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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is easy!

First catechism question:  what is the meaning of life?

To know, love, and serve God in this world in order to be with Him for all eternity.

The meaning of life is to do God's will.[/quote]

I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school, know catechism.  As a young adult, I traveled the world and studied other cultures and religions.  Ultimately, I became and Anglican and believe we need to love God with our whole self.

That said, I will question that our higher purpose is to worship God. God, in his infinite wisdom and power, did not create man with free will to be drones that whole purpose is to worship him. That would say God is inherently selfish.

God gave us gifts, and he wants us to use those talents. Not just to love and worship him, but to challenge ourselves and be the best that we can be givent the talents we have. [/quote]

My Anglican friend, I am afraid you misunderstand your childhood Catechism.  Perhaps another look, now that you are older, would be enlightening.

Or perhaps you could pick up The Splendor of Truth, an encyclical by JPII.  It beautifully explains what "worship" for our Creator looks like.  You are using human conceptions to taint the most gorgeous, intimate relationship:  the relationship between the created and the Creator, a Creator who is sufficient unto Himself, who does not "need" our worship at all.

It is so wrong to characterize our existence as "drones," just because our purpose is to love God.  Loving God, and doing His will, is how we are happy for all eternity.  But God gave us free will precisely because He wanted our existence to be so meaningful.  As Jesus said, "I came so you would have life, and live more abundantly.". God could have easily chosen to make us drones, but He did not.  He could overwhelm our wills with His own, but He is a lover, not a ravisher.

Absolutely, God gave each of us our own gifts and talents, and the first of these, for all humans ever conceived, is our free will.  Love could not exist without free will.  So when you say we need to love God with our whole self, you are completely right.  That is how we worship Him.  Not because we have no choice but to worship Him, but because we have absolute choice to reject Him.

Don't be afraid to worship God--that you would somehow need to lay down your intellect and your will and become a slave in order to do so.  It is quite the opposite.  Freedom is doing God's will.  Slavery is serving any master besides God.

This theological question can get dense, but it is really quite simple.  God is love, and He wants a relationship with his beloved children, but He will not force us to love Him in return.[/quote]

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