[jennyp]

PMFJI...

>>What is our 'purpose'?<<

To please God. Why does a man make a motorcycle or a teddy bear? Does the bible not say we are made in God'd image? It makes it easy to understand the concept of making us - with a free will - to choose to have a relationship with him. And those of us that refuse? Well, if you made some self willed creature to have a relationship with you and after you created it it said "bug off" and walked away, what would you do with it?

Ummmm... squash it like a bug?

Look - the analogy simply does not hold up when the thing you create is a sentient being, with a mind of their own. When two parents intentionally produce a baby because they wanted a baby to love and to love them back and eventually care for them in their old age, and the baby grows up to be an adult who (for whatever reason) rejects their parents, do the parents have the right to kill their child?

[Junior]

Well, if you made some self willed creature to have a relationship with you and after you created it it said "bug off" and walked away, what would you do with it?

You could always pull the old "sic the villagers on it while it's holed up in a windmill" ploy.

[RobRoy]

>>do the parents have the right to kill their child?<<
Yes, God gave them the right to make that choice. Otherwise, they would find themselves incapable of doing so. In fact, if you read the old testament you may find Gods instruction on what to do with an incorrigible child rather interesting.

Naturally our government will not allow the parents to kill their child but, of course, the state is not God.