And why wouldn’t it be, it is literally one of the oldest issues with religion that was formulated by Epicurus roughly 2300 years ago and believers have never had a satisfactory answer to it.
That’s exactly my point. Without having an open mind, and not being able to understand different viewpoints or beliefs, there will never be an answer that you find satisfactory. People can answer all day long but you’ll just dismiss them because it’s not an answer you approve of.
Another commenter claimed that we deserve it. And that god causes suffering for his own glory and has the right to do what he wants with us, merely because he created us.
That’s pretty fucked up, no? To claim that children deserve to suffer because they “brought it on themselves” as the commenter wrote? And that no matter what anyone does, god can cause you to suffer just because you didn’t fall on your knees and praise him hard enough?
Well, just to make sure we’re on the same page, the question is why doesn’t God step in and fix the problems of the world if He’s fully capable, correct?
First off, I’m not a biblical scholar, I don’t claim to have all the answers. Anyone who confidently says they do is lying. I encourage you to take a step back from your opinions for a moment, and just take the information for what it is, I’m just a guy trying to figure it out.
Anyway, why doesn’t God intervene? It’s a complex question requiring a complex answer. One facet of that, there’s no doubt there is evil in this world, brought by the fall of man. I mean, look at the violence and wars currently going on. Why does God allow it? I think because we have been given the gift of free will. It’s what makes us human. Would you want to live in a world where an outside entity is making every single decision for you?
There’s no doubt that a human can take an action that does an incredible amount of good for someone, while at the same time that same action causes an immense amount of pain for someone else. For example, an officer shoots and kills a mass shooter. No doubt that action saved a number of lives. But now there’s a mother who just lost her son. A child that no longer has a father. It’s because we are able to make choices that things happen.
What about cancer? Again, it’s an imperfect world. Biologically, we’re just copies of our parents, who are copies of their parents. Copy enough times, combined with how we now treat the food that nourishes us, there’s bound to be glitches. That’s my take anyway. Could be wrong.
Natural disasters? Well that’s a bit beyond my scope of knowledge. All this is, really. But we’re supposed to be stewards of this earth and honestly, we aren’t doing that good of a job. Energy sources are predicted to run out, food sources have been running out for various parts of the world. We’re increasing the planets temperature.
And to touch on the concept of ‘good’. Back to the officer/mass shooter example, while the officer saved lives which is good he also took a life which one could argue that’s not good. Point being that our idea of good is highly subjective and in the context of salvation, completely irrelevant. Now we should strive to do good for our own sake and to make life while we’re here an easier time.
I feel like I may have said a lot, without exactly answering you. I’m not really good at this. But I don’t think we deserve to suffer. I also don’t think our sense of time is relevant to God. God has promised to create a new perfect world again. No more death, no more suffering. Why not right now? Why not a thousand years ago? I have no idea.
My point overall, and based on everything you’ve said being arbitrary, the idea of good and bad, of free will, and of suffering, is that there’s seemingly no point in following and/or praising a being that just doesn’t seem to care about anyone. If believing in him changes nothing, why do it? Because of some promise of a heaven? But the next point makes that argument untenable.
We’re meant to figure out what “being good” is, but the complexity of our world makes that impossible. And then those who feel they have figured it out get nothing for it anyway. They still get sick, they still suffer at the hands of others, they still die just like the rest of us. As far as anyone knows, death is the end (anyone claiming otherwise is fooling themselves or lying). So what are we actually to do?
If God has promised to make us a new perfect world, he’s taking his sweet time. Meanwhile, people are suffering. Every day he waits is another day of global pain for no other reason than that our world is unfair and unpredictable.
And why wouldn’t it be, it is literally one of the oldest issues with religion that was formulated by Epicurus roughly 2300 years ago and believers have never had a satisfactory answer to it.
That’s exactly my point. Without having an open mind, and not being able to understand different viewpoints or beliefs, there will never be an answer that you find satisfactory. People can answer all day long but you’ll just dismiss them because it’s not an answer you approve of.
You’ve yet to give an answer though.
Another commenter claimed that we deserve it. And that god causes suffering for his own glory and has the right to do what he wants with us, merely because he created us.
That’s pretty fucked up, no? To claim that children deserve to suffer because they “brought it on themselves” as the commenter wrote? And that no matter what anyone does, god can cause you to suffer just because you didn’t fall on your knees and praise him hard enough?
Why is that a being you’d want to follow?
Well, just to make sure we’re on the same page, the question is why doesn’t God step in and fix the problems of the world if He’s fully capable, correct?
First off, I’m not a biblical scholar, I don’t claim to have all the answers. Anyone who confidently says they do is lying. I encourage you to take a step back from your opinions for a moment, and just take the information for what it is, I’m just a guy trying to figure it out.
Anyway, why doesn’t God intervene? It’s a complex question requiring a complex answer. One facet of that, there’s no doubt there is evil in this world, brought by the fall of man. I mean, look at the violence and wars currently going on. Why does God allow it? I think because we have been given the gift of free will. It’s what makes us human. Would you want to live in a world where an outside entity is making every single decision for you?
There’s no doubt that a human can take an action that does an incredible amount of good for someone, while at the same time that same action causes an immense amount of pain for someone else. For example, an officer shoots and kills a mass shooter. No doubt that action saved a number of lives. But now there’s a mother who just lost her son. A child that no longer has a father. It’s because we are able to make choices that things happen.
What about cancer? Again, it’s an imperfect world. Biologically, we’re just copies of our parents, who are copies of their parents. Copy enough times, combined with how we now treat the food that nourishes us, there’s bound to be glitches. That’s my take anyway. Could be wrong.
Natural disasters? Well that’s a bit beyond my scope of knowledge. All this is, really. But we’re supposed to be stewards of this earth and honestly, we aren’t doing that good of a job. Energy sources are predicted to run out, food sources have been running out for various parts of the world. We’re increasing the planets temperature.
And to touch on the concept of ‘good’. Back to the officer/mass shooter example, while the officer saved lives which is good he also took a life which one could argue that’s not good. Point being that our idea of good is highly subjective and in the context of salvation, completely irrelevant. Now we should strive to do good for our own sake and to make life while we’re here an easier time.
I feel like I may have said a lot, without exactly answering you. I’m not really good at this. But I don’t think we deserve to suffer. I also don’t think our sense of time is relevant to God. God has promised to create a new perfect world again. No more death, no more suffering. Why not right now? Why not a thousand years ago? I have no idea.
My point overall, and based on everything you’ve said being arbitrary, the idea of good and bad, of free will, and of suffering, is that there’s seemingly no point in following and/or praising a being that just doesn’t seem to care about anyone. If believing in him changes nothing, why do it? Because of some promise of a heaven? But the next point makes that argument untenable.
We’re meant to figure out what “being good” is, but the complexity of our world makes that impossible. And then those who feel they have figured it out get nothing for it anyway. They still get sick, they still suffer at the hands of others, they still die just like the rest of us. As far as anyone knows, death is the end (anyone claiming otherwise is fooling themselves or lying). So what are we actually to do?
If God has promised to make us a new perfect world, he’s taking his sweet time. Meanwhile, people are suffering. Every day he waits is another day of global pain for no other reason than that our world is unfair and unpredictable.
That’s not a being I’d want to believe in.