With the tragedy of Haiti and of course the countless other tragedies around the world caused by natural disasters showing how evil God is? If Gods in charge and all things are a result of his desires or wishes then why is he/she causing such turmoil? Why would he allow the Germans to kill all those Jews during the second world war? Or what happined in Rwanda. Or priests raping children? Earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, disease, hunger, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.....The list just goes on and on. If this is the God of the Christian bible,.... who wants to believe in that? Killing, murder, molestation, pestilence, earthquakes,...what kind of a God would allow these sort of things? Some will say it is a test. Or a test of faith. HUH? Get a grip. Can it be said that God was on the side of the West when they bombed the hell out of German cities and killed a million people. Or in Japan? Who's side was God on? Was the other side evil? Was God on the side of Cassy when he killed mothers and babies in Vietnam? Tell me why would "God" allow all of this to happen? It confuses the hell out of me. This good and righteous God spoken of and believed in by so many. Why does he allow such evil? (I personally see more of the true meening of God's love in one Extreme Home Makeover show.) I am honestly confused as to why anyone would believe in a God that allows these things to happen yet millions stand around with their heads in the ground not seeming to notice. Religion is just to messed up. Loving people do good. I am not so sure about this God so many of you speak so highly of, especially if hes so connected to all this evil.

Hawkeye,

You are creating a straw man that overlooks what the Bible actually teaches about the forces of natural chaos over which God normally exercises no control.  "All are victims of time and chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11)."  Such texts can be multiplied.  The implication of all such texts is that God micromanages neither the universe nor humans; He wants both to operate independently of His will.  Every Christian-oriented solution to the problem of evil needs to begin its reflections from this starting point. 

Don

spooky2 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2010 at 10:05pm:



I agree with all of this.

I agree in part with Don.  My two cents on this is as follows:

Many see the earth-life system as a place where spirits who have separated themselves from God incarnate.  It is a system with agreed upon laws or physical properties.  Our interactions in the physical world lead to our own consequences.  Good or bad depending for the most part on our own choices.  There is also a non-good, non-evil component of random energy, that is only given spin by us as "good" or "evil" when it changes our lives. Random energies may cause things like earthquakes, tsunamis, and even events such as a super nova.  All these energies are not good, not evil, they simply exist.  We look at our own lives, deaths, tragedies and assume that only an "evil" puppeteer could be intentionally causing these random energies.  In fact, they simply come about on their own.

People who make the choice to do evil acts to others are a whole different kettle of fish.  The Nazis and other genocidal regimes, others killing and starting wars, cause mass suffering on the earth.  They are not enabled or hindered by God.  They make their own choices, and events follow. 

It is not that God creates the evil events.  People turning away from love (hateful people), create the suffering, and some misinterpret random energies as being evil. 

One could then ask "but why did God create the earth, if evil and suffering exist?"  It is exactly because we are empowered to act with love or against love, that we are allowed to express ourselves in this earth life system, without an outside God intervening to either create or prevent suffering.  Perhaps, in certain heavens, it is different, and suffering is unknown.  Perhaps the consequences of suffering, our stubborn  perseverance for good, and triumphing over our circumstances makes the physical world so special. 

While I empathize that some may look at the outward appearance of a cruel uncaring divinity, I think that is not the true underlying reality.  I do believe, in my heart that God is the foundation of love.  I feel that when we come into the physical world we are given this wonderful ability to interact with each other, make choices, and experience the consequences (good or evil).

There is no anthropormic deity pulling all the strings - we are cocreators both on earth and in the mental planes after death.  God is the foundation of love from which everything flows.  However we are not micromanaged; quite the opposite.  In order to learn and move toward love, we are left to play and experience consequences, good and bad.

Matthew

if god was responsible for these evil acts in the bible,why is he not doing it now,i mean why are'nt the profits and preachers writing more to this day in the bible of god,why is god not giving orders now,i beleive that a lot of preachers back then ordered this and convieniently wrote in the bible that it was down to god.

like a lot of preachers today,they are only in it for there own gain i'm not saying all preachers are hypocrites but there are a few out there in the world that are,why is no preacher or profit writing today the bible,i mean god is always there but he is not evil because if he was, so would we be evil,a lot of people blame things onto god.

i read the bible but my dad when he was alive said the bibles contridicts itself because for example you read "an eye for an eye" and then a bit further on its says"turn the other cheek",the bible was written by man and thats why its full of things about god but was it true or not after all we wasnt there to witness any of it.

the old saying is"innocent until proven guilty"

its like jesus said to the sanhedrin at the temple you hypocrites and thats what a lot of preachers are today hypocrites and also way back in the beginning

jesus says it all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tve5dVKpQM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU2STp1BMDA&feature=PlayList&p=619459D91F4BDB30&i...

heres the so called preachers of gods love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfl6li3R-10&NR=1

only the preachers nicodemus and joseph beleived that jesus was the son of god

even the so called preachers of gods love fooled judas into thinking they wanted to beleive jesus so judas betrays jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAAcN4Q4mlQ&NR=1

love and god bless  love juditha

Don,

if it actually is as you say, then prayers are not answered by God directly, but by a built-in mechanism (and/or entities) within God's creation.

When we assume this creation is well made, perfect, as we can assume if made by a perfect God, then we must conclude that suffering is an element which is there for a reason, for instance that it betters people. It is only such a pity that we know relatively little about this reason. And more profoundly that we know so little about why such a "school to become better" is necessary at all. Why separation from God at all, in the first place.

These questions are the more urgent, the more my image of God is consisting of attributes like "all-good", as this makes the image of God more human. If I don't have any human-like attributes for God, the questions are less urgent, or become just inadequate, as I won't understand anyway any answers concerning such a foreign God.

I have turned to the latter way, and am not interested anymore in theology, as I have searched for answers, but couldn't find none there. I now don't ask such questions anymore, as it seems not fruitful to do that.

Spooky

Love your spacesuit, Ralph. This earth trip is completely worth it, just so I could see you in it. I'm done. No further happiness is needed. God is good.

Thank you all for such excellent replies. Of course, I do believe in God, the Creator, The All. Its really more about this whole blame game that I read about and hear about so often. I also believe its not Gods will to inflect all these sufferings upon all of us. Its mans. Mostly in efforts to find more power or money. God doesn't cause earthquakes. Plate tectonics cause earthquakes. Planetary events like weather can cause crop failure that lead to hunger. Not God. There are so many examples that I could write here. What I see a a bigger problem is people blaming these on God instead of seeing the real reasons. God no more caused Hitler to order the killing of Jews than Satan ordered him to. Both ideas really are quite ridiculous. That's not to say that miracles, or evil things dont happen. So when I see whats happining in Haiti right now..I see good. Much of it done in the name of God. But its really done because of compassion. When I hear of all this good, and all this evil, for me all I see is someone putting a price tag on the events.