If "God" did create angels with free-will WHY did he need to create man as well?
Adstar, possibly IAC, and many other Christians believe that man was consciously created by God in response to Lucifer's fall from heaven and his creation or causation of the material universe including planet earth. Satan wanted to be his own God, so what better way to show your power than to create dinosaurs and cavemen? Hence, Satan created the dinos and cavemen.
God looked down at what Satan was doing and was laughing at him and joking around with Michael and Gabriel about how much of loser Satan was. They were laughing at his dinosaur creation and how much of a moron satan was. Then God said, "Enough of this. Let me create man to restore the earth to heavenly status. I'll simply create man, tell them to serve me, and see what happens." God did just that, and man sinned almost immediately after, thus beginning the incestuous mess of a race which exists today.
I'm guessing God's goal is to get as many people as possible into heaven. I'm not sure how many people or what percentage of people would have to reach heaven in order for the restoration to be a success.
IceAge has said that there is a finite and definite number of human souls/spirits. The one's that aren't living here now are simply in a dormant state. All of the souls/spirits will take their turn going through this shithole of an earth and seeing if they can get their name in the Book of Life.
Let's say God created 1,000,000 people total (clearly this is short, I know). If 500,000 people reached heaven, then 50% of God's creation would have passed the test. If 750,000 went, then 75% would have passed the test.
I'm not sure whether God cares what percentage of his creation goes to heaven or not, but I'm guessing the more the better. Anything over 50% is probably satisfactory. Seeing all the sin in the world today, I'm not sure if even 50% of man has reached heaven, but I have no clue what the qualifications are. Apparently, you can murder someone, ask for forgiveness, and then still go to heaven. David, the man after God's own heart, saw a hot woman, sent her husband to the front lines of battle so he would die, then took the hot woman as his own and made love to her every night. So maybe the number is more like 80%.
Everyone else will go to hell where they will be held temporarily and tortured. Then, a little after the Second Coming, they will be transfered to the Lake of Fire where they will swim in liquid fire for eternity and burn alive forever.
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The Hindus believe an entirely different concept. There is no ultimate goal with humanity. There is no end to the material universe as we know it. In fact, the Hindu God didn't even create us consciously or intentially. There are infinite souls which are being created every day and which all will live in the material universe for eternity until they reach heaven, or if they do.