Can Life Be A Test?

[jesus_wept]

Yes, life is a test but the Muslims and Christians are doing it all wrong.



Come judgement day, the theists are going to be pissed when god sends them to hell (whatever they think happens to people who don't believe them) for being arrogant, grovelling sycophants... why they think god wants to spend an eternity with people like that is beyond me, I certainly wouldn't.

[ReptilianPeon]

Brilliant comic strip. Yes, religious people need to learn to think for themselves more. However, Allah is more egotistical than most deities be Allah demands five prayers every single day, even if it means getting up during the night. And this is in addition to any other prayers the person may have.

Yes, life is a test but the Muslims and Christians are doing it all wrong.

Can you elaborate on why you believe life is a test though (seeing as you don't believe Allah exists, right?)? I assumed, perhaps erroneously, that only religious people believe that life is a test. From the comic strip you provided, I'm guessing you are irreligious.

All I am really saying is, though, Allah is testing people unfairly, if indeed Allah is testing people. The Quran claims Allah is the best judge of all and that is something that I have taken issue with because Allah is deliberately making the lives of some people harder than others. Hence, my analogy in my first post in this topic.

[jesus_wept]

I don't believe life is a test really. I was only joking, sorry for any confusion.

[robvalue]

If I thought there was a god, and he was testing to see whether we'd believe him or not, I can only assume that the passing grade is to not believe in him. That doesn't mean disbelief is invalid, even though it would be incorrect, because he has deliberately given insufficient evidence.

[h4ym4n]

The standard practice for tests includes a score earned.
If one is wise, they will find out what is needed to pass BEFORE the test.
In a corrupted world bad things happen to everybody, suffering was not the initial situation nor the intent of the designer.
If you want to find the responsible parties- find a mirror.
Mirrors have been around a long time and the shoe fits.

Couldn't it pretty much be said about the designer? Surely it didn't just go with this creation scenario.

Being omni-all it ran the Adam and Eve never eating the fruit to eternity. Eve only eating the fruit and Adam only eating the fruit.

It chose this creation scenario, right? Everything happening right now has been planned out since the beginning of time. Including me not believing in it.

If there is a designer, then it did design suffering. If it was shocked that suffering just happened then there is no omniscience.

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[DeistPaladin]

Perhaps life is a test but a very different kind than Muslims/other Theists imagine. After all, the purpose of a test is to separate applicants into two or more groups. Show me the nature of the test and I'll show you what you're looking for.

Let's say you go into a company for a job interview. They give you a test. You notice that it's all mathematical questions. This indicates the company might be looking for someone with the ability to work quickly and accurately with numbers. Or let's suppose the test is putting pegs into holes within a timed period or other dexterity tests. This indicates the company might be looking for workers that have good manual dexterity.

So what test are we being given? How gullible are we? No, that's not a rhetorical question or an argument; that's the test.

We're being tested on our gullibility.

Think about it. Both Christianity and Islam emphasize that we must have faith to be saved. Faith is just believing what we're told without evidence and to hold those beliefs against all evidence. They essentially tell us we must be gullible to be saved.

So then the test divides us into two groups: those gullible enough to believe mindlessly what they're told and those who refused even under threats of eternal torture.

How do you think that test will play out when the curtain is lifted?

"Time's up. Pencils down. Let's see how you did."

Does God want the gullible, mindless group? Well, perhaps if God is looking for boot-licking sycophants but really, how many of them do you need in your celestial palace? Even Louis XIV only needed a finite number.

A more compelling scenario is that God wants the honest, thoughtful group that wouldn't lie or try to believe nonsense even under threat of torture. Which group would YOU want on your team?

Sorry gullible fools... oops, sorry, I mean sorry faithful. Contrary to what you might have been told, I have only limited space in Heaven and limited resources. We're competing with another Creation down the block and I need the sharpest minds and honest souls I can get on my team.

I can't afford to take everyone. I wish I could, but I can't. "Omnipotence"? No, that was part of the test. I had to weed out the ones that just go with the flow and never question anything. I'm recruiting the Sagans, the Dawkinses and the DeGrass Tysons. I just don't have room for the Robertsons and the Phelpses. Plus, I need dependable people who are moral on their own and don't require constant supervision to do the right thing.

So those of you who failed, I'm afraid you're just going to have to painlessly fade out of existence while I grant immortality to all the good minds. Thanks for applying.