Why did God create the universe?

[Thor]

And yet our planet sustains life,

Yes, IN SPITE of all the dangers that surround us, life manages to exist.

and most likely will for the next million years or so.

You think life will exist here for only another "million years or so"? Life will no doubt continue to exist until the sun blows up into a red giant and boils away the oceans a few BILLION years from now.

As far as I know we are in no immediate threat of black holes, exploding stars, comets, or asteroids.

Meteors have impacted the planet since it was formed. One was big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. In fact, the asteroid Hermes passed by Earth at about twice the distance of the moon on October 30, 1937. There's stuff floating around in space that could kill the planet if it were to impact Earth. And it could pop up at any time. And there's nothing we could do to stop it. ( I can guarantee your praying would have no effect whatsoever.)

Maybe God created all that stuff for us to discover, and enable us to learn more about "him" by studying his creation.

Or maybe he didn't. I would say the "didn't" scenario is much more likely.

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My view comes from my faith in God as creator, I believe that the harmful ultraviolet light from the sun was blocked until after the flood,

And I believe Tinkerbell protects us from ultraviolet rays by sprinkling pixie dust in the atmosphere. There's an equal amount of evidence to support either of these scenarios.

with the harmful light coming through after the flood these single celled creatures mutated into deadly ones.

Oh.... so they EVOLVED? So the polio virus was harmless until after the flood? And in any case, your deity must have created the single celled creatures and his actions resulted in them transforming into little monsters. So, he is directly responsible for the existence of these things. Nice try in attempting to spin this so your deity somehow isn't responsible for creating a living thing. You should work on a political campaign.

This is what's responsible for animals not being able to live long lives.

Elephants can live for 80 years. Parrots and tuataras can live for 100 years. Tortoises and geoducks can live for 150 years. Greenland sharks, bowhead whales, red sea urchins and koi can live for 200 years. The antarctic sponge can live for well over 1,000 years. And the Turritopsis nutricula jellyfish is basically immortal.

You would think a deity who creates a universe for people would give his most precious creation the longest life span of all. But that's not the case. Why would that be.....?