So that's how its going to be, is it? Alright, here we go... :lol
The following is how I imagine a learned and devout Christian would respond. Unfortunatly, I am neither, so what I have written is by no means 100% correct and true. It is my hope that it provides insight into the Christian perspective, and how one who has also asked these questions, yet remains a Christian, would respond.
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
Sin is built upon actions that occur in the world he created. It would have been easy for him to disallow those actions altogether.
Indeed this was the case before man came along. Angels that existed before humans had no choice in the matter, they had to obey God. Lucifer, upon seeing humanity's free will, became jealous because he felt he was more deserved of this. Thus, Adam and Eve (human beings) were presented with a choice, paradise/being in God's presence all the time, or pain and suffering a thousandfold/choosing not to be in God's presence most of the time. We made the wrong choice. Oh and also Adam and Eve did not have the physical limitations we do. I can't quite remember but I don't think they even needed to eat or sleep (could be wrong on that though). In any case I know they did not suffer from disease and old age or any of that, so yeah, again, we chose to be physically limited.
But I think your question is more asking "why would God present us with the choice in the first place?" To that I shall let C.S. Lewis (famous Christian Theologian) answer. In a book of his called "The Screwtape Letters" Lewis puts himself in the shoes of a "demon master" attempting to train an up and coming "demon n00b." These are of course abstractions of the human spirit, and are settings to provide discourse on matters such as the one you presented. The following excerpt should be of interest.
"To us [demons] a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy [God] demands is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as we would like to believe) mere propoganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself--creatures [us] whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons... Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt prescence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea [is for] the creatures to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve... He leaves the creatures to stand up on its own legs... He cannot "temp" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand."
In other words, God wants more for us than to be mere sheep. He could bind us by taking away our free will, yes, but that would not serve His purpose; for us to be one with Him (perfect), and yet ourselves.
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
This truly isn't a conscious choice though, in most cases. People frequently believe they are turning towards God, when, by the Christian definition, they are turning against him. It seems that everyone who "turns against God" is suffering because God didn't make it clear enough that he actually was God. I don't see how it is fair to present people with a choice when it was never clear which choice was correct.
I hope this does not come off as sardonic, but have you heard of a guy called Jesus, and a book known as the Bible? Have you ever been to a church, seen people praying, or have had Christians (perhaps in self-proclamation only, but nonetheless) come to your door with the express purpose of talking to you about such things? How much more explicit could it be? How many avenues does God need to create for human beings to figure out how to become closer to Him before they'll finally take some personal responsibility for their belligerent separation from Him? God did not make it clear enough? Really? He sent his only son to earth to set the record straight 2000 years ago, who then put 12 people in charge of spreading that record around the world so that everyone would have a chance to hear it. And right now, 2000 years later, I'd say they've done a pretty good job. Saying "I didn't know" is really no excuse for us, both for you and I specifically and as human beings in general. The answers to our questions are there, it is our own fault if we actively avoid learning them.
But even aside from all the scriptures, witnesses, organized outreaches, and so forth, God's presence is still quite visible. Perhaps our eyes and ears do not see or hear God in such conventional terms, but if we truly look and truly listen the evidence is pretty clear. People are much more inclined to believe in intangible concepts, such as "luck" or "chance," than they are to believe that those happenings have reason and logic to them. For reason and logic were given to us so that we may be led to God, but the longer and harder we fight seeing reason and logic the more we can feign ignorance to how our thoughts and actions are separating us from God. Saying "I didn't know" is a lie, because even that which we do know for certain (stealing is bad, murder is bad, loving our neighbour is good, being kind and generous is good) we still readily avoid. When we can't even do the simple things, which have immediate and real positive effects on ourselves and those around us, how can we accuse God of not making the more complicated and difficult stuff clear?
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
Sound logic if we are sure that he is an all-knowing all powerful being. We don't, however so unfairness or problems that I view in the system described just makes me question how all-knowing and all-powerful he is, if he even exists. I don't have the luxury of knowing every action the Bible describes God doing as just, so I certainly won't assume that he is all-knowing and all-powerful if I see what I consider to be injustice.
Indeed, which is why the first commandment of the Bible states thus: "I am the lord your God." A lot of people see this as rather odd, why a compassionate God who loves us would command us so decisively and immediately make following Him exclusive. For if you can't accept the fact that God is who He says He is (all knowing and all powerful) then all His teachings will be useless for you. Instead of relying on
superior understanding you rely on your own, which fails you, and therefore it is imperative that anyone who wants to walk towards God (remember, God=Life) first accept that God/Life exists. Its not a command, its a cornerstone and linchpin of living happily and fulfilled. We don't
know God exists in the quantitative sense, again that would defeat the purpose of our creation, but one is also not required to
assume anything. Faith is something that is generally misunderstood (as sin is) as a belief in something that defies logic, reason, observation, and reality. In fact, faith is something that is cultivated through careful analysis of those four aspects. Faith in God is a
conclusion, that an explanation for certain conditions, no matter how improbable, must be the true one if no other explanation sufficiently meets those conditions. To deduce otherwise is to rely on assumption, and inevitably, error.
You are asking good questions, questions that all Christians ought to ask themselves. But merely asking the question does not assert that there is no answer, and the task of answering them should not rely on the knowledge of others. I would dare say on a matter such as this (life, the universe, and everything) you would owe it to yourself to pursue these answers as much as possible, and if one answer is found to be insufficient, find another. A lot of people cite Christianity, and "God," as an easy answer, a short and quick way to explain off natural phenomena and never do any real, critical thinking. The truth is of course quite the opposite. Why should spiritual salvation, deep happiness, everlasting life, ultimate truth, and all powerful beings be simple?
