Shoud individuals be held responsible for their INACTION?

by nicolaou 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Simon

  If there is an all powerful and loving God then we don't know why he allows evil in the world.

  There's a saying with software development: you can have it soon, have it fast or have it cheap: pick two.

  Likewise a god can be all powerful, all knowing or all loving. Pick two - you can't have all three.

  The reasons religiots "get away" with not explaining it is because they change the terms of the question quickly to obfuscate things and refuse to be nailed down on the claims (see how I got a Jesus ref in there).

  Explain it with the claims or give up those claims.
  
  
• 

  nicolaou

  
  

  The Monster sat by the towpath and watched the water ripple. He was a handsome, smartly dressed young man but he was a Monster all the same. A family, laughing and enjoying a walk together, ignored him as they walked on by.

  The Monster watched a film of diesel spin shapes and colours on the water. He watched hover flies with spindly legs zigzagging in some pointless search and he watched as the small, exhausted child slid quietly beneath the surface of the water. Her little body descended and settled on the silt just four feet below.

  She'd run by so closely her dress had brushed the Monster's leg. The shock as she hit cold water rendered her mute, her eyes snapped to their widest and locked onto the Monster's just an arm's length away on the safety of the towpath. For nearly a minute her eyes begged him before her strength failed and her face turned to the sky.

  It wasn't the Monster's fault. The little girl had become separated from her family, squealing as she chased the ducks that had plopped into the canal and swum away. But Emma, running at full pelt, couldn't stop herself. The Monster watched but did nothing and if he’d done nothing then surely he’d done nothing wrong.

  No, it really wasn't the Monster's fault.
  
• 

  smiddy3

  Could/should the WTB&TS be held responsible for the sin of omission ? withholding certain information that you would otherwise reject their belief/interpretation of scripture if they had been forthcoming in divulging the information they withheld from you ?

  A tactict they excuse as Theocratic warfare to mislead people.
• 

  Fisherman

  For nearly a minute her eyes begged him before her strength failed and her face turned to the sky.

  Sadly, other children die every day too; what is disturbing about this story is the 'monster's' apparent "inaction".

  It is human nature to help. I would have. As the storty is told, there seems to be no moral defense to justify the idleness. But I would need to hear the monster's reasons for doing nothing in this specific instance. Suppose the child was baby Hitler? Suppose it was the child of an oppresive slave owner who was also the child of an oppresive slave owner? -And the monster was an oppressed slave.

  The way the laws are crafted in the US, an innocent person can rot for decades of time in jail and more and innocent people can be pressured by prosecuters to compromise a plea or face years and years of legal proceedings and expensive legal fees or risk being convicted of a crime he did not commit -Isn't that being a monster too? Now suppose you were this man and you had been falsley convicted of harming a child and served decades in jail, you come out and there is a Court Order that you stay away from children, all the while you being innocent as Jesus; you pull the child out of the water and it so happens that the child was sexually abused -guess who is going to jail? OR, You call for help and you are accused of trying to drown the child or with your luck, guess what, the child was sexually abused and you are accused.

  You need to KNOW all of the facts when deciding what is just and good and labeling someone a monster.
  
  
• 

  nicolaou

  I wrote that story, the portion you quoted is a metaphor for the unanswered prayers of children in distress. And there are certainly enough facts to judge the young man as a Monster, feel free to assume the best about both characters in the story if it helps.

  It seems to me Fisherman that you're desperately looking to provide god with an excuse for his inaction when in your heart you know there isn't one.
• 

  Simon

  So it's OK to question if the child (who certainly hasn't killed anyone or allowed anyone to die) is "evil" but for some reason, we can't question if god, the monster, is evil, despite the overwhelming evidence of death (of children) through inaction?

  What a convenient and messed up logic you have there.

  Your god is a monster and you know it.
• 

  Fisherman

  If God does not exist then living creatures are destined to the mercy of chance and there is no justice in the world; but it is impossible for the LIFEGIVER! to be evil. --If we sense what is good, then just how much more, the giver of life; or do you think you are better than God?
• 

  Fisherman

  Having saved more than one life, one child in shock and completely stunned, looking me in the face, understanding that he would have been dead if not for me, whispered to me without sounding the words: "thank you." I said to him very sternly: "thank God." Going his way home, his parents will never know that they would have had to take their son to a funeral parlor.
• 

  Simon

  Typical religious mumbo jumbo non-answer and changing the subject.

  Why can we "assume" that it might be justified because the child might grow up to be evil but we can't consider the possibility that the monster is evil, because we see it allow a child to die?

  The fact that you can't answer it shows you know the monster is evil and that evil can't be explained. But you worship the monster anyway and blame the child who died to justify it.
• 

  nicolaou

  Fisherman: it is impossible for the LIFEGIVER! to be evil

  What does this even mean? Some human lifegivers (we call them parents) have certainly been evil and god himself has murdered innocent children if the bible is to be believed so I really don't see the link between bringing forth life and an incapacity for evil.

  If we sense what is good, then just how much more, the giver of life; or do you think you are better than God?

  Yes, I am better than god. I would certainly save a drowning child and if I had godly omniscience, omnipotence and power no child would suffer abuse, go hungry or die from disease.

  I'll put my morality up against god's any day of the week.