Thinking About the "World That Is..."

Honstly now, if you were God, could you possibly dream up any more educational, contrasty, thrilling, beautiful, tantalizing world than Earth to develop spirit in? If you think you could, do you imagine you would be outdoing Earth if you designed a world free of germs, diseases, poisons, pains, malice, explosives and conflicts so its people could relax and enjoy it? Would you, in other words, try to make the world nice and safe--or would you let it be provocative, dangerous, and exciting? In actual fact, if it ever came to that, I'm sure you would find it impossible to make a better world than God has already created.

--Guy Murchie
from The Seven Mysteries of Life: An Exploration of Science and Philosophy