If God exists, why did he create life? (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Friday, January 07, 2011, 22:14 (4851 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: Without pain, without heartache, death, sickness, and other negatives, would you have any reference at all to appreciate all the good in your life? -Ah, Tony, now I've caught you napping with your kids. This was precisely what I meant when, in the post to which you are responding, I wrote: -"I have no quarrel with what you say about the "necessary evil" of death, pain and suffering. You can't have good without bad, and the transience of all things is what endows them with their value." -In your last paragraph, you have challenged my entertainment theory: "...after a few million years of watching the cycle of life go round and round, I think it will most likely have lost all its entertainment value, like watching one too many movies." First of all, no-one would expect an entertainment to last for ever, but a few million years of fun is surely preferable to a few million years of boredom ... just as an hour of pleasure is preferable to an hour of pain. Secondly the human show is full of variations, which I think would make it infinitely more interesting than the dinosaur story, for instance, and remember, that went on for 160 million years. Who knows what God might think up when he's finished with us? -Like you, I loved David's "Dayanu" post, and echo all its sentiments. And it reminds me of something we certainly haven't mentioned before. Since I find it hard to believe that a god could create anything of which it had no knowledge, I find it comforting to think that ours ... if he exists ... must have a great sense of humour.-It is now time for my short ten-hour nap.