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

by dhw, Friday, January 07, 2011, 12:23 (4857 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: ** got to love nap time, it gives me a chance to sneak in a post while everyone else is sleeping.-This brings back great memories. Alas, nowadays I'm the one who is liable to be caught napping.-I'm glad you were able to sneak in this post, because I find your thoughts on death not only highly pertinent and beautifully expressed, but also revealing about your own approach. I never for one moment thought you were lacking in compassion, but the personal background you have described gives me a much greater understanding of your views (and your pseudonym!). I can only admire the way you have dealt with your experiences. -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. That is a problem many of us have with the concept of everlasting life, because it's impossible to conceive of endlessness as anything but unbearable, unless it's endless unconsciousness. However, in the context of this particular discussion, you have ... albeit grudgingly ... come as close as I think you ever will to acknowledging the argument that underlies the question posed by this thread: If God exists, why did he create life? In order to answer it, we have to speculate on the nature of the creator as reflected in his creation. You have used the word "neutral" with a number of important qualifications, and I can accept all of them, but this neutrality is the key to the answer which I suggested at the beginning, with the challenge to provide counter-arguments: life is an experiment devised for God's entertainment, and the random distribution of pain and pleasure offers no evidence to indicate that he has any personal interest in us as individuals. If so, he has no relevance to our lives. This should not be seen as an attempt to pass judgement (I'm not that presumptuous!), but only as an attempt to make sense of the world as we know it.