". He has always been and always will be. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. There was no "before" God. He wasn't created.

Your response does not make sense. Whose questions are you referring to? Hers or mine? Who suggested that God was created?

Questions are good! I will try to answer them.




1. Divine Inspiration is good and beautiful yes.

2. I don't think natural resources are God inspired.

3. I don't think that all humankind's engineering - dams etc.
are divinely inspired.

4. Knowledge of our world and universe might be inspired in general though I wouldn't say that every thought process is divinely inspired.

5. I don't think Monsanto or any corporation is divinely inspired.

6. I don't think "methods" of engineering are necessarily inspired
by God. Don't think Nuclear Power is God inspired. Don't think that
divine inspiration is measured by how much benefit/harm is caused
by some human endeavor.

7. I'm sorry that you don't think the question is clearly defined.
I meant to ask what things do you feel are inspired by God. Was
not asking about what if anything inspires God. I don't think we
could possibly know what if anything inspires God actually. I think
that would be a silly question.

I think that covers that batch of questions. What do you think?

What!? You got an addendum to that?!



1. I don't think just because God is the creator that means that
all that was created was divinely inspired because inspiration has
to do with how God makes a human feel emotionally.

2. So, I don't think that the heavens and earth were divinely inspired - because they are not made by others besides God.
I do think it is fair to say that they are part of the universe
which came about because of or as a part of God.

3. Do you think that humans are simply following some divine
example? I don't think we are. I don't think that everything that
humans do is divinely inspired - eating, cleaning, sleeping don't
seem to be divinely inspired.

Hmmm - not following God's example? Well let's take bank robbery
for example. I don't think there is a divine example of bank
robbery. One counterexample is good enough an explanation right?



OK - did my best to answer everything. Whew!



Definition of INSPIRATION
1
a : a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation b : the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions c : the act of influencing or suggesting opinions
2
: the act of drawing in; specifically : the drawing of air into the lungs
3
a : the quality or state of being inspired b : something that is inspired <a scheme that was pure inspiration>
4
: an inspiring agent or influence
— in·spi·ra·tion·al adjective
— in·spi·ra·tion·al·ly adverb
See inspiration defined for English-language learners »
See inspiration defined for kids »
Examples of INSPIRATION

Where does the inspiration for your art come from?
His paintings take their inspiration from nature.
She had a sudden inspiration. They would have the party outdoors!
Deciding to have the party outdoors was sheer inspiration.

ty

Appearantly so, doesn't your own creatitive and/or curiosity inspire your own behavior?

i inspire myself quite often actually. in fact i think it safe to say that most of my inspiration comes from within.

I have been inspired by S1owhand to address his last couple posts in which he responded to my questions. I appreciate your attempts to get through them all.

I still see some inconsistency in your responses which may not be inconsistent with your thoughts, it may just be that putting out thoughts in writing for others to understand is difficult just as my own questions may not have been stated as clearly as they could have been.

In this post I will try to put together your responses (from my perspective) so that you can provide the missing pieces to enhance my understanding of your perspective.

First inconsistency: What did God actually create and what occurred/occurs naturally given what God did create.

From my perspective it seems that you think/believe that God’s input as the creator of the universe is limited. I have gathered that you don’t believe the creator was excessively involved in the formation and transformations of the elements into timespace, and the various formations and transformations of physical masses that make up the solar systems. In other words God created some elements which came together, in a somewhat chaotic fashion, to form spacetime and pull mass together to form and transform the planets and planetary systems. Is that correct?

This would make the Genesis story of the Bible inaccurate because God did not form every blade of grass, tree, virus, bacteria, insect and human (etc) nor did he actually form the element in such a way as to give us oil, coal, silver, nickel, rather, these things came together, in the way they did, based on the elements and how those elements happen to interact. Would you say that’s correct?

Inconsistency 2: Divine inspirational is beautiful and good vs ugly and bad

We know that what is good and beautiful is very personal and it’s not possible to have a full consensus of what is good and beautiful. Which would explain why the OP questions what other think about the matter.

I think, we can’t know what divine inspiration is and by the standard you set out, anything that is not divinely inspired is bad and ugly. Beauty, ugly, bad and good are totally subjective ideas, being a matter of preference and cultural exposure and belief in a higher power. So there can be no wrong or right answers and I think we both understand that. What I’m trying to uncover is how much of people’s behavior is based on inconsistent thought processes due to the influence of religious belief.

Inconsistency 3: God can inspire human behavior indirectly through what God has created and what God has created is only good and beautiful.

This suggests that the creator is only capable of creating good and beautiful things. If the creator simply provided the mechanisms, the elements and the energy to put it into play, then one way of seeing it is that the only thing that is good and beautiful are those elements and energy. The rest is a matter of chance interactions that occur/ed between those element and energy.

Either everything that is made up of those first elements/energy that created must be good and beautiful or only the first things that were created are good and beautiful, the rest is judged by the subjective measures of the physical beings which inhabit the universe now and in the future. Which do you think it is? If you another answer perhaps it has to do with the next inconsistency.

Inconsistency 4: God may or may not directly intervene on an individual or group bases to provide inspiration.

Any behavior, or behavioral outcome, has the possibility of being viewed as having occurred through divine inspiration. Many believe that such inspiration occurs through direct heavenly intervention. There are many problems with that kind of thinking such as only good and beautiful outcomes can be divinely inspired but many people claim that divine inspiration caused their behavior regardless of how good or bad the outcome. Another problem is the old ‘free will’ issue. If freedom occurs without strings attached then direct heavenly intervention (even to inspire good works) is paradoxical.

Either the creator continues to intervene over the will of creatures, or the creator does not. Either the creator continues to destroy and create (at will) or it does not. But if the creator continues to intervene, destroy and create then everything that occurs is divinely inspired, good and beautiful. What reason would anyone have to think anything was bad or ugly when God has complete control?




The quote above is an example of one of the inconsistencies. Are you speaking of God’s direct or indirect influence over the individual so inspired? See inconsistencies regarding what God actually created and the amount of influence God had or continues to have over the existence of what we think of as the universe.



Regardless of how ‘inspiration’ is defined, it does not encompass the entire term which the OP has brought into question. The term is ‘divine inspiration’. The definition of divine set out in this thread included: OF GOD. That would be consistent with everything which one considers to have been the ‘brainchild’ of God. Please see inconsistency for ‘What did God actually create’.

Thanks for all considerations of this post – it’s long and thought provoking and I would hope to get thoughtful responses back.

not that much.

I am inspired by others.

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

― Marcus Aurelius

OK. I will try to explain further but I don't see any real big
glaring inconsistencies really.



If God started the whole process, then God is ultimately the creator
of everything. So the distinction between what God created and what
occurs naturally as a result of God's action disappears. It is an
artifice. You are correct that I do not see the creator as picking
out "I will create this atom or that atom and not the other atom".



But still God started the process by which all the atoms were
formed ultimately so that still makes God the creator of atoms.
Same for space and everything else natural naturally. So I am
with you that far.

But then God did form every blade of grass etc.

Genesis is not inaccurate. It is just allegorical. When it says
God created land, water, earth and sky it is a poetic and
philosophical way of saying God created everything in the fashion
of the language and way of thinking common a couple millenia ago.
This does not bother me. I do not take the Bible literally since
that is obviously ridiculous.



I think you are wrong when you say we cannot know what divine
inpiration is. I think that we define what divine inspiration is.
We feel moved by infinity. We feel inspired by God. People make
beautiful art, poetry, music and do works of charity for example
citing inspiration from God. This is something that people really
experience.

Generally speaking people do not do evil, bad and ugly things and
say that they felt divine inspiration to do them. For me as the OP,
I can honestly say that I was interested in finding out who among
the thread readers feels inspired by God and in what way do they
feel inspired and what do they think about others inspirations and
do they think that people that do evil things are in fact inspired
by God to do them.

I disagree with you that good and bad are purely subjective and
defined by humans alone. I see the world as larger than us (much
larger) and that good and bad is also defined by all living things
and God as well so not merely limited to however some individual
feels about it. I think this is one core value of religion and a
central philosophical issue.

But I do not agree that Ahmadinejhad's idea of what is good is
equivalent to Hitler's idea of what is good and Mahatma Ghandi's
idea of what is good and the Pope's idea of what is good and
Obama's idea of what is good and Pol Pot's idea of what is good
and Stalin's idea of what is good....These are not equivalent
subjective definitions of good and evil. That is the whole point.
There is a standard by which one measures in religion and that
standard is God.



I don't think the creator created only good and beautiful "things".
See my response to your first question above. It just seems that those
who are inspired by God are inspired to do beautiful and nice actions.
This does not mean that everything has to be good and beautiful
of course. There are certainly evil nasty happenings in the world.
But I do not think that "things" are evil. Things are just stuff.
Personally, I look at all physical things around me and as a whole
I do find them quite overwhelming and quite beautiful in totality.
The structure of the universe and it's majestic infinity and its
amazing power. Quite awesome. I don't see anything evil in it.



First, you're welcome! I wanted this to be a thought provoking and
inspiring post. And I appreciate your sincere interest in the topic.
Sorry I took a while to get back to answering your questions.

Now about this last so-called inconsistency...

You ask if I am speaking about God's direct or indirect influence
over the individual being inspired. I don't really distinguish between
the two. Influence is influence. I don't think we have any real
evidence of direct influence on the one hand. On the other hand, I
don't see how direct influence can be distinguished from indirect
influence. So it is all the same to me and there is no inconsistency.

I also do not find free will and divine inspiration paradoxical.

If we have free will then we also have the freedom to feel divinely
inspired no? We have free will and we can also be occasionally
inspired. That does not presume that every action we have is somehow
predetermined or "controlled" by God. In fact, our responses to
inspiration might be quite different. Some might paint. Others might
dance or sing. Others might not do anything at all in response to the
inspiration. I see no conflict between free will and divine inspiration.

Well I hope you have found this also interesting and stimulating.
Anyway such are my thoughts on the questions you have posed.