Is God just taking a nap? Otherwise why would he test us in this life if he already knew the outcome?

Question

Since he is omniscient, he already knows past and future right? He already knows who will go to hell and who won't.


So why the wait eh?

Even according to the rules of your theology this doesn't make sense.

If God is omniscient, he has already seen Armaggeddon happen; why doesn't he just chuck some of us in the lake of fire now and take the rest to heaven? He already knows the end result...

Mark is the only theist who actually answered my question..how sad..

Answer 1

Loopholes in Christian mythology indicate that Jehovah knew what Adam, Eve and the serpent would do in the garden, that "he" knew that the people with whom "he" made a covenant for ever would reject "his" "son", that Paul -- a stranger to Jesus -- would come along and take over Christianity (which Jesus never mentioned). Christianity attributes their idea of "God" with loads of human faults and weaknesses at the same time they claim "he" is all knowing, all powerful and all perfect. Lots of talk in protest, but Christianity can never resolve the Jeckyl/Hyde deity it created, so ultimately they come down to "We're just not meant to understand some things..." That's easier than realizing that their deity is a mythical character.

Answer 2

It's a little too simplistic to think God's just going to toss some people into Hell and take some others into Heaven some day, and he's just waiting around till the time is right. You need a more transcendent concept of God.

God is the totality of time. The future and the past are the present from God's perspective, they're only different to us because we exist within time. (This allows us to have freedom of choice while God can be omniscient.)

Answer 3

I find it curious that people either believe that there is no God / Gods at all OR they think that God must know everything.

Ignoring for a moment that most of the fables in the bible are fictional, we will take one "as read" - as some folks do indeed beleive in "Adam and Eve".

If God knows everything, then he knew before he even created them, that the daft sods would be eating apples before the night was out - so why bother warning them not to - if he knew they would.

Come to that, why both testing them at all if he already knew the outcome.

Could it just *possibly* be that if there IS some form of supreme being, that perhaps:-

a) It is a being that embodies EVERYTHING, god bad and indifferent

b) It does NOT know everything - but is capable of learning.

c) That upon our expiring, our experiences, good bad and indifferent are also absorbed back into this "collective concious".

To further comment on your question, I also invite the thought that perhaps Good & Evil are in fact all part and parcel of the one supreme being.

Assuming it exists in the first place.

Mark

Answer 4

I just want to know if the atheist can actually provide the correct answer as they are so sure that God did not create life? - I can prove that the biblical version is a fantasy. All of genesis was plagiarized from the Sumerian tablets having nothing to do with deities so "god creating life" is a fantasy. - As to proving where life came from, we accept a natural process since that has proof. A deity magically forming life is a fantasy since you have yet to prove a deity exists and that what youi use as a proof is a well proven fantasy. - There you have actual evidence and proof and no speculation.

Answer 5

“The Supreme Lord does not create a particular situation for any living entity, but the living entity, bewildered by ignorance, desires to be put into certain conditions of life, and thereby his chain of action and reaction begins. A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power.” The living entity must accept responsibility for his own actions.

How the living entity in the tight grip of material nature is the doer of his own destiny, it can be compared to the attempt of a small boy to lift a weight he has just seen his father lift. The boy first desires to lift the weight and then tries. He cannot possibly succeed, but his father sees his small son’s desire, stands above him, and out of affection does the actual lifting. Thus the father has actually lifted the weight, but he cannot be considered the only lifter. Unless the desire had been expressed and the attempt made by the child, the father never would have helped, and the weight would not have been lifted.
The living entity, like the child, become bewildered by false ego and pride and consider himself the doer of activities that he has no ability to perform. That does not mean, however, that the living entity can avoid the responsibility of having performed the activity, because it was he who expressed the desire, he who made the attempt, and he who wants to enjoy the fruit.
When the living entity is ignorant of his eternal relationship with Krishna, he chooses his position as independent enjoyer, which in turn welds him to material nature and places him under its control. Thus he is responsible for his own reactions.
Srila Prabhupäda writes in his purport:
The Lord is omniscient, but the living entity is atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramätmä, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independent living entities. However, when one desires Krishna, the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy.
Although the living entity is not the ultimate doer, he still remains responsible for his actions and their results as long as his actions spring from his desire to turn away from Krishna. The Supersoul acts as the living entity’s best friend and fulfills his desires. Even though He is the supreme controller, He cannot be held accountable for the living entity’s choices, for He acts only as sanctioner. The Supersoul, being neutral, is neither responsible for anyone’s actions nor is He liable to accept the living entity’s good and bad reactions. This is knowledge. Krishna describes the results of understanding this in the next verse.

Answer 6

Because you'd whine that you didn't really get a chance to live your life and you will doubt God's omniscience. That way... no whining.

Joking aside.. that's just simply not how God created life.

Answer 7

God is not out to simply test man. He has had a purpose from since eternity past that has everything to do with man. Time was created as a way to fulfil and work out this purpose. He foreknew those who would be predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. He stretched forth His hand and created the heavens and the earth and a spirit in man according to the book of Jeremiah. Man's spirit is the key to all that God is doing. This man is created in God's image and according to His likeness. Plants, animals, were all created according to their kind.. MAN was created according to God's kind. He bears God's image ( inward parts, man's spirit) and likeness, (his outward form)
This is so that man can contain God in his human spirit as life ( divine life), express God and exercise His dominion and authority on the earth. It is man into whom Christ wroughts Himself who will execute God's judgement on the enemy satan..( creature to deal with creature)
God is not about some game. He is not some idle person in the heavens toying with man and trying him. Even as believers in Christ the trials and tribulations are for something. It is that all that we have inherited in adam after the fall.. the flesh, the natural man, the self, sin... will be worked out of us through the life of the Lord deposited into our spirit upon our regeneration. Our spirit is the starting point from which the Lord as the Life giving Spirit ( 1 Cor 15 45b) transforms our damaged soul ( became the self and lives according to the soul life) and fallen body ( transmuted body becoming the flesh) to be conformed to His image. The same man that satan corrupted will be the same regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, glorified man that God has made Himself one with ,who will utterly deal with satan.
God desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. We know the first part of this verse in the book of timothy but the second part about " coming to the full knowledge of the truth" is something that we need to give ourselves to labour and enter into believers.
That we would all have this kind of heart that is open to the Lord is a precious thing in His sight. He has given us time which we should redeem, to open our being up to Him each day so that He can work out His purpose in us.. not just individually but as the Body of Christ.. made up of all regenerated, Spirit sealed and filled believers. Joined and Knitted together in love. Here as the One New Man...
I just love the Lord and thank Him for having such a wonderful plan for us. That everything will work out together for Good to those who love God, those called according to His purpose:)

Answer 8

God does know the end, but the decisions are yours to make. And he doesn't judge you for what you would have done, but what you have done. In fact, some times people may become terminally ill and die because he knows that will come to God, where if they had lived they would never have come to him. So in mercy he gives them eternity.

"God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance."

Answer 9

He gives people the freedom of choice. It is we who make the choices we do. If he were a dictatorial God people would be complaining about that. If there is one thing everyone including God knows, it is that you can't win for losing with people, they are never satisfied.

Answer 10

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Winning or loosing is in the hands of the gods, so let us celebrate the struggle.
-proverb