Hi Samantha Rinne :
I think your basic question regarding the purpose of God is profound. I have wondered however, if one of your premises will affect the answers that you get.
You mentioned : “Say, you're God. And you have infinite power to summon anything you want, to make everything you want.” The assumption that a “God” can do absolutely anything, even if it is illogical and irrational doesn’t seem to make for the most logical and rational conclusions. If a God can do irrational and illogical things like “make all things out of nothing”, then it creates the difficulty of why he created a world that contains so much suffering (if he could have accomplished the same purpose without suffering and oppression).
If a God must obey logical and rational rules then the conclusions and models may tend to be more rational and logical. For example, if the laws of thermodynamics are correct, that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, and if God must obey certain laws, then the matter out of which he fashions and shapes will have it’s own characteristics which can partly explain the ills of the world.
For example, the early Judeo-Christian concept of naïve, nacent but cognizant spirits existing prior to the creation of the earth changes the subsequent models. IF these Judeo-Christians were correct, that spirits existed prior to creation, then one may simply ask what it was that a loving God would do with such spirits. Would he be involved in their evolution or not involve himself. If he involved himself and was a loving, kind God, what sort of shape would that involvement represent. Would a loving God, for example, want such spirits to learn basic principles of Good and Evil and have them learn to master principles of Goodness and see the consequences of evil? Would he try to develop a plan to tutor them in such a way as to help prepare them for a greater level of happiness. What sort of existence or schooling would he engineer and send them to in order to experience these things?
My point is not to simply answer the question as I see it (I can do so if you want). But to simply say that if the early Judeo-Christian model is correct, that God did not make spirits of mankind out of “nothing” (in which case he is responsible for their actions since he could have made them “perfect”), but if spirit/intelligent (self willed matter is the way it is described in the early pistis-sophia) existed independently, then God is given a set of conditions he did not entirely create and the question is how he would respond to these eternally existing conditions.
In any case, I hope your spiritual journey is good and the models you create as to what is going on in this life are rational, logical and make sense to you. Good luck Samantha
Clear
τωτωειω
