Bringing Down the King

[DeistPaladin]

When you were in school teachers gave you test and they already knew the answers, so are teachers being stupid for giving test or are they trying to help students to learn. So why can't you see that the test God gives are for helping the one being tested.

The purpose of a test is to separate a group in order to select those that have preferred abilities or traits over those who don't. A teacher gives a test to see which students have learned the material. A prospective employer gives tests to see which job applicants can perform certain tasks that will be needed on the job. Good prospective employees are thereby separated from poor choices for hire so the employer can better select the right candidate.

It follows that the nature of the test tells us much about what the test giver is looking for. If your prospective employer hands you a test that asks mathematics questions, you might assume that your job will be working with numbers in some way.

So if life is a test, as Islamo-Christians like to say, what is the test trying to screen exactly?

The nature of the test is whether or not we believe what we're told even though there's no evidence, plenty of contrary evidence and the beliefs themselves make no sense on close examination. Part of the test is whether or not we will continue to seek a "personal relationship" with a god that hides his existence and makes all communication (prayer) one way. Another part of this test is whether or not we will love a deity that behaves in a manner we would never tolerate from our fellow human beings.

I believe there is a word for what this test is screening for: gullibility.

So if it all turned out to be true, and we end up standing before Jesus after we die, what was the purpose of separating the two groups on the basis of this test? Remember how I said earlier that the test a perspective employer gives tells us what he or she is looking for, what kind of job we'll end up doing?

Jesus is evidently looking for a kingdom composed of exclusively gullible sycophants who will praise him endlessly.

Or perhaps the test is a trick? Maybe those who buy into all this will actually fail and those who think critically and have the moral fiber to reject Yahweh's blood-thirsty nature despite the threat of Hell are the ones who pass?