Why are we here?

[loko5]

I have followed various answers to the Problem of Evil, and have found them convincing to various degrees, but one nagging question remains in the back of my mind.  Why are we here at all?  Why did God create this universe and place us in it, instead of creating us directly into heaven, as he apparently did with the angels?  I have heard the argument that we are placed here to exercise our free will, but apparently the angels have free will as well (e.g. satan's rebellion).  So why did God place us here to suffer natural disasters, illness, and death, when his angelic creations apparently aren't faced with this sufferring?  Any thoughts?

[Luke Martin]

I think anyone who claims to know the full answer to your question is pretentious.  We can speculate, but there's nothing in scripture to answer this question (unless we are Calvinists, in which case we can repeat their answer for everything; God did it for his glory ).  Plantinga has speculated that divine incarnation and atonement are such great goods that worlds that contain them are better than worlds that don't.  Thus, a world in which we are all created already in heaven is not as good as this world, since it would lack anything requiring atonement.

[Craig]

because He wanted to

[Craig]

because he didnt not want to

maybe God does get bored and wanted amusement...i mean..we get bored too...i dont see how God getting bored would take away from His nature.

[loko5]

I can understand God's creation as an act of love, that it is part of His nature to create and to love.  What is bothering me is the relation to the Problem of Evil ( or the Problem of Suffering as it is more aptly called).  If God wanted to create us as part of the sharing of His love, it just seem odd to me that He would put us on this earth to suffer all the things we have to go through in this life, and follow that with eternal bliss in heaven.  What is the purpose of the suffering?  Why not just put us in heaven to begin with?  I think Pieter may be touching on part of the answer, and Plantinga's answer is interesting but also seems incomplete.  My own leaning is toward the idea that our purpose in life is to grow and learn in this world in preparation for life eternal, that the trials and tribulations we go through will somehow prepare us better for eternal life.  But then I think of young children who die and end up in heaven -- they don't have the opportunity to fully experience this world, but God has a place for them in heaven.  So why us?

[Eric Stewart]

Who appreciates most the gift of a brand new pair of shoes; the spoiled child who has only known abundance, or the penniless street urchin who has had no shoes for as long as he can remember?

We would never be able to understand heaven for what it is had we never experienced anything else.  As it is, we have the knowledge of good and evil, pleasure and pain, and only through that knowledge can we understand good.  

Adam and Eve wanted more than perfect union with God.  They didn't know what they had.  I don't think we, having experienced this life, will be wanting more than what heaven has for us once we're there. That's an understatement.

[jayceeii]

I have followed various answers to the Problem of Evil, and have found them convincing to various degrees, but one nagging question remains in the back of my mind.  Why are we here at all?  Why did God create this universe and place us in it, instead of creating us directly into heaven, as he apparently did with the angels?  I have heard the argument that we are placed here to exercise our free will, but apparently the angels have free will as well (e.g. satan's rebellion).  So why did God place us here to suffer natural disasters, illness, and death, when his angelic creations apparently aren't faced with this sufferring?  Any thoughts?

The question appears to be, “We are we here to suffer?” One notices the animals do not moan and complain about their existence thus, therefore there is a direct implication humans are this way because they lack sufficient power to fill the human body well. Animals are generally enjoying themselves, humans not so, a difference being animals have few social demands, i.e. they aren’t asked to confront one another in intellectual ways. Apparently generating a harmonious society is a ways beyond human capacities.

Why isn’t anyone noticing it would be ludicrous for an angel to rebel, that for an angel to rebel would mean stripping out his or her intelligence and power? Humans have not established the link between full rationality and goodness, only able to think about selfish plots involving pretending to be good, not that goodness is a natural consequence of wisdom. People are not thinking about or longing to be angels, imagining these angels would have their same properties. The idea of Satan rebelling is quite in parallel with Apollo and Athena quarreling. Humans do not see gentleness is the first fruit of power.

Illness may be unavoidable, but most people are not sick most of the time so fixating on this as an excuse to complain about life in general reveals a weak, cantankerous nature, unable to rejoice in the human body properly. Men seem to be chased by a basic misery, justifying the Christian description of themselves as “miserable sinners.” Wiser people could plan and build for natural disasters, where humans regard a few decades as long enough for a home to endure, especially as it can be put up cheaply and with little effort.