Suffering
Upon reading your LJ, it seemed like one reason you didnt believe in Christianity is because God would let you "lose a job and your entire family burned to death while you heard their last screams."
So this is what i focused on. After all, how can a good God let suffering exist?
If there is no good, then there is no evil.
If there is good, then how do we know what is good? Is it good or bad to have people in our lives die a horrible death? Why is it bad? After all, its not like you loved them. Love is a chemical reaction, nothing more, right? I mean to believe love to be something more than science can explain, then you have to believe in something more than what we can prove (and that goes for the soul too). Truth is, we naturally have, even without society, an idea of what is good and what is bad. A conscience.
If you don't believe in a Creator, then you believe everthing is the result of evolution. But then there has never been a beginning or starting point... the universe simply always existed. That means the universe has been evolving for an infinite amount of time. So... why isnt everything perfect by now? Otherwise, what is the purpose of evolution if not to attain perfection?
(And consider that the universe exists in time, and in time all things have to be born/created, get old, break down, and eventually end. However God lives outside of time, where beginnings and endings have no meaning. God invented time, invented the concept of birth and dying, so its plausible He has always existed. At least according to our finite understanding.)
If you're objective, you'll notice that there is a balance of joy and suffering in the world. How can this be? Is there a God afterall?
And hey, if we're all here for a brief period compared to eternity, then the earth simply is not our home. It therefore would be a bad thing for us to grow attached to living life here because this is not where we belong. We're simply passing through.
But enough with the preliminaries. Lets get down to it.
Christians believe 5 things:
1) God exists
2) God is all-good
3) God is all powerful
4) God is all wise
5) Evil exists
But if God is all powerful, he can do anything. If God is all-good, he wants only good. If God is all-wise, he knows what is good. So if all those beliefs are true then it would seem that the consequence is that no evil can exist. But because evil does exist, it seems logical that God doesnt.
Unless we're understanding it in the wrong way.
So this is what i focused on. After all, how can a good God let suffering exist?
If there is no good, then there is no evil.
If there is good, then how do we know what is good? Is it good or bad to have people in our lives die a horrible death? Why is it bad? After all, its not like you loved them. Love is a chemical reaction, nothing more, right? I mean to believe love to be something more than science can explain, then you have to believe in something more than what we can prove (and that goes for the soul too). Truth is, we naturally have, even without society, an idea of what is good and what is bad. A conscience.
If you don't believe in a Creator, then you believe everthing is the result of evolution. But then there has never been a beginning or starting point... the universe simply always existed. That means the universe has been evolving for an infinite amount of time. So... why isnt everything perfect by now? Otherwise, what is the purpose of evolution if not to attain perfection?
(And consider that the universe exists in time, and in time all things have to be born/created, get old, break down, and eventually end. However God lives outside of time, where beginnings and endings have no meaning. God invented time, invented the concept of birth and dying, so its plausible He has always existed. At least according to our finite understanding.)
If you're objective, you'll notice that there is a balance of joy and suffering in the world. How can this be? Is there a God afterall?
And hey, if we're all here for a brief period compared to eternity, then the earth simply is not our home. It therefore would be a bad thing for us to grow attached to living life here because this is not where we belong. We're simply passing through.
But enough with the preliminaries. Lets get down to it.
Christians believe 5 things:
1) God exists
2) God is all-good
3) God is all powerful
4) God is all wise
5) Evil exists
But if God is all powerful, he can do anything. If God is all-good, he wants only good. If God is all-wise, he knows what is good. So if all those beliefs are true then it would seem that the consequence is that no evil can exist. But because evil does exist, it seems logical that God doesnt.
Unless we're understanding it in the wrong way.