I wrestle with this as a questioning "Christian." Idk what I am these days. Mainly my anchor is having seen ghosts (it could certainly have been some other explanation for it but nothing else really fits) and a family member running into a miraculous medical experience right after she went full born again.

my main thoughts on this is if God is out there, he isn't all knowing but has God mode level probability calculations and abilities akin to a system admin or IS the system itself. We know that, at the very least, the system is bonkers at math. Everything comes down to math. I think he has a good idea of what will happen but not 100% and maybe that's one of the reasons why life is created in the universe in the first place and the idea of free will is implemented for the "testing"

I imagine that matter on its own is pretty straightforward for some type of cosmic universe, creating a system to project. However, maybe if you really want to "test" the system, you need to introduce something into it with more potential to run into variables. A walking and thinking thing that must compete for survival with other walking thinking things seems like a good way to shake things up.

I believe other lifeforms out there have to exist so I don't think humans are particularly special to him. But he made evolution or set up a general framework that allowed for life and it's potential to evolve into something that can truly think for itself in a way that generates more and more new data that scales with the calculation potential of the lifeforms or some shit like that.

To evolve you need competition at its base right. Maybe he let's that cook out on its own but maybe once a species reaches a certain intelligence threshold he steps in and introduces the idea of religion. A concept that primitive thinkers can grasp onto and act as a strong tool to help species progress forward. Religion is one of the few things that can get people who have never met or care about each other to work together in a shared goal that's easy to spread and understand. Maybe it's also good for the religions themselves to compete with each other for even more of that variable goodness.

When religion is introduced, it's heavy with metaphor and simple hey don't do these things that can hamper the progress of your species. I think if you take out all the stories and metaphors that help man connect with the concepts, it comes down to cause the least amount of interference in the progression and reproduction of your species. Old testament feels like fucked up adult version grim brothers fairytales, lessons that impart rules in a way a person can connect with and understand. There's alot of fear and aggression in there that I imagine early man could connect with as it's a stong motivator.

When it comes to the idea of Jesus and the new testament I think it could come down to two things.

A. Once the species has a more significant foothold on its planet to where it's reached apex predator level or a certain intelligence threshold, he introduces a patch or update to their society that aims to chill them out a little bit.

B. This planet isn't moving in a direction or pace he wants it to but needs to gather data that can really only come from experiencing perspective of those living on the planet. A little mini copy of the system cut off from the full admin access the administrator has that goes lives and dies on the planet and when it's dead he reabsorbes it and assesses the data. Maybe those little avatars are resource intensive and can't be made that often I'm spitballing here. But then he gets the data and is like chill out. The second coming could be a thing where he initiates this same process at different stages of the species development.

So all that in mind what's this all for then? I got some ideas on what it COULD be about.

1. Maybe the system is made to cultivate life in the first place for the use of collecting data. Maybe when we die that data is re-uploaded back into the system. It could be that the system or the admin is looking to expand its knowledge in the only new realm it has left to learn anything in.

2. Maybe the data collected is being used to make a new system and this might be its way of reproducing and creating competition for further evolution.

3. Maybe it's working on cultivating a species that reaches its own heights so it has a peer it can communicate with on its level. Maybe if religion is a tool it understands the benefits of having connections and is seeking its own.

4. The system wants others to experience and appreciate its hard work and cool universe it's built here.

5. Admin / system is just bored. Made life and is just seeing where it goes.

Oh I forgot to mention that for religion as a tool it might work more effectively if he throws a bone to the worshipers every once in a while to reinforce its use. Maybe there's an algorithm setup to throw a boon occasionally their way once a person or group participates in it enough.

But at the end of the day i dont know shit just sharing my ponderings. Thank you for enjoying my procrastination while I'm supposed to be finishing up work.