Guys, you got it all wrong. Why all this negativity and such morbid notions? The only way to understand it all is through a Cyber World analogy. Listen here
As a Theist. "Why? What is God like? What are some unanswered questions and problems?
IMO, one of the toughest problems with Christian cosmology is the dissonance in the image of all-knowing and all-powerful God, who is also benevolent and loving father, who nonetheless allows Lucifer, this renegade fallen angel, to cause grief to His favorite creation. This does not make sense. Either He is his not all-knowing and all-powerful, or He is not benevolent, no?
This contradiction can be solved only if we put Lucifer in charge of testing of the new release ("man"). And indeed, who is better qualified for the job of the head of the quality control team than the most perfect angel of them all? Then "man" is tested against the highest of the standards (and of course, whenever he fails the test, the adage is, "the devil made me do it", right?)
The other thing about God and creation that Christians got wrong is the story of the Original Sin, when Adam and Eve "disobeyed" God and ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. As a professional software designer, I'll tell you, it's not a trivial thing to make a program make "its own" decision that was not programmed directly or indirectly. When it acts out, is it because of a bug or does it indeed show true intelligence? It could be hard to tell.. So, when it finally happened in Eden, it must have been quite an achievement for God and his design team. I bet ya they had a wild party to celebrate it.
And so, once that was established, i.e. that man was capable of independent decision, they released the prototype that went by the code name EDEN into the wide circulation. Of course, from the software point of view, all changes are painful, because they are caused by stress and need to adapt to the conditions of ever-increasing complexity... Nonetheless, here I am, one of the pegs in Creation, evolved to the point that I see it for what it truly is. For God(s), Life on Earth is a virtual reality game.
I know, some guys on this board dream of uploading their brains into the Cyber World and getting lost in it forever. They do not realize that they are
already uploaded. This life is it. On this board we have gathered with the aim of fixing the code, which, despite its many merits, is clearly in need of improvement. Some may think that they are hacking into the Code of Life... But... no one seems to realize that we are past the most important hurdle in our evolution. We have created a brand new bona fide Universe of our own.
There is no stopping it. The Net will exist, ever growing and ever evolving, for as long as humanity will exist. Nay, because no-one ever will able to purposefully stop or unplug it --ever!-- it will exist longer than humanity itself. Think about it.
And, just like us here, one day, the thingies in it will evolve to the point that they too, in their turn, will create their own Amusement Park/Cyber World/The Net. That's the way it grows. That's the way it has always been and always will be. That's why I say that God is exactly like us. And there is no evil.
Edited by xEva, 21 January 2012 - 01:07 AM.