Okay, here I am...I think I'm ready (if I'm not....let's not consider the alternative actually, the consequences are too great ugh). I think I can answer the ultimate skeptic question...
"If your God is so great, why is there suffering in this world?"
No, I'm not going to say that God works in mysterious ways; he doesn't. God is very very clear about everything he does...Heck, he gave us a book with 27 sub-sections that're totally open to analysis! Anyway....so if God doesn't work in mysterious ways then why does suffering exist?
Why are some babies born dead? Why do some people find out that they have cancer when they're planning for their weddings? Why are millions of people around the world living under the poverty line while Kim Kardashian spends 21 thousand dollars on a facial (that could be gossip, but we all know that the woman isn't really known for her frugality....not that I hate her actually- she's just a poor, misunderstood, attention-seeking soul)? Would God really let something like that happen?
It's seems like a paradox. God loves us- God is love, but he still allows us to suffer. But it's Life is about experiences and learning.
not....it's not a dichotomy, it's actually really simple. It's what I've been bleating about all this time,
It's just like parents and letting their kids go. We all know that if our parents had it their way, we'd all be at home, and nothing bad with ever happen to their little baby (who just so happens to be a 37 year old with a job and partner now). If God was to let no sufferings come to us, then we'd have no experiences...we'd just be like those kids who never left home; except worse, because we won't even know what leaving home is.
I should quote the Bible right about now, but I have an even better weapon- Dan Brown (yup he even gets to be in bold). Dan Brown is the ultimate skeptic, using really sharp cognitive reasoning to make anything sound doubtful and baseless.....aand I have, in his very words, what I've been trying to say! (I wrote this post solely for this quote...so I hope I was dramatic enough)
"Imagine you had an eight-year-old son…would you love him?”
"Of course.”
"Would you let him skateboard?”
Chartrand did a double take. The camerlengo always seemed oddly “in touch” for a clergyman. “Yeah, I guess,” Chartrand said. “Sure, I’d let him skateboard, but I’d tell him to be careful.”
"So as this child’s father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?”
"I wouldn’t run behind him and mollycoddle him if that’s what you mean.”
"But what if he fell and skinned his knee?”
"He would learn to be more careful.”
The camerlengo smiled. “So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child’s pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?”
"Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It’s how we learn.”
The camerlengo nodded. “Exactly.” "
God is great, and that's why he lets us live; He hates to see us suffer, but he forces himself not to intervene unless we ask for it. He's the real liberal, loving parent.
"If your God is so great, why is there suffering in this world?"
No, I'm not going to say that God works in mysterious ways; he doesn't. God is very very clear about everything he does...Heck, he gave us a book with 27 sub-sections that're totally open to analysis! Anyway....so if God doesn't work in mysterious ways then why does suffering exist?
Why are some babies born dead? Why do some people find out that they have cancer when they're planning for their weddings? Why are millions of people around the world living under the poverty line while Kim Kardashian spends 21 thousand dollars on a facial (that could be gossip, but we all know that the woman isn't really known for her frugality....not that I hate her actually- she's just a poor, misunderstood, attention-seeking soul)? Would God really let something like that happen?
It's seems like a paradox. God loves us- God is love, but he still allows us to suffer. But it's Life is about experiences and learning.
not....it's not a dichotomy, it's actually really simple. It's what I've been bleating about all this time,
It's just like parents and letting their kids go. We all know that if our parents had it their way, we'd all be at home, and nothing bad with ever happen to their little baby (who just so happens to be a 37 year old with a job and partner now). If God was to let no sufferings come to us, then we'd have no experiences...we'd just be like those kids who never left home; except worse, because we won't even know what leaving home is.
I should quote the Bible right about now, but I have an even better weapon- Dan Brown (yup he even gets to be in bold). Dan Brown is the ultimate skeptic, using really sharp cognitive reasoning to make anything sound doubtful and baseless.....aand I have, in his very words, what I've been trying to say! (I wrote this post solely for this quote...so I hope I was dramatic enough)
"Imagine you had an eight-year-old son…would you love him?”
"Of course.”
"Would you let him skateboard?”
Chartrand did a double take. The camerlengo always seemed oddly “in touch” for a clergyman. “Yeah, I guess,” Chartrand said. “Sure, I’d let him skateboard, but I’d tell him to be careful.”
"So as this child’s father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?”
"I wouldn’t run behind him and mollycoddle him if that’s what you mean.”
"But what if he fell and skinned his knee?”
"He would learn to be more careful.”
The camerlengo smiled. “So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child’s pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?”
"Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It’s how we learn.”
The camerlengo nodded. “Exactly.” "
-Dan Brown, Angels and Demons
That really is something coming from a skeptic. God is real, God totally loves us, but He loves us with a fatherly, unselfish love. He loves us so much that He wants us to have the best time possible, and so He gave us the freedom of choice; choice of what we want to do even if He had the power to make us do anything He wanted. Isn't He great?
As for the people under the poverty line...it was just a chance you know? Some people are sad because they don't have food, some are sad because they don't have friends....Everyone is sad in this world; for some people it's more obvious on the outside, for others, it's more on the inside. Besides, poverty is just another problem created by humankind...not God, and it's humankind that should fix it. If God had His way then no one would be richer than anyone else because He can't pick favorites among His children.
