Yeah, I've never heard anyone come up with anything close to a decent justification for this. I've heard some people claim that god couldn't have just made this world heaven because we need to use our free will to end up there, but when I try to get them to expand further upon that an explain why exactly the choice was so important, they never have an answer. I've also heard one person claim that heaven has free will but it is free of sin. The problem there is that if you can't choose to sin, you don't have free will.
As far as the problem of suffering goes, a lot of Christians like to use the benefit we gain from experiencing hardship as a defense, but god's omnipotence means that any such benefit gained from suffering could be given sans the suffering. Since god is capable of doing all things without suffering, you are left with the proposition that suffering is merely for suffering's sake, and god is just a sadistic fuck that gets his rocks off from watching lesser beings struggle.
As far as the problem of suffering goes, a lot of Christians like to use the benefit we gain from experiencing hardship as a defense, but god's omnipotence means that any such benefit gained from suffering could be given sans the suffering. Since god is capable of doing all things without suffering, you are left with the proposition that suffering is merely for suffering's sake, and god is just a sadistic fuck that gets his rocks off from watching lesser beings struggle.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
