What if He is breeding for the ability to make free and independant choices that turn out correctly?

Indeed.  An infallible god would never have to repeat something, or fix an error.

Nor would he display human emotions, like regret, arrogance, anger, etc.

Yet... Yahweh does.  Also-the god would NEVER change his mind... for his mind is perfect, and perfection is a STATIC STATE, it cannot change.  If it does change, it either went from perfect to less than perfect, or vice versa.  

Same issue/problem applies to the christian concept of heaven-if it is a perfect environment, it is a static state-every moment would have to be the exact same, which means it's a boring way to spend eternity.

The Talking Heads wrote a song about this "If there was a party, everyone would be there, and everyone would leave, at exactly the same time... oh heaven, is a place... a place where nothing.... nothing ever happens."

Feb 6, 2012 -- 2:35PM, JimRigas wrote:

Where in the bible, OT or NT, does it say that god can predict the future? That he is omniscient in that way?

Jim,

True believers might answer in any of 3 ways, right off the top of my head:

1. God is perfect and part of perfection is having perfect knowledge of everything.

2. The meaning of the name Yahweh has something to do with "Being what I will be," which, contrary to popular belief, is probably not a misquotation of Popeye the Sailor's "I am what I am" but a statement about transcending time, so that the future is not hidden.

3. The presence of prophets in the Bible indicates that the future can be known, if God wishes to reveal it to certain individuals.

Wait a sec... The prophets went around blabbing what they learned from God, never stopping to think that if God wanted everyone to know, he would have told everyone instead of just a few prophets... Then why did God give any special foreknowledge to the prophets at all? Didn't he know they would spill the beans? Or if he wanted the prophets to tell people, didn't he know that prophets are not honored in their own communities (that's according to the gospels, which are his own word)? How could he not have known these things if he is omniscient?

Head hurts.... must stop....

Feb 6, 2012 -- 2:38PM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

Feb 6, 2012 -- 2:34PM, davelaw40 wrote:

What if He is breeding for the ability to make free and independant choices that turn out correctly?

What if we refrain from the blasphemy of portraying God as the equivalent of a cattle-breeder or dog-breeder?

why is that blasphemy; when it happens to approximate what I believe and was referenced as a possibility in the OP?

Feb 6, 2012 -- 2:53PM, lope wrote:

Feb 6, 2012 -- 2:29PM, koolpoi wrote:

Why would God regret creating mankind if He was truly all knowing?The Noah and flood story is basically about God recognizing failure and starting over with humanity.Trial and error is for those who don't know what will happen not the omniscient.One could also see this as a selective breeding program to get the kind of humans God wanted but the all-powerful don't need to use such methods.Heretic's post in another thread reminded me of something that had long bothered me about this story (aside from the genocide).

I agree.  I don't think God ever had cause to regret creating man.  I think God is disappointed when we are unloving to others, but I believe He knew when we were created that many of us would do the wrong things much of time.

Wrong things? Like babies crying and fussing and messing their diapers and falling down a lot when they start trying to walk? Those dedicated to their doctrine of "sin" -- and correct me if I am wrong, lope, but I do not think that is you -- condemn humanity for still being in our spiritual infancy. And the great and tragic irony is that doctrinal religion is one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to spiritual maturity.