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If God made the Earth/plants/animals specifically to be 'used' by humans, why is 75% of the Earth ocean?

God = √-1 - 2007-07-02 09:36:28 - Religion Spirituality

With so many huge stretches of ocean with no land nearby (and therefore impractical to fish there), it seems absurd to think that the Earth was "designed" specifically for us when a good 3/4 of it is pretty much unusable to us. I wonder if Christians can come up with a reason for their god making most of the Earth uninhabitable by the humans he supposedly created the Earth and everything on it specifically FOR. So...whatcha got, guys? Joel C: Not most of them. We can only use parts that are pretty close to land for fishing and other 'vital' stuff--most of the ocean is untouched by humans. Southpaw: If anything did/could happen that God wasn't planning on, that would have to mean that God is not omniscient. Are you willing to concede that? igi: Salt water is POISONOUS to humans, man. :P vicsikix: So he was lying in the Bible then? 'Cause I remember him saying that the Earth and everything in it was there for people to use. the_only_solorose: Actually, we could do fine with significantly less ocean. Yes, the water we have does do that, but it could also be done just as well for the amount of land we have with a LOT less water. So would you argue that God is inefficient? 'Cause that would mean he's imperfect. Opinionated: The whole point is that even though we use the oceans, we actually use like 1% if that. Most of the ocean is never fished by us, or touched by a single boat at all. Magi 2000: 1. I know. 2. Even as an estimation, this is a glaring error--Pangea split up 250 MILLION years ago, not a couple of millenia ago. 3 4. You are arguing a non-omnipotent god then--an omnipotent one could have made it so that we could use all of the Earth and the atmosphere would be maintained. Why not? He's god, right? I'm not looking for scientific explanation (because I already know it :P)--I'm looking for the "Christian answer," as in "How do Christians explain this?" biggestjesusfan: So, an omniscient god would have to know of that outcome before he ever created us--so my question to you is, why did he allow it? For an analogy, would you adopt a child who you (somehow, it's hard to find a real-life analogy to omniscience :P) KNEW for a fact was going to kill you in your sleep the first night you let him in your house? Of course not--despite this "free will" argument, why would god even bother creating us if he KNEW we were going to 'screw up'? (and then on top of that, we apparently get sent to suffer forever for making the choice he knew we would make) TERA: Why is God so wasteful, then? Why did he make it so that we need water to survive? It makes no sense--even considering that, he obviously went way overkill. We don't have the perfect amount of water on this planet, we have a LOT more than we really need to sustain ourselves (considering how little land there is). A perfect God would not be so inefficient--you are arguing that God isn't perfect, you realize. Yazoo: There's also the fact that if God made it so that all the water on Earth was fresh water and not salt water, it would all be consumable and there would be a lot less dying for lack of water because you wouldn't need technology like desalination plants just to make ocean water drinkable. That's another good point--why in the world (pun intended :P) would God make the OCEANS out of a kind of water that we CAN'T directly drink (not without dying, at least) for nourishment?

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And what's up with all those stars we can't even see without powerful telescopes? The Bible says that the stars are for determining the seasons, but clearly not all of them are at all useful for that. We'll ignore for now the fact that the light we see from the most distant stars is over 10 billion years old. While it's true that the oceans are useful (e.g. water cycle), I'm sure an omnipotent god could have been less wasteful.

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We don't use the oceans? You can look at anything about the earth... it's tilt, it's temp, it's elemental breakdown, it's magnetic field strength, whatever, and if anything was changed just a little bit we wouldn't be able to survive. If it wasn't designed for us it is an awesome series of coincidences.

Maybe God made those places distant so man wouldn't ruin it.

Maybe he wasn't planning on breaking up Pangea ------- I'm an atheist. I was just making a funny.

thirsty

Seafood. Distillation if the radical enviromentalists are right.

Easy... there ain't no god.....

Because that's the way He wants it.

it takes a great deal of water to support the land we have. The oceans supply and maintain the cycle of water for the land, that isn't Christian dogma my friend, that is a fact.

And what's up with all those stars we can't even see without powerful telescopes? The Bible says that the stars are for determining the seasons, but clearly not all of them are at all useful for that. We'll ignore for now the fact that the light we see from the most distant stars is over 10 billion years old. While it's true that the oceans are useful (e.g. water cycle), I'm sure an omnipotent god could have been less wasteful.

HE LIKES THE COLOR BLUE?

We use the oceans, we fish, travel and make discoveries.

The Earth was strictly for man's benifeit BEFORE the fall. After that, God in his infinite mercy, made sure we never run out of salt.

we use the ocean . . . we float around in boats . . we fish . . we pump oil out of it's bottom . . we explore it . .we use it for recreation . . I don't know about the god part but people do use the ocean . .

maybe we're supposed to go swimming and surf...gee, maybe God wants us to have fun!

Perhaps we are destined to evolve into a dolphin like species like at the end of that Kurt Vonnegate book (i forget which one, it was 25 years ago that i read them). Or, maybe we'll all become like Kevin Costner in Waterworld. OMG- I think I just defended god. That doesn't happen too often.

He knew we'd goof up on the 25% that He gave us (which we are doing a fine job)...so, He kept the other 75% for His use.

And you have to take into account that the vast majority of that water is undrinkable.

Thats why He gave us boats!! any other questions?

1. It's actually closer to 80%. 2. When the earth was created, there was a single super-continent. This continent was split around 2,500BC (estimated, don't quote me on that). 3. The massive amounts of water maintain our lovely atmosphere which we have grown so accustom to. 4. Water also regulates the planet's temperature. Since water changes temperature alot slower than dirt, the massive amounts of water keeps the earth at a more stabalized temp. If we didn't have the water in such quantities, it would be impossible to survive on this planet. So. . . whatcha' got?

So, Mr. Pink Eyes, Sir, Why do you seem to think that everyone who believes in a source of all being conceptualizes that source as something like a not very adept handyman, sculptor, potter, etc? Christians have diverse understandings of God from the sublime to the mundane and cartoonish. (Read slowly, please.) Perhaps the earth is the way it is in order to give rise to what its pattern inherently gives rise to, earthmuch like a seed's pattern inherently gives rise to an orange tree, or a sunflower, i.e., it's an inherent quality of the thing itself. Everything in the universe works on this principle. Atoms have a certain potential and "tremble" in their attraction to join other atoms. In each new combination another potential is added and its inherent pattern manifests. Your idea of perfect is just your idea of perfect and arbitrary. Humans are here. It works. Whether "created" or "evolved", earth is a viable system/organism. All that needs to happen, not that that's a small thing, is the proper tension and balance to work as a complete whole. Otherwise, the law of physics governing the universe would have to be something else. Besides, to me, evolution, or some version thereof, best explains the phenomena -- so far. Hey, since there's so much salt water, humans could've been made to be able to drink gallons of that instead of fresh water. and we could all eat dirt, since there's so much of that, and while we're at it, how about eating our own trash and waster? Why not, since we're talking about better versions of stuff. And I want birds that sing more, and flowers to stay in bloom year round in spite of snow and ice. I want beaches in Antarctica and plenty of everything for everyone. I want a body that never ages, gets fat or sick. I want nuclear weapons that rain rose petals, snakes that put their tails in their mouth and roll instead of crawl. Now that would be much better versions than the stinky ones we now have, don't you agree?

Everything that we humans get our hands on, we pretty much ruin it anyway. Maybe God is preserving this for us. We don't want to ruin everything all at once do we?

If our earth was not comprised of so much water, we would not be able to inhabit this planet. Almost every living thing depends on water in order to survive. Our entire eco-system relies on water to keep it moving and thriving...from our weather, to the plants that grow for food, trees we need for shelter...water affects our entire world, our atmosphere, and we need it in order to live. In fact, from a Christian standpoint, you could say that for the inhabitants of earth, water is the gift of life.

Who said God made Earth for us to USE????? Perhaps to take care of and respect but USE???? That's the attitude that has brought forth ABUSE of the Earth. This planet is a gift

we plant, God waters...<><

This is only MY opinion. If the people of earth could ever stop warring and start helping one another there seems to be a shortage of water. Mexico and Africa are two examples. They have desalination plants that can take salt out of ocean water and the water can be used to grow crops. It is expensive. But if we could take all that war money we could do it. There would be no more hunger.

what are you talking about. why do you even care. you're not a christian.

1) Current conditions don't reflect the created order. Just because God created everything "good" doesn't mean they maintained that goodness after the fall. 2) Even still, it's possible the humans derive some indirect benefit from the oceans. The sun is also uninhabitable to us, but we clearly benefit from its existence.

I find the percentage of water on the planet to be irrelevant, be it 75% or 10% water.... As of yet, not every acre of land has been populated or used for agricultural purposes to benefit us. If we have yet to attain "conquering" (for lack of a better word) 25% of this planet, why would God NEED to give us anymore? I mean, the Moon and other planets weren't made to be "used" by use, but scientists and astronemers are certainly trying to find a way for people to survive out in space. Seeing as how we have learned to adapt and over come small trials by having a "small" land mass with which to work with, I dont really see what the problem is.