It's turtles all the way down. I remember reading something somewhere (sorry - I read *alot* on this stuff) that God/dess created life because They were lonely and wanted to share Their glorious creation. I always liked that.
Plenty of people gender their god. I like to refer to the Goddess. Is she actually a she? Yes and no, maybe? Perhaps all of the above? Who knows? It brings me comfort to connect with the divine feminine aspects of my beliefs. For some people, they like to believe that their god is male, usually as a fatherly figure. When I was a Christian, I took comfort in the notion that God was a father who loved his kids. I'd imagine that's still the way it is for most folks. It's about human connection to the creator.
Honestly? Because Jesus said so. On a pretty much unrelated matter.... It wasn't until yesterday that I learned this: Catholics don't say the last part of the Lord's Prayer. It was my stepmother's funeral. She came from a Catholic family, but my dad and I are Lutheran. So I managed to get through 51 years on God's green earth before I realized that when Catholics say the Lord's Prayer, they stop at "Deliver us from evil." They don't say the part about "for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever". Kinda blew my mind.
Apparently it's got something to do with the translation of the Bible into Latin. Somehow that part got left out. It's not a doctrinal issue or anything like that.
And angels all the way up Borges had some interesting stories about religion…try “Three Versions of Judas” Also…Judas had it that Jesus came from Barbelo or something
I read a funny thing online Earth is a penitentiary much like how the poms sent convicts to make Australia
I don't like it either, just I saw it written down somewhere and wanted to share. Just on the topic of reincarnation what if it wasn't linear? What if you died today but reincarnated in the past? Why would that even be a linear process if it happens?
sorry I forgot to reply to this. On the practical side, I would say while the Baha'i faith does have a mystical, or at least poetic side (books like Seven Valleys), it mostly deals with practicalities and does not really enter into the "Is god so powerful that He can make a stone that He Himself cannot lift. Ha got him now!"- (George Carlin, Class Clown) debates. Also, similar to Islam and Judaism, God is not personified within Baha'i writings. God is genderless, without beginning or end, and essentially unknowable save for by knowing these aforementioned messengers, or Manifestations. Not entirely that different from the Stoic concept of "The Logos" or the Christian Logos from the Gospel of John. Hope that helps. These are just my understands of it. As proselytism is forbidden in this religion, I try to er on the side of caution when discussing things about it.