[mickiel]

Originally Posted by davidmartin

Since the earth is a not-so-good place, one obvious thing God might want is for it to be transformed into a much better one

If this be so you could argue whether that transformation could be incremental or sudden, evolutionary or revolutionary or how it may transpire

Also that God may intervene directly in all this, which appears to be standard Christian thought (Revelation) but there are other Christian streams that see it differently, like - even if that is true why not try and improve it for when he does. The unfortunate side effect of holding too firmly to 'God will come back and fix it' is it encourages the status quo until that time comes. This strikes me as counter intuitive and doesn't make sense

i think that is why many spiritual luminaries have thrown curve balls to shake up the entire structure that keeps things as they are. the current state of the world seems to be artificially propped up, or not eternally going to be like this. anything that's not forever isn't actually real from a timeless perspective so will one day vanish, or at least change for the better

if something will one day transform it's more true to act like it's already happened than to think it's as we see it, although that runs counter to our senses. but the philosophers of old were clued in on this thousands of years ago. Only what has a heavenly counter image is truly real

As to destruction of other humans. I don't see that God wants that, nor do we need his help. Why not change their minds instead?

A perfect society is another name for paradise - that is big ticket item to wish for! i think yes he want us to try and reach it but in a genuine way and get as far as we can

since this is the same individually as well as for society as a whole, then by definition imperfect individuals would play a part in restoring imperfect society - it's the same thing.

Just some thoughts anyway

I think God does want paradise.