If god knows the future, and life on earth is a test...

[CarlinKnew]

1. God knows everything, including the future
2. Life on earth is a test or preparation for the afterlife
3. God is all-powerful

Why does god bother with the test when he already knows the results?
or
Why does god bother with the preparation when he already knows how prepared you'll be?

 

[averageJOE]

I've been asking these questions for years now and have never gotten a straight answer. I'll be following this thread closely.

 

[CarlinKnew]

Any takers?

 

[AlsoAnima]

1. God knows everything, including the future
2. Life on earth is a test or preparation for the afterlife
3. God is all-powerful

Why does god bother with the test when he already knows the results?
or
Why does god bother with the preparation when he already knows how prepared you'll be?

It's more complicated than that. You're assuming the God is like a person who sees into the future. When the reality puts God outside of space and time, able to see the future because it is the same as the present for God.

 

[CarlinKnew]

It's more complicated than that. You're assuming the God is like a person who sees into the future.

Why do you think I assume that?

When the reality puts God outside of space and time, able to see the future because it is the same as the present for God.

How does that change the questions in the OP?

 

[McBell]

I've been asking these questions for years now and have never gotten a straight answer. I'll be following this thread closely.

I seriously doubt you will ever get one.
An answer that makes sense, I mean.

The answer to this question will be much likened to the explanation of the Trinity concept. There will be loads of words used, but they will not make any more sense than that which they try to explain.

 

[AlsoAnima]

Why do you think I assume that?

Because of the way you phrase the question.

How does that change the questions in the OP?

Because once you understand that the questions shouldn't make sense. In order to 'see the future' God has to create the timeline. You assume that things can be 'sped up' to their end point, which isn't true, not only does time not work like that, God doesn't work like that.

 

[CarlinKnew]

You assume that things can be 'sped up' to their end point, which isn't true, not only does time not work like that, God doesn't work like that.

God doesn't have the power to do that? Even if he doesn't, why did he include this test/preparation in the timeline that he created when he already knows the results? The questions in the OP are still unanswered.

 

[AlsoAnima]

God doesn't have the power to do that? Even if he doesn't, why did he include this test/preparation in the timeline that he created when he already knows the results? The questions in the OP are still unanswered.

God would have to rework the way the universe works in order to do that. I don't think you're listening. He didn't know the results until he created the timeline. At which point he couldn't very well destroy the timeline, or well... I suppose he could, but that sounds needlessly cruel. You seem to assume the preparation can be programed in and doesn't need to be learned. Humans are not programs.

 

[blackout]

It's more complicated than that. You're assuming the God is like a person who sees into the future. When the reality puts God outside of space and time, able to see the future because it is the same as the present for God.

Your god concept then does not fit the OP's (Original Posts)
defining traits.

I don't know what Carlin assumes "God is like"
(well ... I do really... lolol)
but for the sake of this thread,
he has posed the question to those whose god concept
fits the three ramifications he listed....
Under the two bolded conditions below.

If god knows the future, and life on earth is a test...
1. God knows everything, including the future
2. Life on earth is a test or preparation for the afterlife
3. God is all-powerful

My gOd concept does not fit these conditions either,
so I would need to pontificate on a god concept that does...
in order to answer the post.

 

[AlsoAnima]

Your god concept then does not fit the OP's (Original Posts)

Actually, it does. :yes:

 

[blackout]

Actually, it does. :yes:

No... because you said god does not know the future.

And this was the first condition of the thread's question...
"If god knows the future, and life on earth is a test"

 

[AlsoAnima]

No... because you said god does not know the future.

And this was the first condition of the thread's question...
"If god knows the future, and life on earth is a test"

No... go back and read my posts all the way through, not just the first clause of each sentence.

 

[Enlighten]

Ok, I'll give it a go, although please keep in mind I am no Bible Scholar so this is the way I see it and perhaps may not be the way it is... (If that makes sense)

Why does god bother with the test when he already knows the results?

Because even although He knows the results, if there was no test then there would be no results to have, to me, it's the way it has to be. Meaning we all have to learn life and experience it for ourselves.

or
Why does god bother with the preparation when he already knows how prepared you'll be?

He knows how prepared we will be but without actually preparing us then there is no way we can actually get there, it wont just happen without this preparation.

I hope this is what you were looking for, as I say, I am no Bible scholar so this is from my opinion only.

 

[CarlinKnew]

God would have to rework the way the universe works in order to do that.

That shouldn't be a problem for an all-powerful god.

He didn't know the results until he created the timeline.

He didn't know what he was about to create? Did he roll some dice and create the universe randomly? Actually that wouldn't work, he would know how the dice would land.

At which point he couldn't very well destroy the timeline, or well... I suppose he could, but that sounds needlessly cruel.

Sure he could, and surely he could do it in such a way that wasn't cruel. He's god, I'm confident he could think of something.

You seem to assume the preparation can be programed in and doesn't need to be learned. Humans are not programs.

Why couldn't this knowledge be written on our hearts by god?

 

[AlsoAnima]

-snip-

Again, you seem to be operating under the "God can create a rock so big that even he can't life it" assumption. Which is to say the God can and will redefine the laws of the universe just because. And assumption that makes to no sense, because if the laws of the universe needed to be redefined they wouldn't be defined in the first place.

 

[McBell]

Again, you seem to be operating under the "God can create a rock so big that even he can't life it" assumption. Which is to say the God can and will redefine the laws of the universe just because. And assumption that makes to no sense, because if the laws of the universe needed to be redefined they wouldn't be defined in the first place.

So not only does your god not know everything, he is also not all powerful.
Seems you really should stop using those terms when describing him...

 

[blackout]

oh ok... sorry Anima... I missed your key point.

It wasn't UNTIL he created the timeline that he knew the future.

So why would it be cruel to scrap the whole timeline,
once god saw how many people would suffer miserably on this earth?
and what a miserable mess of cruelty and usery and poverty this world would become?

And that does not even address what happens "beyond",
to all of those who have failed the "test".
How is eternal torture, or even uncreation, any less cruel,
than the deletion of the timeline at the onset...
before it was all ACTUALIZED and Set in Motion?

 

[CarlinKnew]

Again, you seem to be operating under the "God can create a rock so big that even he can't life it" assumption.
Which is to say the God can and will redefine the laws of the universe just because.

Not at all. Creating a rock so heavy that he couldn't lift it is a logical impossibility. Redefining the laws of the universe is not. If he's able to create a universe and intervene as he sees fit, it should be no trouble to redefine it. And again, it shouldn't need redefining if he knew what he was going to create in the first place.

 

[JMorris]

i always find it amusing the amount of knowledge a person claims to have about god, when they in fact have none, simply belief

god is this, god is that, god can do this, god cant do that
and then go on to say
god is mysterious, god's ways cant be known to man, ect

i always have to wonder, if god is mysterious, where did you get all this info on him? oh yes, a book, books that contain no empirical value what-so-ever.

every question made of god is irrelevant, as the answer can never be known
every quality attributed to god is arbitrary, as nothing is known of him (including his existence)