Aaaannnd... we're back at the testing. Besoeker's question still stands. How can an infallible being - all-knowing and all-powerful, as you said yourself - create a fallible creature, if not by intent? And why set this flawed creation up for failure, if not by malicious intent? Because even if, say, a victim of rape would "pass the test" by still being faithful and whatnot, the "test" would still be cruel and abusive and that "god" would have
failed any test of compassion and kindness imaginable. Why would I want to keep the faith with such an abusive asshole?
This all under the premise that there exists an invisible being that created everything in the first place. The more logical conclusion is that people mistook their verbal hallucinations for some divine person speaking to them. As I already said, read Jaynes if you're not afraid to have your religious assumptions challenged.
But even if there was indeed an invisible being that created me flawed and fallible and then threw me into this mess to see if I still adored it: why bother with such an asshole? I wouldn't let any human being treat me like this, so why bother with some god?
In fact, this sort of thinking is as distorted as that of any victim of abuse: if children are abused by their parents, they blame
themselves -
they must have done something wrong to deserve the wrath,
they failed their parents' expectations,
they are bad, useless, unworthy of love, affection, or respect. Intermittent affection by the abusive parent only reinforces their craving for another shred of love, so they strive harder to be "good" and conclude that they have failed again when another round of
abuse "testing" ensues. The poor sinners...
The parent is powerful, flawless, and always in the right. Just like a god. The sad thing is that while there is therapy available for those victims, the same kind of thinking is allowed to persist in adults under the guise of "spirituality".
Checking my privilege - yep, still goodWhat would happen if the Sahara became socialist? - For ten years, nothing, then we'd run out of sand.