punkofnice,
Let it be--sometime in the future you will get the point of what I am trying to say.
are children born crippled/diseased, uncared for, and dying prematurely proof that god does not exist?.
1) what do children born healthy and well cared for prove?
2) what do babies aborted (many of whom might have led a normal healthy life, and some of whom might have contributed much to the society like many scientists, doctors, engineers ....) prove?.
Let it be--sometime in the future you will get the point of what I am trying to say.
are children born crippled/diseased, uncared for, and dying prematurely proof that god does not exist?.
1) what do children born healthy and well cared for prove?
2) what do babies aborted (many of whom might have led a normal healthy life, and some of whom might have contributed much to the society like many scientists, doctors, engineers ....) prove?.
You have not given serious thought to the question, hence you wrote the above. Answers such as God doesn’t exist, God is indifferent to suffering are not real answers because while there is much evil in the world, there is even more that is good. This is proved by the mere fact that people normally try to hang on to life as long as they can. Furthermore, everyone instinctively recognizes that “good” is a higher order of truth than “bad.” When we read a novel or watch movies we instinctively know that justice would prevail in the end, and when we reach that portion we heave a sigh of relief which is universal—something that is deeply engraved in our very make up.
If there were to be no suffering, God should always monitor people as though in a Police State. If God always prevented people from exercising their freewill, or always prevented the consequences of their freewill, then human goodness would be mere programming, not true goodness. We do not pat a computer on its head when it executes its program -- it is a determined function, not an exercise of moral responsibility.
Not all pain is "bad" in the moral
sense. We have been endowed with nerve endings that use pain to protect us.
Pain keeps us from burning our hands in a campfire, bending our legs back until
the joint breaks, neglecting nourishment until we starve, etc. Suffering can
also be a direct, just consequence of our own actions. Our sense of justice
says that it is "good" when an exploiter loses his friends, even
though loneliness is "painful." It is good when a mugger is locked
up, even though he "suffers" the loss of his freedom.
are children born crippled/diseased, uncared for, and dying prematurely proof that god does not exist?.
1) what do children born healthy and well cared for prove?
2) what do babies aborted (many of whom might have led a normal healthy life, and some of whom might have contributed much to the society like many scientists, doctors, engineers ....) prove?.
Instead of doing what is right, we all do what pleases ourselves—often hurting ourselves and others. Everyone knows that suffering is a mechanism alerting us to avoid further/future harm, yet many are not bothered about. Life-style diseases are on the increase in spite of knowing what causes them.
The concept I wrote in the OP is actually from the book: If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain (by John Dickson), a nice book that does not make conclusions, but makes us reach a conclusion. It enabled me to reach the conclusion which I put it in the OP.
are children born crippled/diseased, uncared for, and dying prematurely proof that god does not exist?.
1) what do children born healthy and well cared for prove?
2) what do babies aborted (many of whom might have led a normal healthy life, and some of whom might have contributed much to the society like many scientists, doctors, engineers ....) prove?.
Are Children born crippled/diseased, uncared for, and dying prematurely proof that God does not exist?
If so,
1) What do children born healthy and well cared for prove?
2) What do babies aborted (many of whom might have led a normal healthy life, and some of whom might have contributed much to the society like many scientists, doctors, engineers ....) prove?
3) What do babies killed in wars (some of which are created for the sake of war) prove?
We have strength and intelligence to lessen/remove any such undesirable occurrences if we want to. (People who make to the Guinness Book of World Records show that seemingly impossible tasks are not so if we are determined to accomplish them)
Many people have had a fall in their bathrooms—yet effect varies from person to person—from no injury to serious injury (shows it depends on various factors or is determined by some laws). So is the case with drinking of alcohol—yet effect varies from person to person—from no health issues to serious health problems (shows it too depends on various factors or is determined by some laws). It is not proper to isolate one case from such varying effects and reach a conclusion. In big picture, everything happens by some laws working independently of God, and such laws may be perceptible or imperceptible, hence every effect should have some cause.
My experience is that God is confident of our abilities to solve any problem we experience, and will not listen to our prayers. See what happens when people use their intelligence and ingenuity. One zoo I visited has a separate enclosure where they bring babies removed from their parents after their birth. These babies who are deprived of the opportunity of seeing what their seniors are doing are learned new way of living as a family. Thus in this enclosure we find all animals—such as lions and lambs, cats and rats, snakes and frogs—living in peace.
have we ever noticed how witnesses are constantly being told that life is something that needs to be "endured", rather that "enjoyed"?.
life is always so tough, so hard, so difficult in "these last days".
"persecution and trials abound".
It is in effect happiness postponed. For such ones, same situation would continue even when they are in paradise. Adam and Eve were in paradise, yet they thought they would be happy only if they do something else.
so a young baptized brother gets to run the microphones.
so he eagerly runs up and down the isle passing the microphone.
he's so happy because "he's being used by jehovah".
If we go by the principle behind what Jesus says in Mathew 6:2 ("So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full") God is unlikely to be impressed.
some people like to believe in something others believe in nothing; so in what location did the substance that expanded into the time/space universe exist before the big bang?
where did the energy that caused the big band come from?
how did the substance that became the big bang change from being inert and sterile and come to life to having the properties and drive that it does?
DJS,
I can give you a simple example for agenda. Atheists/evolutionists use the word instinct. You might have observed cat, after releasing its feces, covering it making a heap of sand over it—an amazing feat (which shows consideration for others), a superb loving act that it could not have learned from even humans. Why can’t the atheists/evolutionists use the correct word that brings out its implied truth? For me both (atheists and theists) makes no difference!
the world health organization states that in the year 2015 ,5.9 million children died under the age of 5 years of age.. in 2010 the death rate for children under the age of 5 years of age was 7.6 million.
thats over 13 million in just 2 years .
i dont think you need to be a rocket scientist to conclude that since mankind has been on the earth for however long you want to believe and i`m just going on a conservative estimate of 6000 years by the above figures i quoted their would be billions of children under 5 yearsof age that would have died.
smiddy,
To your question "Whether God is concerned about the deaths of Billions of children under 5 years of age and he does nothing?" there is no acceptable answer.
But that does not mean God does not
exist because my experience is that He does exists. This conclusion I made
by observing what is happening within me: Suppose
you went to a shop in a commercial street in the evening, and are having a
dream of it later in the night. And in the dream, you correctly read the name
board of the shop you visited yesterday. However, name boards of the nearby
shop you see in your dream may not match with reality! This means mind simply
recalled what it could and completed the picture with imaginary details (which
obviously means that mind is engaged in some creation work). Not only in dream,
even in real life mind acts in the same manner. Try to remember a big gathering
you attended in the past, and your mind would supply both truth and fabricated
information—picture of some people around you in the gathering will be correct
and others will be mind’s creation. Then there is another interesting
situation. Someone passed a harmful gossip about another, and I passed it to
another. Now unlike we always do, pause for a moment and ask “Why did I do
that?” and listen for the answer. If you put your mind into real silence, it
will tell you: “You passed that harmful information about Mr X because he did
not support your ego sometime back.” From where did come this godly answer? Not
from the mind which joyfully prompted you to pass the gossip in the first
place. But it came from an immaterial part within me which resembles the
Supreme Soul without.
some people like to believe in something others believe in nothing; so in what location did the substance that expanded into the time/space universe exist before the big bang?
where did the energy that caused the big band come from?
how did the substance that became the big bang change from being inert and sterile and come to life to having the properties and drive that it does?
There is still one thing overlooked by theists and atheists alike that works against their respective agendas.
If the universe is indeed so congenial to life, then why should it require an all-powerful creator to create it.
Or,if it wasn't at all
congenial,then it might definitely require an omniscient being to make it
happen. Either way, you lose.
some people like to believe in something others believe in nothing; so in what location did the substance that expanded into the time/space universe exist before the big bang?
where did the energy that caused the big band come from?
how did the substance that became the big bang change from being inert and sterile and come to life to having the properties and drive that it does?
I know that’s a “That's a non-answer.” I said so because we can only make an attempt on answer. We saw universe can cause itself endlessly. And at some point something immaterial has to start its operation! It is interesting to see some trying to explain consciousness in terms of the neural network of the brain, which may remind us about studying a radio but being unaware the power source, the battery, and coming to the conclusion that the wires generate the current which makes them function. Or It is like looking at the way the horse occasionally behave independently or disobediently, or stop, and ignoring the rider who is in control most of the time!
It seems many things about the mind/consciousness will remain as a mystery! For mind is not meant to know its own make-up, it is a subject, and all other things—including the brain which are obviously the object of study by the mind! From where does the ingenuity of Mind come? Why it thinks the way it does, especially in terms of time and space? For example we have a sense of past and future! When I remember something, I explicitly reach out of the present to something that is explicitly past. In the same way weighing the matters carefully and wisely, I can calculate certain things into the future! Strictly speaking, the sense of the past cannot exist in a physical system. This is consistent with the fact that the physics of time does not allow for tenses: Einstein called the distinction between past, present and future a “stubbornly persistent illusion”.
At what point immaterial entity comes into picture to make ‘inert and sterile bubble with life and the properties” may not be fully understand now. That is understandable. Yet, how far do we know what really happens within our own minds. Suppose you went to a shop in a commercial street in the evening, and are having a dream of it later in the night. And in the dream, you correctly read the name board of the shop you visited yesterday. However, name boards of the nearby shop you see in your dream may not match with reality! This means mind simply recalled what it could and completed the picture with imaginary details (which obviously means that mind is engaged in some creation work). Not only in dream, even in real life mind acts in the same manner. Try to remember a big gathering you attended in the past, and your mind would supply both truth and fabricated information—picture of some people around you in the gathering will be correct and others will be mind’s creation. Then there is another interesting situation. Someone passed a harmful gossip about another, and I passed it to another. Now unlike we always do, pause for a moment and ask “Why did I do that?” and listen for the answer. If you put your mind into real silence, it will tell you: “You passed that harmful information about Mr X because he did not support your ego sometime back.” From where did come this godly answer? Not from the mind which joyfully prompted you to pass the gossip in the first place. But it came from an immaterial part within me which resembles the Supreme Soul without.