[Lugez]

Okay. This is going to be interesting.
Did you ever hear completely about the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden? That should answer most of it. In the beginning, God created all this stuff, made man and woman in his own likeness, and everything was very good to God. If there was any sin, God would not have thought so. So as of yet, there is so wrong, but He gave His two children a choice, and said do not eat of the one tree. It was the only restriction God gave.
This is where Satan comes in.
Satan deceives Eve, and Eve gets Adam to eat the fruit.
This was the first sin, and from that point on, original sin would be in everyone's lives.
And there was no "barren wasteland" like you say, not for very long anyway. God created things pretty quickly if you read about it. The earth is only something like 5000-6000 years old.
God was good, and being made in His image we were good. Satan came along and introduced to us what is wrong, sin. So, there is your good, there is your wrong.

Yes, I am familiar with the story. I was raised as a Catholic.

I think Christians would have MUCH more credibility if they had other sources of God's will except some old book. I asked how God defines sin, and you give me a fictional story of Adam and Eve...

And did you HONESTLY just say that the earth is 5000-6000 years old? Have you completely ignored all the physical evidence that suggests that the earth is actually 4.6 billion years old? Evidence also suggests that humans have been around for about 100,000-200,000 years. I'm sorry, but you need to REAL LIFE FACTS before you debate further. There's no nice way to put this. It's comments like this that make me questions everything Christians believe.

Why would He not yearn to be loved by His Creation? That makes no sense. He yearns for them to be saved, not to have themselves willingly thrown to sin and Satan and eventually Hell if they so choose in their life

It makes more sense to me that he would want his creation to LIVE and learn its way on its own. He didn't create life so it would worship him, he did it so it would LIVE.

Not faulty parenting, it's the dealings of sin that have stolen the hearts of God's children which is the "fault".

God does not want to send His children to Hell, He would rather not, but because they were deceived by sin and have not turned to salvation, there is nothing He can do because His Creation does have free will with their lives.

Very interesting, but this raises another question: You say we have free will....But God wants us to follow his ways, and Satan wants us to follow his own ways....So really, is it just a battle to see who turns to God and who turns to Satan/sin? Do we really have free will then? Wouldn't the one with the most influence sway us?

You say that the dealings of sin STOLE the hearts of God's children, so isn't it Satan's fault that people sin? NOT the people themselves? Why should God condemn others for something thats arguably not their own fault?

And the problem with sin: Is that it HAS CHANGED throughout the centuries. What God wanted in 600 AD is COMPLETELY different than what present day God wants. Crusades? Middle Ages? Renaissance? 18,19,20th centuries? "God" wanted different things in all these different ages. He's been very inconsistent (assuming he's the one dictating. I believe this is just the evolution of society, not God changing his views).

Hmm... how would you think your relationship with God is a good one?

Because I believe a reasonable creator would be more thrilled by seeing his creation flourish than to sit back and except praise and worship from everyone. I've been trying to live my life in such a way, and I feel that God would be pleased with my efforts...

The angels love worshiping their God, they believe His is more than worthy of their praise, as do I, but this is obviously a personal thing.

I wouldn't want to praise my creator. If I created something, I would want that life to live. I believe the best praise is (like I said countless times) to live your life to the fullest and enjoy your life.

How would you explain all the prophecies and the things that tied in with science thousands of years later?

The bible had prophecies? The only prophecy I was aware of was Revelations, which hasn't happened. I'd like a few examples from the bible.