Punisher1984 said:
This just raises even further questions about the compitence of your deity: he allows the universe to tear itself apart just so that a few humans will show "voluntary love?" This is just one more reason why I consider this deity to be menatally/emotionally disturbed...
Fortunately, the evidence points in another direction.
In other words, you would have taken the blue pill?
You'd rather be an robot with no will of your own, than have to suffer the consequences of other people's misuse of their free will. This is the same sort of stance that gives up freedom in order to have security. Would you rather live in a police state, or have the chance that you might just get killed by a terrorist some day?
There are plenty of similar parallels of choices we make. My son was born just a few months ago. Recognizing that his life, even if it is one of the most comfortable (God forbid), will still include a large share of suffering, we chose to bring him into this world. It was in our power to make sure that he never experienced suffering by not giving him life in the first place. Does our choice to give him life make us mentally or emotionally disturbed?
Likewise, for much of his childhood I can make sure he is equated with very little suffering by confining him to a padded world where he has little contact with anything that will bring him grief. But would that be a wise choice as a father?
Suffering is not a good thing. We should work to aid the suffering in this world. But in the face of eternity in relationship to God, it shrinks in its significance.
David K