Questions to ask yourself - Charles Templeton

[Horn of ‘83]

Originally Posted by sanspeur

I'm afraid the problem is not as simple as rainfall, and I certainly do not put the blame on god...
In 1940, the year I was born the world population was about 2.3 billion. Today, so far in 2010 it has climbed to over 6.8 billion, and projected to be over 9.2 billion by 2050....I would say that we are rapidly outstripping our ability to feed ourselves...Rain may help, but it's not the answer I'm afraid.

OT: I pictured you much younger.

[Rafius]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

People chose to live in areas subject to drought. Sometimes starvation occurs.

What an absolutely idiotic thing to say!! What do you suggest the starving of Africa do dude....just pack up and catch a plane to another country? Walk a couple of thousand miles with their possessions on their back and find another place to live? Tell me how you'd do it fella...you're a half starved African with not two sticks to rub together...please tell us how you would achieve your move to a better life. Really, you should engage your brain before opening your mouth.

Originally Posted by Nikk

Animals kill and deplete their resources to put themselves to extinction.

Animals kill to keep themselves alive. They are not aware that their resources are being depleted.

They kill for fun and if you don't believe me just watch one of those documentaries of the See Lions playing with half dead penguins all bloody trying to escape and then just leave them to die.

In such cases it is the way they 'train' their young to catch prey. Often, the lioness will catch an antelope but not kill it. She will return to her cubs with it and allow the cubs to chase and maul it...a lesson in 'how to survive'. Cruel? To us perhaps... but to them it's a matter of survival.

[For All Mankind]

If you had asked me a year ago I would have called myself an atheist. More recently I have dried to broaded my acceptance. I am an extremely logical person and I ONLY believe what I can prove, in a physical and scientific sense. I define "knowledge" as true, justified, belief.

So it isn't that I don't believe God(s) are out there, but I simply cannot identify any justification that he is. That being said, I do believe there is something larger, something more powerful. This "something" could be a God or simply the collective consciousness of mankind.

I believe what is really being argued here is simply why does Evil or bad things exist? Evil exists because good exists and visa versa. You cannot have one without the other. Evil is simply the opposite of good. Humans judge many things on a personal reference point.

Consider a number line and "0" being someone's reference point. At some point in time we establish what we JUDGE as being good and bad and as we age our opinion of that point may range, but we operate on the same principle.

To me, what exists in the world is not good or evil, but things that "I" like or dislike.

The only justification I can see in why people believe or don't believe in God is simply about blame, or more neutrally, "responsibility." I feel as though those that believe in God, want to put the responsibility on him and follow a certain list of rules that are believed to be objective rather than subjective. Those that do not believe in God want to accept all responsibility and therefore accept all risk. It is kind of like a Low-Risk vs. high-risk situation (those who study economics know what I am talking about). I am not stating that one is better than the other, but trying to understand how we come about judging and interpreting the environment (everything) around us.

If God made everything good, then there would be no such thing as "good" and therefor no need for a God. Without a hole to be filled or a question to be answered, a solution will not present itself. God has been the answer to many difficult questions (purpose of life, where we come from, where the universe began, who controls everything, etc...) and to some, this is enough. It allowed them to move on to the next issue.

To others it is not enough, we must understand and attempt to solve the problem. Again, I am not stating one as being better than the other. I believe they both have their place.

The only danger I see in a full blown belief in a God is that SOME people seem to relinquesh all responsibilities and use God for everything. Case in point, terrorism, which I believe many of us can agree is a very evil thing. The killing of men, women and children who have done nothing to you is a terrible thing. The reason these terrorists can do this is because they have put full repsonsibility on God (Allah).

PLEASE!! Do not take this as me saying all believers are terrorists because it could not be father from the truth. I, being someone who does not believe in a God have a very hard time with the concept of "hope" since I really have no one to rely on in anyway. The hope that I can better myself simply with my input is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

We all act in a way based on how/why we percieve we are here. Unfortunately/fortunately (depends on how you view it) we do not all have the same belief. I believe when there are 6 billion people, there are 6 billion belief systems. But, with this amazing diversity and variety, comes interaction and this is sometime a positive thing and sometimes negative.

That is the reality of the situation. Whether or not God exists is not going to answer why does Evil exists. Evil exists because good exists and good exists because evil exists. Whether or not this is a construct that has been set in stone by a higher being or a concept created by living things (all of life) in order to deal with life is up for debate. Fortunately, there is simply no way for this question to be full answered in a way that will satisfy everyone. I think that is the beauty of it. Regardless of conversation topic, we always have, "Where does good and evil come from?"

Our diversity if what makes us both beautiful and ugly. It is what brings out the best and worst of mankind, but honestly, life would be fairly boring without issues to solve or address. These give us purpose.

I am not going to state whether or not there is a god because I DO NOT KNOW. All I can do is try and be the best person I can be, address the problems I can address and hope that if there is a god, he judges me positively and if there isn't a god, then my fellow man judges me positively.