Been reading Guyver again, H8_2_W8 ? 
Actually, Walter Jon Williams has a kind of neat take on this in Aristoi. A human overlord type uses nano to build his own people, and leaves their planet in a pre-industrial state, with recreated diseases like smallpox, and other trials of life that have been eliminated in civilized human space. To test some evolutionary theories he has, mainly.
He’s really not treated in a very sympathetic light.
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“Within each human, a zoanoid awaits his morphogenisis!”
What if God turned out to be you?
If that’s the case, I should have gotten laid wwwaaaaayyyy more often.
Actually Lib, your “That which loves is/knows God,” stance reminds me strongly of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. It’s been a while since I read that, but Mike preaches that “He who groks is God.” (“Grok” was his term for a very heightened awareness/understanding of something.) Have you ever read this book?
So, the question is, “What if the Calvinists had it right?” The human reaction to such a thing was covered pretty well in Moby Dick.
Ptahlis
No, sorry. But I have read Jesus, the Son of Man, by Kahlil Gibran.
I’m not following. I thought Calvanists belived in predestination and a pretty harsh version of original sin. How does that fit into experiments and entertainment?
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“Like an ant trying to fight God.”
It is a sadistic god that creates all life and suffering and does not allow for the escape of its subjects from the pre-established boundaries and predicted results of the creation exercise. An alien conducting an experiment with the same parameters demonstrates the same sadism. At no time is the subject of the experiment expected to rise beyond the measured conditions of the experiment. In the case of both the alien and the Calvinist god, the subject never has an opportunity for salvation, redemption or simple survival unless the experimenter allows for such events from the beginning. Both the alien and the Calvinist god get a swift kick in the nuts from me.
how could god predetermine his own actions?