Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I work at one of the largest cancer hosipitals in the country.
I see death everyday. Both young and old, from cancer. It's terribly sad.
For the life of me, if there is a God, why does this sort of painful life even exist?
I have no desire to worship a God that allows this sort of pain and suffering to exist. The 'believers' think God is the almighty. What lesson are we to learn from such tragedy?
Sorry folks, I don't buy it. I almost did, until I started doing my own thinking.
Nope, there is no God. You cannot possibly justify this as Gods work.
Man causes his own pain and suffering as believers know it started with the fall of Adam and Eve through disobedience.
My own personal pain and suffering was caused by an inexperienced young girl who drove her car in to me while I was pushing a stalled car. I would say it was partly my fault due to negligence by pushing the car from behind and not from the side.
When we die and attain the Kingdom of Heaven there will be no pain and suffering, as I stated before we don't die(not our souls) we just go on to another phase of life.
Yep it's the fault of all those cancer victims. Losers!
Quote:
Originally Posted by perry335654
When we die and attain the Kingdom of Heaven there will be no pain and suffering, as I stated before we don't die(not our souls) we just go on to another phase of life.
Aren't you the least bit suspicious that your loving god allows you to suffer, even for an arguably stupid personal carelessness, but promises to fix it in a conveniently invisible and unobservable future time?
Yep it's the fault of all those cancer victims. Losers!
Aren't you the least bit suspicious that your loving god allows you to suffer, even for an arguably stupid personal carelessness, but promises to fix it in a conveniently invisible and unobservable future time?
The whole concept of 'original sin' just seems ridiculously outdated now that we understand disease, and natural phenomena on a scientific basis.
Even most people who believe in this silly notion don't believe that disease or natural disasters are punishment from god. So when Grandma Gertrude gets cancer these days nobody thinks that God is punishing Gertrude, but they still believe that the fact that cancer exists is punishment from god. And while everybody this side of Pat Robertson doesn't believe that hurricanes and tornadoes are punishment from god these days, they still believe the that the actual existence of hurricanes and tornadoes is punishment from god.
No, God does not create pain and suffering. God gave us free will, and our actions do have consequences. For example, God doesn't cause a bunch of people that live in a certain town to get cancer, the factory owners who dumped a bunch of chemicals in the local waters do.
Man causes his own pain and suffering as believers know it started with the fall of Adam and Eve through disobedience.
This is why conservative Christians cannot tolerate evolution. Their whole religion is based on the idea that humans came from a paradise free of suffering and death. Evolution utterly destroys that idea. But there's already a different thread on that topic.
Pain and suffering come from the endless war among all life forms for limited energy resources.
The whole concept of 'original sin' just seems ridiculously outdated now that we understand disease, and natural phenomena on a scientific basis.
Even most people who believe in this silly notion don't believe that disease or natural disasters are punishment from god. So when Grandma Gertrude gets cancer these days nobody thinks that God is punishing Gertrude, but they still believe that the fact that cancer exists is punishment from god. And while everybody this side of Pat Robertson doesn't believe that hurricanes and tornadoes are punishment from god these days, they still believe the that the actual existence of hurricanes and tornadoes is punishment from god.
That is exactly the view of conservative Christianity. But remember, God loves you.
]So when Grandma Gertrude gets cancer these days nobody thinks that God is punishing Gertrude, but they still believe that the fact that cancer exists is punishment from god. And while everybody this side of Pat Robertson doesn't believe that hurricanes and tornadoes are punishment from god these days, they still believe the that the actual existence of hurricanes and tornadoes is punishment from god.
Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
I guess it's the difference between a general principle and a personal application of it. If it's beloved Grandma Gertie then it's a test of faith rather than a punishment. Or something like that. If it's Other People, particularly unbelieving or wrong-believing Other People, then it's god giving 'em the what-for.
There's also a tendency to say that specific manifestations of suffering are a regrettable and sad fact of life because "we live in a fallen world", but then you're saying that suffering is indiscriminate, which renders it kind of useless as punishment or justice. And you're saying that suffering falls even upon the redeemed, with their new nature and their supposed ability to transcend and overcome via the grace of god and the power of the holy spirit.
Makes no sense regardless of what angle you come at it from. Makes even less sense if you're one of the unlucky ones with left-handed jungle rot or whatever.
We need pain to tell us there is something wrong with us, We need to listen and not be ignorant or we might endure suffering. Suffering is either long-term or short-term. My dad had cancer that attacked his spine and left him paralyzed and no Mordant he is not a loser, as he died not too long thereafter.
No, God does not create pain and suffering. God gave us free will, and our actions do have consequences. For example, God doesn't cause a bunch of people that live in a certain town to get cancer, the factory owners who dumped a bunch of chemicals in the local waters do.
You know, not all cancers are caused by human negligence. Solar rays cause cancer. And before you claim that it only happens to people who get excessive sun, skin cancer can happen to anyone who catches any rays at all - it merely becomes more likely with increased exposure to the sun. Then there's cancer caused by natural radiation here on Earth - from the ground, or the atmosphere (naturally-occurring carbon-14, for example). And cancer caused by viruses. Sorry, you can't use the free will magic-wand to blame all cancers on human action.
And what free will killed a quarter million people in the Indian Ocean tsunami ten years ago? How does free will account for famines due to weather-borne crop failures? How does free will account for hideous deformities thrust upon innocent babies merely due to natural but malignant genetic mutations?
And all of that aside, an omnipotent deity who could intercede to stop the horrific pain being suffered by innocent children - yet declines to do so - cannot, by definition, be all-loving or all-good.
The free will handwaving only works so long as you don't subject it to even the most cursory critical examination - for upon that, it falls completely apart.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
