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Quote by: northtexan Yeah, same old, same old! Because somebody ate some bad fruit, everything went to hell. Because beings given free will actually exercised it, not only did their own choices come back to haunt them, but a childish-bully god smashed the perfect playground equipment. It just doesn't wash. If anything, the Genesis Adam and Eve myth is a coming of age story: the kids grow up, start to make their own decisions, and now its time to leave home and make it on their own. Yeah, there's a mature myth with maturing people in it interacting with a mature god.
Now, why would an omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent god make a world in which humans must suffer not only the consequences of their own acts and those of their predecessors and colleagues but also from natural evils? I dunno. I don't know that there is a creator god, any more than I know that there isn't. But I certainly don't believe in the mad-child god who stomped around destroying a perfect world because someone made their own decisions. But then, I'm not omniscient and omnipotent, so what do I know? |
Look at it from a father-child perspective. Your father would do anything he could to protect you from harm, but he can't walk around holding your hand every time you cross the street. That doesn't mean he doesn't love you, it just means he realizes that you're your own person and you'll never learn anything if he's there to protect you every second of every day. Your father would love nothing more than for you to never make a mistake and never have to deal with the consequences of those mistakes, but he understands that's what makes us grow. Learning from our mistakes helps us mature as a person. And when you make mistakes, he doesn't turn his back on you. He helps you understand where you went wrong.
As far as natural disasters go... most of the people I know that believe in God or are religious believe that he won't give you anything you truely can't handle. Natural disasters are bad, yes. But he won't throw anything at you you can't handle. That doesn't mean no one will die. People have to die. There's no way around that. But it's through the trials endured in life that we become stronger people. It builds our character and builds our faith... in God, and each other. God understands that, and he knows that it's necessary for us to sometimes go through those difficult times to realize the good parts of the difficulty. He's not evil because he allows bad things to happen. And it doesn't mean he doesn't care because he stops bad things from happening. On the contrary... he cares enough to let us learn through experience that strengthens the human spirit. Wow... and I'm not even religious!
