You could continue with almost an infinite number of follow-up questions. Seems like god didn’t do a very good job.
Ben
Life doesn’t make sense if there is a God. Why would he “know” you before you were born, only to send you to be tortured on Earth so that only you can die and receive the real award? Seems to me that life has no purpose if there IS a god.
Luther
Well blame it on man, who created god.
Deiloh
Well version 1.0 was pretty bad. Noah 2.0 wasn’t any better. 2.5 with the Jesus patch helped… Still waiting for the Age or Reason anti-viral program to beat back the biggest problems… this could take awhile.
ethinethin
I guess the universe really is sensitive to initial conditions.
MH
To quote the man in the crowd from “The Invention of Lying” about the man in the sky:
He’s kind of a nice guy, but kind of a jerk too.
Danielle
I may sound obtuse, but I don’t get it. What does a minus sign have to do with it?
Steve
Think of the universe as a set of mathematical formulas that describe how everything works. Entering the wrong value for a certain variable would screw things up.
this question is the core of my atheism. i really can’t stand to see suffering… of any kind. animals, people, even sick plants make my heart ache. i’m a softie like that, but i’m pretty righteous* in my anger at the god-construct because of it. i have crushed the belief in more believers with this point than any other, when they dare to face me in a battle of wits about belief. even one senselessly dead child is too many and instantly obviates any command for my “worship.”
*this is a joke from my div school days. my Div School Dean and i once had a conversation about tutoring poor children and the university’s lack of commitment to a program for that, and i went off on a tirade. he’s a big, tall, authoritative sort of guy, and was sitting down behind a desk while i was standing on the other side. i started my rant, and he sort of quailed back in his chair, and when i was done, he said, “you’re very Righteous in your anger, do you know that?” heh.
Blair
Chicago dyke,
On what basis do you determine whether or not a death is senseless or not?
Blair
ian
chicago dyke – i’m so with you, and i take it further. there is definitely no god (or he/she is a sadistic, malevolent, EVIL being), but, beyond that, we ourselves (and even life itself) are agents of evil – causers of suffering and death through our everyday actions. everything we do in life leads to pain for others. see the film: http://www.greenthefilm.com/ (free, 48 minutes) for an example of how even using shampoo or eating at pizza hut creates pain, misery and death.
how could a good, just god set up the parameters of our universe to require that innocent beings feel terror, loss and pain and are subjected to these things constantly throughout their lives and especially at the moment of death?
i have come to believe that the only moral action is to die. we can’t choose to not inflict suffering by any other means.
Anonymous
We have suffering because in our past life we did some deeds that were mean or harmful to people, animals, the earth. We choose our present life to learn what we did wrong in our last life and to correct it; and by our suffering we grow spiritually. I think we all have new lives which we choose when we die. We pick the life we can grow the most from so we can be perfect spirits in our non-physical life. It makes sense to me because if you were more or less saintly in your last life you would likely have an easier life in your next life. And if you were a cruel, murderer, torturer you would have to choose a life to attone for your bad karma. Reincarnation makes the most sense.
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