We are bored, the Deity said.

Indeed yes, the Deity replied.

We have created an infinity of games to amuse Ourself but We always win, the Deity commented.

We are omnipotent, everything is rigged, the Deity noted. We always zap the bad guy, no matter how many levels he climbed.

We even let Satan get to Babel Tower Level 24 but We knew already he would go there and what would happen, the Deity observed. Zap! Pshhhh!

We are bored, the Deity said.

Well, the Deity commented, We could lose a round, even a whole game, if We wanted. Or two or more. Omnipotence has its privileges.

Yes, the Deity said, but We would still know We will lose. We'll still be in total awareness. Omniscience has its disappointments.

We are bored, the Deity said.

Well, the Deity offered, We could un-rig it. We could make players who possess uncontrolled free judgment -- sure we would know and control ultimately -- but they will surprise us. They can play each other too! More surprises.

Kind of a paradox there, the Deity mused. But We'll come back to that later. We're liking this idea.

There was silence in Heaven for one hour.

"Let us make creatures and game-characters then," the Deity proclaimed, " according to Our own form and likeness in that they can make unpredictable steps, original choices of their own."

And there were such creatures.

And the Deity had a ball.

There were surprise triumphs and torments and original turns and new rules. New zaps! New record scores reached. One team formed and then another spontaneously, and they even played against the others, with hidden points suddenly found by them, and moves unprogrammed recurring again and again. They would team up and sometimes the Deity would join in, or tweak the game with a new twist and watched them react and adjust.

Then it dawned on the Deity. And the Deity spoke up.

The creatures that make choices beyond prediction, beyond the programming, the Deity commented, well, when they do that they must perceive and understand and aspire on their own, in their very selves. They are aware of themselves and the environment they are in. They desire, and they wonder. And they are uncertain whither they come and whither they go. They are at one time bored, then another in terror despairing of escape and meaning. They feel the negativity of loss and uncertainty. They feel things called pain and suffering when they lose or are zapped; and in all that they have not what We have: the absolute certainty and fullness of knowledge and power to absolutely be sure that it'll all be OK in the end.

Their existence, the Deity added, to them is one of wholly uncertain meaning, if any purpose at all, and perhaps, the existence of some, many, or all may be one of pain without hope. Only that way are their choices truly authentic and challenging to Us.

Really? the Deity thought. Wow, that's gotta suck.