Like I said, I'm not going to preach to you. Everything I've said dealt with the general idea of god.. Only specifics for some religons. I'm not trying to convert anyone, if you really want the answer read about it.. Suffering existing doesn't mean god doesn't exist according to my beliefs and many other's who may or may not believe the same exact thing as I do.
As for typhoid's question, I already answered it in an earlier post:
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The general consent from christians is that god created men with free will, just because he wanted men to chose him themselves. Of course, men would frown upon this idea, but that's what's believed to be true generally.
If he wanted mindless slaves who had no choice but to follow him and who had no will to do evil or suffer whatsoever.. well, we wouldn't be haivng this conversation. :P Maybe he felt that having people chose to follow him was better than enforcing the will on people to follow him.
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He gave man the free will to do whatever they wanted, but he WANTS them to chose him. Just like if you have a kid, you didn't have them with the idea in mind to be your slave, yet you WANT them to do what you feel is right, and you WANT them to love you. But you can't FORCE them to do anything, which makes them being a good person and loving you more valid, right?
Free will is a bitch like that. This is why I say one can view him as good or bad or whatever they want, because its their will to do so.
"But that doesn't make sense! Why allow suffering, why give us the option!"
Maybe he did it for kicks, maybe he did it to make his ego bigger. Who knows? He's god, he's not meant to be your friend, he's not meant to hold your hand, he's meant to be your ruler, your king, and your father. He doesn't like people going against him, oh well.. he created us that way..
And I think the creation in his image is not based off of LOOKS alone. Its more based off of what he is.. A being with the ability to make choices himself.