A response to a writeup on problem of evil by s alanet.

God is omniscient. He knows absolutely everything. So, He should have (and probably did) know what was going to happen when He gave free will to Adam and Eve, and He did it anyway. He should have known that humanity was going to degenerate to the point where the only solution was to drown them all.

If He had forknowlege of what was going to happen when he handed free will to humans, and He did it anyway, then the problem of evil holds. If he didn't know what we would collectively choose (in this case, evil), then He does not fit the Judeo-Christian concept of an all-knowing god. The question of if we have free will is still up for debate, though, as free will is inconsistent with science.

Update:

You seem to be confusing omniscience with the inability to slaughter. God's only criterion was that some people choose to love him. God is not democratic. He did not require all of them to. In fact, some theologians suggest that only a third of all people will be saved.

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The original:

Spoken by a Christian

The whole point of the problem of evil is this: God's goal with humans is to have us love Him of our own free will. He could, right now, command us to love Him. But that's not His goal - He already has all the love of that sort He wants, courtesy of every non-human object on earth.

Should have, hell! He knew about, indirectly caused, and was responsible for the whole Flood incident. No one ever said that the Christian God was a wishy-washy God. He's been pretty clear throughout that if you screw up, ever, once, you die, in a more than physical sense. After all, how can imperfection coexist with perfection?

He had Noah warn the poor bastards, but they wouldn't listen. God is pretty good about that, at least. He gives fair warning. See all the Prophets' books in the bible.

So, what was He supposed to do? Drop the matter? I don't think so. God doesn't go back on His word. So, He drowned 'em.

Being all-knowing doesn't imply being merciful. I fear God, and for good reason. He isn't to be trifled with. On the other hand, He's been kind enough to provide, to everyone who wants it, access to Heaven.

A God who is willing to let His only son die a horrible death to let people He finds repugnant into Paradise isn't a God who's gonna blink when He's taken up on His threats.

God may not have made us (well, most of us ;) brilliant, but He provides just about everyone with enough intelligence (and the clues) to make the right decision. (Personally, I think there are exceptions for those with major medical problems.)

Hmm... No one ever said that God was democratic. He's the ultimate ruling power, ever. Why would He let the majority make any decisions? He's aware of what each and every single person on the planet is doing and what they think about it. He lets each person make their own decisions. You don't enter Heaven by committee. You enter Heaven based solely on what you, and you alone, have done.

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. --Robert Heinlein

Man created god. It shows.

In Norse mythology (and Greek, for that matter) the gods are petulant, bickering, in-fighting, and sneaky. Or, in other words, they lead a normal human family life.

In X-tianity, god is a sort of mega-father-figure. It's the ultimate voice that tells you what's right and what's wrong (and never tells you why, even though the 'bad' stuff is always the most fun...). He's mysterious, awe-inspiring, and more than a little scary. He is loved and feared in equal measure. What five year old doesn't think of their father in this same way?

It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people. --Terry Pratchett

We are people. We are human. Let's not try to deny or change that.

God is good, people are screwed up seems to mean that you can't blame all the screwed-upedness of the world on God. You should instead blame the people.

Cid Highwind is pointing out that if God made the people, and knew what would become of them, then you may blame all the screwed-upedness on Him after all.

s_alanet doesn't actually seem to challenge this. He is agreeing that God isn't trying to make the world unscrewed.

Aresds and elwoodblues are a bit off-topic, denying that God exists, at least in the form this node was referring to Him. I think that the people who are interested in the subject matter suggested by the node title are willing to grant that God exists, at least for the sake of argument.

And Tem42 is making a writeup explaining that really, only Cid Highwind is making a relevant point. The rest of us are pointless, off topic, or complaining about pointless and off topic writeups.

It looks like God is screwed up wins, 1-0, no debate.