So Jeff,
I find the Bible totally irrelevant and irrational in this discussion. It begins with a fairy-tale
You place God in the title of your discussion, but then you discount the idea of God, "In the beginning God" ?? You place God as only a failry-tale construct and then attempt to shoot down or ignore this imaginary being....that's nuts. If he's imaginary....he doesn't need ignoring or shooting down.
On the other hand, If you are going to assume the REALITY of God's existence, shouldn't you at least give all the theories a fair shake before you rely on the time honored tradition of most atheists/agnostics, ie. "Well, your argument is moot because he really doesn't exist anyway"?
You listed a lot of stuff in your reply to me but none of it addressed the fundamental tenet of the biblical explanation (an explanation that billions of people hold to by the way) of reconciling a transcendent God with human suffering....which is the title of your thread I might add.
See, I grew up thinking that God was terrible because my parents and their religion lied to me about the biblical explanation. They told me that they were good (righteous), and God permitted suffering so that he could tell if man could rule himself or not. Of course, this made God out to be a monster-mad-scientist-type who was looking at us like laboratory rats. It took years to figure out that both of the above assertions were wrong. My parents were not "good", and God wasn't performing experiments on us.
I caused a lot of harm to myself and others imitating the God of that model. It was a world-view flying upside down. So, obviously I'm going to find rather offensive similar world-views like the one you put forth in your thread here where "God injects his children with a polio virus."
The biblical world-view, that the WT goes to extreme lenghts to hide (and that you go to extreme lenghts to ignore I might add) is that man is at odds with his (righteous) Creator. We are by nature is enemy, we lie when we promise not to, we steal when we would prosecute another if they stole from us etc, etc., etc. As a result of this disconnection from this Source, we and this world are subject to the 2nd law of thermo-dynamics , decay.
This basic premise is held by Judeo-Christian-Islamic models. So what is it about the basic premise above that you personally find intriniscally illogical?
I find it unassailable. It is not necessary to assume its truthfulness. I would just really like to know if you have any intrinsic criticism that would support your consistent omission of a premise held by approximately 3 to 4 billion people?
