It astounds me how logic completely eludes hardcore theists.
Consider the odds of our winning on behalf of God, this bet he made with Satan (I call it the Satan Challenge):
1)God can see the future and read the heart. So when he sees what Satan will do before he even shows signs of rebelling against God, he doesn't exterminate him before the trouble starts. This could have saved everything as well as saved face for God in the eyes of the Angels.
1)The first evil being is Satan. From angels to humans, God is incapable of creating beings who will not perpetrate evil - does God purposely include design flaws or is he simply incapable? If he purposely included a design flaw then he had every intention of creating a cruel game from the start, knowing its inevitable outcome (refer to bullet point one). If he is incapable, then he is not all powerful and perfect but is as capable of mistakes as we are. he himself proceeds to put faith in the wrong people throughout the OT despite already knowing what the outcome will be. MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
3) He agrees to a game based on the most unfair rules possible: powerless humans vs. a supernatural being with powers no human can compete against (even the most faithful fall victim to his powers). It's like a boxing match between Steven Hawking and Superman. MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
4)God supposedly cannot intervene, but throughout the Old Testament he does. Supposedly in modern times he still intervenes when he cures some obscure individuals cancer (sometimes the cancer of an individual guilty of heinous behavior or crimes) but chooses not to intervene on the part of an infant who hasn't and is incapable of committing sin, let alone evil. Confusing, no? MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
5) He sends his son who performs miracles in a day and age where these miracles cannot be broadcast for the planet to witness, rather only a handful of people witness them. His miracles are small and obscure when one considers the massive miracles he could have performed which the entire ancient world could have seen. He chooses to reveal his power instead to perhaps a only few hundred Jews. He then allows himself to be killed with the intention of showing the world he is God's son by ascending to heaven but hardly anyone witnesses this so to most, this so-called son of God was able to be murdered by mere mortals. MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
6)Jesus doesn't state much if anything clearly. Instead he talks in parables and riddles as to make things even more confusing yet this very man used very clear miracles. How much more discombobulated could a message be? Would you pass a school test had your lessons been obscure at best? MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
7) He decides as a warning of what is to come to recruit a human to write a book about trumpets and seals, locust winged horses and dragons and put it in the hands of other humans to decipher. MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
8) He allows for ancient bones, geological features and cosmic discoveries that show the world is older than 6000 years, bringing many to doubt his already confused teachings and message. MORE odds stacked against humans winning the Satan Challenge.
Either He's a lousy gambler or He gets more pleasure from watching others suffer from his losses than winning.
If my post seems confusing, then it has a lot in common with the one thing which is supposedly our only hope of salvation- the bible.