>>however, is it really rational to give a human
>>characteristic to GOD? I mean, it's GOD... I believe God
>>rests eternally outside the universe, so there is no
>>rationalizing Him while we are finite . . .
>
>Wow, we're in complete agreement on that first sentence!
>But - if He/She/It/They are beyond description,
>comprehension, etc. then I also don't comprehend why
>He/She/It/They would be overly concerned with, for example,
>what the two guys who live down the street are up to right
>now.

(Let's just stick with "He" while we're in this discussion.. I know what you mean by your various pronoun apporoach)

God created angels and man to worship Him... after that, it's man's choice.

>>This would do away with morality and free will.
>
>I don't really have a problem with that.

*chuckle

You would have no consciousness, nothing... you wouldn't exist, so of course you wouldn't.

Why should we have
>to "earn" our way in to Heaven? (Actually I think the
>Protestant work ethic is tied into this - in a more general
>sense, that one must suffer before receiving a reward.) Why
>couldn't we just be there to begin with?

We were, and we screwed ourselves over with the help of fallen "sons of God" and the start of the Nephilim.

>(We could get into a whole thing about the meaning of "free
>will" - Doesn't free will mean I can teleport myself to
>Hawaii, if I will it? This could just be a limitation of
>language, but hey, that's what we've got available to work
>with here.)

It is, essentially, the choice between right and wrong. The discussion itself is absurdly long.

>(And then there's the whole thing, without suffering, could
>we have Heaven? Wouldn't you have to know suffering to know
>what Paradise would be like without suffering? Well hey,
>it's God, He/She/It/They makes the rules, I say put us all
>in Heaven from the get-go.)

Sin is the cause of suffering, and it is inevitable that we sin. Putting us in heaven from the get-go what was He did, and then we decided our ego outruled God.

>Perhaps an interesting side note - I've read various
>descriptions of Judaism that say it does not really include
>a belief in hell. Sin, yes, but not hell. Not sure
>where/when the punishment would come in.

What you have read is correct. However, Jews don't believe in heaven either. What they believe in, as stated by the Old Testament, is a place similar or the same the Greek Hades, called She'ol. This is sort of a grim afterlife which locks the soul up until the "resurrection". Christians believe this happened through Christ, which enabled the choice between heaven and void from God, whatever that may be. The descriptions of hell in the NT are rash and frightening because, ultimately, life without God means life without good, or possibly life without anything.

Based on my studies, Judaism of today is incorrect because heaven is now enabled, through Christ. Before Christ, you see a rich tradition of long lives and prosperity ("live long and prosper" is a Jewish saying... spock and captain kirk, Jews...), which menat that God rewarded those who served Him DURING their lifetime, as opposed to their afterlife. Based on my Greek studies, I believe it was Enoch, rather than Christ, who spoke to the "souls in prison" (2 Peter) and converted them... this is a long lesson, homie.

peace,