The age old question

Discuss either theological doctrines, ideas about God, or Biblical criticism. I don't want any debates about creation vs evolution.

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SayaOtonashi
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The age old question

Post by SayaOtonashi » Tue Feb 27, 2018 10:47 am

The age old question. God is all powerful but why doesn’t he stop evil things from happening to people ? My friend is agonist and doesn understand this point of Christianity. You have this god that can stop terrible things but doesn’t . She goes through a list of things that God could have stopped but doesn’t. How do you answer this question to people?

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Re: The age old question

Post by Metacrock » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:18 pm

SayaOtonashi wrote:The age old question. God is all powerful but why doesn’t he stop evil things from happening to people ? My friend is agonist and doesn understand this point of Christianity. You have this god that can stop terrible things but doesn’t . She goes through a list of things that God could have stopped but doesn’t. How do you answer this question to people?

please read my article which I think gives the most complete answer:

http://religiousapriori.blogspot.com/20 ... drama.html
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Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief

Jim B.
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Re: The age old question

Post by Jim B. » Wed Feb 28, 2018 1:52 pm

SayaOtonashi wrote:The age old question. God is all powerful but why doesn’t he stop evil things from happening to people ? My friend is agonist and doesn understand this point of Christianity. You have this god that can stop terrible things but doesn’t . She goes through a list of things that God could have stopped but doesn’t. How do you answer this question to people?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2944

SayaOtonashi
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Re: The age old question

Post by SayaOtonashi » Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:48 pm

But if God says he will answer our prays why doesn't he answer all of them?

JBSptfn
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Re: The age old question

Post by JBSptfn » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:54 pm

SayaOtonashi wrote:
Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:48 pm
But if God says he will answer our prays why doesn't he answer all of them?
It depends on what you pray for. God isn't a gumball machine (like some atheists seem to think).

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QuantumTroll
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Re: The age old question

Post by QuantumTroll » Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:27 am

My personal belief is that God (if there is something to which that label can refer) can't be overly concerned with human morality. Our concepts of good and evil, of helping your fellows or of stepping on them, of providing succour in hard times or letting people suffer alone, they don't matter much to God. He's got more important principles to follow — whether that's some freaky game with "original sin" or a self-consistent Creation or something completely unknown to us.

My personal favourite "morality" for God is that He just likes a good story, and gripping stories can't be told without involving pain of some sort. To me, this God is far more compatible with this world than one that cares about people.

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Re: The age old question

Post by Metacrock » Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:28 am

QuantumTroll wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:27 am
My personal belief is that God (if there is something to which that label can refer) can't be overly concerned with human morality. Our concepts of good and evil, of helping your fellows or of stepping on them, of providing succour in hard times or letting people suffer alone, they don't matter much to God. He's got more important principles to follow — whether that's some freaky game with "original sin" or a self-consistent Creation or something completely unknown to us.

My personal favourite "morality" for God is that He just likes a good story, and gripping stories can't be told without involving pain of some sort. To me, this God is far more compatible with this world than one that cares about people.
Ok but you are not a believer so you do not have the same concerns to reflect the Christian tradition, That is not to invalidate yoiur view but since this guy doesn;t know you.
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SayaOtonashi
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Re: The age old question

Post by SayaOtonashi » Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:01 pm

JBSptfn wrote:
Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:54 pm
SayaOtonashi wrote:
Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:48 pm
But if God says he will answer our prays why doesn't he answer all of them?
It depends on what you pray for. God isn't a gumball machine (like some atheists seem to think).
I prayed that my grandpa would be live and he died.

SayaOtonashi
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Re: The age old question

Post by SayaOtonashi » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:40 pm

Question if d does want people to have moral world what happens to people after they die? If there is no hell where do people go?

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Re: The age old question

Post by QuantumTroll » Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:24 am

Metacrock wrote:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:28 am
QuantumTroll wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:27 am
My personal belief is that God (if there is something to which that label can refer) can't be overly concerned with human morality. Our concepts of good and evil, of helping your fellows or of stepping on them, of providing succour in hard times or letting people suffer alone, they don't matter much to God. He's got more important principles to follow — whether that's some freaky game with "original sin" or a self-consistent Creation or something completely unknown to us.

My personal favourite "morality" for God is that He just likes a good story, and gripping stories can't be told without involving pain of some sort. To me, this God is far more compatible with this world than one that cares about people.
Ok but you are not a believer so you do not have the same concerns to reflect the Christian tradition, That is not to invalidate yoiur view but since this guy doesn;t know you.
Thanks :)

Christian soteriology is probably the thing in Christianity that's most difficult for me to swallow. Salvation is a concept in many other religions, but only Christianity has Original Sin being a consequence of our ancestor's actions. The idea that the decision of two humans is responsible for all the evil in the world, rather than the Creator who set up the system in the first place, strikes me as blaming the victim. And then Jesus is tortured and killed (though the actual death doesn't stick), and that event opens the possibility for salvation and forgiveness for this thing that started thousands of years earlier? But nothing actually changes in the world (yet), unlike that first time in the Garden of Eden — people continue to suffer and die in a million ways, each of them comparable to what Jesus went through but somehow less important (and more permanent, because they don't come back to life after three days).

I appreciate the Christian message of love and forgiveness, but man, this stuff gives me real trouble. Compare with Buddhism, say:

The material world is imperfect and full of suffering. It is what it is, basically. Salvation is achieved by elevating one's spirit so that you're no longer bound to this imperfect world of suffering.

This makes sense to me. I might not believe it entirely (again, what *is* a spirit without the material? Probably a self-contradiction.), but it satisfies some internal standard of believability that I have.

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