Yep, no one told us it would be easy. Certainly, from the religious writings & sources we have, God blames us for our own travails. Yet He is the one who put the silly tree with the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, yet he forbade A & E to eat from it.
Sure. He could have put a giant cliff overlooking a magnificent vista and forbade Adam and Eve not to jump over it. The fact of the matter is knowledge of good and evil exists, but it causes greater pain to the finite being who possesses it, but God wanted Adam and Eve to be able to choose for themselves, so he didn’t give it to them but offered them the ability to gain it if they wanted it.
Seriously, doesn’t this sound more like a fairy tale than a historical event?
Why can’t it be both?
Moral of the story. Don’t PO the Big Guy…
No, moral of the story: if someone knows infinitely more than you, do what he says. Would you trust someone with a PhD in Mathematics when you asked him a question about your calculus homework, or would you write whatever you felt like down while thinking what you were doing was in any way close to accurate? Well, God’s like that expert, but moreso, and on everything. It’s utterly absurd not to do what he says; it’s actively choosing to do something stupid.
Yeah, that sounds simple enough sitting here nice & cozy in front of our computers. If you heard a deafening explosion, don’t you think your reflexes might cause you to look in that direction? That story seems over-the-top also, but it too also sounds like a fairy tale…
If I had been told that the explosion was coming and that the light from it would blind me, I could definitely avoid looking. Similarly, God knows all, so if God tells you not to do something, you should damn well not do that thing.
Of course he knew it. He’s omnipotent, omniscient, etc., etc. So why did He let it happen?
Because we have free will, and God respects our free will.
I’m sure there were women and children in the population of Sodom.
First, what makes women somehow special that they can’t let the embers of their soul go out with sin? Second, why would you assume this? Third, this is taking the story too literally. Fourth, Lot and his family were spared because they alone were not too far gone. Fifth, if any innocents were caught in the blast (and the Bible says none were), they would have gone to heaven.
There’s a long, long line of transgressors, Gov Spitzer, Pres Clinton, molesting priests, adulturous evangelists, et al. No doubt, God will damn 'em all because they screwed up. But, God knew in advance they would screw up because He’s omnipotent, omniscient, omni… , omni…, etc.,etc. So, why did He set all of this in motion in the first place? Was He bored? Couldn’t He control his rebellious angels? Is He not all-powerful?
He is all-powerful, but he is also all-loving, and to that end, he wants us to have choices, which we don’t have if he makes us do the right thing all the time.
The problem is that you’re assuming that predestination means we couldn’t do any differently than we’ve done, which isn’t true. Those people you listed could have chosen to do differently.
He may not be too happy with you though for avoiding the Spiritual Works of Mercy and trying to tell others they shouldn’t do them. 
:twocents:
To pawn everything off on God’s omniscience and/or predestination is a cop-out.