Quote: Gee, I thought life was supposed to be some sort of test. But, if what are saying is true, this deity already knows if you will pass or fail the test. So, in fact, there is no real test because your fate is already known! Then why would this deity allow someone to be born when he knows they will fail the test and be tossed into a firepit for all eternity?
This is a mystery, but it would make sense that we would not be able to make sense of the things of God. So what seems impossible within temporality is apparently possible with God. So knowing all things, and granting free will are some how consistent with God. I do not mean to prove it, because I'm not sure you can, but I believe it.
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Evil? Where did I talk about evil? How is "evil" involved when a child is born with horrifying birth defects?
And if your brilliant, omniscient deity already knows what will happen, what was the point in allowing people to be born when this deity already knew he would drown them in a flood?
Well you may call it the "problem of children born with defects" but in philosophy its typically simplified to the problem of evil.
That is a difficult thing to answer. I believe that God allows such things, so that certain other virtues may arise like courage, compassion, and unconditional love. This is sometimes called sould building.
Perhpas he lets them be born because the goodness of free will is so good that it overwhelms the badness of drowning, and apparently without some people drowning there could not have been a maximal amount of good. Typically Best possible of all worlds theories assume that at some point in the future something so great will occur that it will make all the bad seem likei t was worth it. So it would be like practicing football all the time, and it hurts and sucks, but you end up winning the super bowl so all that hard work was worth it. This is not a perfect analogy and will fail on many levels, its just meant to be a simple way of describing what, if is true, would be a most complex thing.
@min
My God does not need nor want for anything.