Re: the OP scenario: it should start with the person looking at nothing, and deciding whether to create ants and a world for them to live in in the first place.
Re: fear. The Bible says that fear of god is the beginning of wisdom. Some Christians say this isn't fear per se, but rather respect. As there's a word for respect (uh, respect) and most translations say fear, I go with fear. And why not? Makes sense to me. Note further that it says fear is the beginning of wisdom, i.e. the believer need not continue in fear forever, but should move on to love.
Re: POE. Read Romans 9.
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Re: fear. The Bible says that fear of god is the beginning of wisdom. Some Christians say this isn't fear per se, but rather respect. As there's a word for respect (uh, respect) and most translations say fear, I go with fear. And why not? Makes sense to me. Note further that it says fear is the beginning of wisdom, i.e. the believer need not continue in fear forever, but should move on to love.
Re: POE. Read Romans 9.
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
