“He built them with free will.”
Why? Would you build a robot with freewill and let him run amock?
And more to the point, why did he create us in the first place? What’s in it for him?
“Some of us misuse that gift.”
Well, he knew that, so why do it? That’s like giving a gun to some hot headed punk.
“Neither, it is better to be a saint.”
OK, then build us as saints. It’s not like he couldn’t do it, right?
“Do people have children because they want to be entertained?”
Most people have children’s because they think it will provide them with joy, a sense of full financial and a connection to the future. Many do it for help in old age. God doesn’t get old.
“God does not punish us;”
Really? Eternity in hell and brimstone is not punishment?
I don’t mean to be snarky with these comments/questions, but the biggest gift whoever created us gave us was the brain and the power to reason and to question that which we find contradictory and even nonsensical, and thus make sense of the world.
And I don’t think whoever created us minds me asking these questions. What do you think?
>> And I don’t think whoever created us minds me asking these questions. What do you think? <<
While I am not sure that we can reason ourselves into belief or faith, it is very important to consider one’s doubts.
For example, the reason I believe in God Himself is that I have prayed about my questions and clarity has come — it is hard to explain how this happens but it is clearly not from me, because how could I give myself an understanding I lacked?
So, I think God is happier that you are asking the questions than if you just shrugged and gave up.
>> Why? Would you build a robot with freewill and let him run amock? <<
Would you rather be a robot? Or maybe more importantly, would you want your good friends and loved ones to be robots?
Sometimes I read so much stuff on FR and elsewhere and then I feel like the world is really in that handbasket. Then I go out and see real live people, maybe just at the store, and I remember that so many people are actually rather nice.
And if I were a robot, I would not care. I would not care if other people were nice; I would not care if people loved me or liked me for who I am, I would not be able to appreciate a sunset, or enjoy anything.
Are you friends with people who suck up to you? Who are just friends with you because of who you know or what you can do for them or because you have money? Eh, I don’t really like people like that.
God wants to be with people who love Him for Himself, who do what He wants because they love Him. And in return, what He wants us to do is what will develop us into the best possible selves we can be.
But there are people who hate God, who do not want to do what He wants us to do, and who want, in effect, to be their own gods. They are not punished by being in Hell, they choose Hell. They would be in more agony in Heaven where they would be in the continual presence of Him Whom they hate.
>> OK, then build us as saints. It’s not like he couldn’t do it, right? <<
Sure He could do it, but then we wouldn’t be saints. Would you want to marry a robot who has been programmed to say what you want to hear and can not deviate from that programming?
No... really, it all boils down to love. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said (paraphrased from memory) that the difference between communism and Christianity is that with the former we follow an idea, but with the latter, we follow a Person.