Posted by Ryan on November 22, 1999 at 17:21:49:
It seems that I have heard a lot of people ask why pain is necessary if there is a God. Here are some of my own personal thoughts, for anyone interested.
If there are lots and lots of Gods, each posessing great power, like greek mythology for example, they would be able to stop each others plans, hurt each other, interfere with justice and just plain be bad boys.
If, however, only those who have proven that with the power of a God they will exercise justice and love, etc...(definition of which is, I know, an altogether different subject) become Gods, then they wouldn't have the problem of inter-God fighting.
Maybe people are allowed to hurt each other here because the very nature of this world is to just be ourselves and do what suits our personalities, etc. By doing so, we demonstrate what degree of power we are able to exercise rightly--or, according to our knowledge of right and wrong. Thus determining what principalities God blesses us with after our lives are over. In other words, how much power God can let us have before we misuse it.
And maybe, on the receiving end, we can only learn forgiveness through experiencing something for which to forgive. Maybe we can only learn certain other things experientailly, as well.
I don't know if these things are absolutely true or not, but I wanted to provide something for people to think about who were maybe puzzled. Any further thoughts or refutations of my ideas are most welcome!!!!