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Tropical: By your posts I will assume that by your standards, God doesn't exist if any child dies. So, I would like to know, since you are judging God, at what age its OK for God to let people die, and why?
I personally see violence of any sort as a failure in imagination. A failure to find a way to resolve a situation intellectually. Any god that requires death and sacrifice in order to make his point or configure the running of the world the way it wants is just a failure in my eyes. I have a limited intellect but I endeavor to find non violence resolutions to all situations and so far in my life have always succeeded. You would think a "good and loving god" with an infinite intellect could come up with something better than drowning and killing and frying people which sounds to me... lets face it... like a typical human solution to a human problem.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
The Christian response is "We don't know". My priest's remark in church on Sunday was, "This kind of thing makes it very difficult to love God."
That's just for informational purposes so that atheists know that there is discussion in Christianity beyond the type of drivel demonstrated in Post No. 7. I have no doubt that people actually believe things like that.
It is easier at times like this, I think, to not believe in God. For those of us who can't not believe, it can be a struggle.
Wow you'd never hear that in any of the churches i've been to. I guess at least they acknowledge we are human, and we think of God in human terms. Saying 'he's too lofty for human affairs' distances him from us when at the same time Christianity encourages us to have a 'personal relationship' with him.
The Christian response is "We don't know". My priest's remark in church on Sunday was, "This kind of thing makes it very difficult to love God."
That's just for informational purposes so that atheists know that there is discussion in Christianity beyond the type of drivel demonstrated in Post No. 7. I have no doubt that people actually believe things like that.
It is easier at times like this, I think, to not believe in God. For those of us who can't not believe, it can be a struggle.
Just how many cases like this will happen before Christians like yourself finally say. No just God could possibly let this happen.
I think many of us former believers (because our parents trained us to) finally come to reason.
I am in no way dissing anybody's right to believe just saying that for me I can believe anymore.
BTW I don't belong to the Atheist club nor am I interested in any Atheist get togethers.
This is applying emotionalism to a question, the actual answer to which has nothing to do with how you feel about it.
The history of the world is chockablock with unjust calamities for some and and unfair triumphs for others. This particular tragedy is no more proof of anything about the cosmos than any other event in human history.
People have obviously forgotten history. How about the Jewish Holocaust? How about the bubbonic plague in Europe? How about the 40 years war in Europe? (Half the population killed in that one) How about the mass murderers in Uganda a few years ago. The number of children who died in this attack in Conn. is minuscule compared to then numbers killed in all these other incidents. And what I can never figure out is that in most of these incidents, man is the villain. Man is the one who is the cause of these mass deaths, and yet our culture still insists man is good, but God is evil. People are just dumb, and that's all there is to it.
The final answer to this question, to cut to the chase, is that God is not evil. God offered His only begotten Son to pay for the sins of the whole world, and offers forgiveness of sins and everlasting life to all who believe. But people for the most part do not believe, reject His word, His promises, His offer of forgiveness, reject baptism for Children so that they might be saved. God gives them free will. We all like free will. So most reject, and yet God is evil and people are good? NO, God is good and people are foolish because they reject the free gift of salvation that God offers to all. If you don't believe me, its all in the New Testament. Read it for yourself.
On further consideration, I apologize if this post crosses into proselytizing, in your judgment. ON further reflection, I considered what the proper answer should be to the OP on an Atheists forum. I guess the answer would be, since you believe there is no God, then the only conclusion you can come to, considering the number of mass executions and other evil in the world, is that Man is Evil.
Last edited by augiedogie; 12-18-2012 at 09:30 AM..
This event brings up the concept of freewill. God allows people to do as they please and sometimes horrible things happens.
The alternative would be for God to force everyone to be good and not allow freewill. I'll bet that more than a few atheists would not like the idea of being forced to love and serve God.
Just how many cases like this will happen before Christians like yourself finally say. No just God could possibly let this happen.
I think many of us former believers (because our parents trained us to) finally come to reason.
I am in no way dissing anybody's right to believe just saying that for me I can't believe anymore.
BTW I don't belong to the Atheist club nor am I interested in any Atheist get togethers.
Well, I am not about to get into my struggles with my faith or why I still believe. That's personal to me, and I'm not sure I could adequately explain it to someone who was not of the same mind and experiences in real life, let alone on an Internet message board. I understand you saying you can't believe anymore (fixed your typo) because I can't not believe anymore.
But just so you have a better idea of where I am, I am not a kid who is going to change based on more examples of an unjust God. I'm 54 years old, have been through some of life's disappointments and hardships that most people my age have--bad marriage, untimely deaths of loved ones--plus some that most people my age haven't experienced, most notably the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There are facets of believing your life is about to end in seconds, being in the vicinity of mass death, and of surviving while others near you die horrible deaths that I think would make even Jesus want to drink himself to sleep at night, and I doubt I will ever have how I feel about that all sorted out before it's time for me to go to my own grave. The event made me turn from organized religion for a long time--and I'm not talking about Islam, I'm talking about some of the Christian reaction to 9/11 in this country.
But I still believe in God. I did not want to, and I decided not to more than once, but I have no choice, and I will leave it at that.
Do you think the free will of man killing man has caused more deaths than the God created pathogens like.
TB, Leprosy, Polio, Smallpox,cholera, black plague(75 million world wide), malaria, ebola, Bubonic plague.
Millions die from god created diseases every year.
The free will of man can not compare to the destruction your god causes.
Last edited by Aeroman; 12-18-2012 at 10:40 AM..
Reason: I do not believe in any gods.
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) because I can't not believe anymore.