Ebola

[Anonymous]

God's will? Or just one of many things God has no control of?

[Anonymous]

Maybe God is trying to teach us something.

[Anonymous]

Everything is God's will.

[Anonymous]

I don’t agree that everything is God’s will. God gave humans free will, and sometimes our free will leads to disastrous results.
As for this current crisis. Sometimes I wonder if things like this give us an opportunity to find cures or vaccines for the future. It causes humans to understand the plight of others half a world away.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who think it's god's will, would you say that a child coming down with leukemia is god's will? or is sold into slavery/is trafficked is god's will? I'm not being sarcastic. As a non-believer, I really would like to understand the argument for saying that god would punish innocent people like this, particularly children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think it's god's will, would you say that a child coming down with leukemia is god's will? or is sold into slavery/is trafficked is god's will? I'm not being sarcastic. As a non-believer, I really would like to understand the argument for saying that god would punish innocent people like this, particularly children.

Most believers don't believe this either. PP is possibly a troll. The point is that God gave us free will. Bad things happen and he's not punishing any innocent children.

BTW that's one reason Jesus was so revolutionary in his time. He went against the idea that if you had leporsy (sp) or some other sickness, that you did something to deserve it. Or if your kid died, then you did something to deserve it. The evolving concept of "bad luck" vs. God/gods hating you was starting to happen…and the concept of "risk"--so, for example, in the old days, getting on a ship, weather looks shaky, do you get on anyways because you made sacrifices to Poseiden so he'll protect you, or do you stay off because hey, the weather looks bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think it's god's will, would you say that a child coming down with leukemia is god's will? or is sold into slavery/is trafficked is god's will? I'm not being sarcastic. As a non-believer, I really would like to understand the argument for saying that god would punish innocent people like this, particularly children.

Most believers don't believe this either. PP is possibly a troll. The point is that God gave us free will. Bad things happen and he's not punishing any innocent children.

BTW that's one reason Jesus was so revolutionary in his time. He went against the idea that if you had leporsy (sp) or some other sickness, that you did something to deserve it. Or if your kid died, then you did something to deserve it. The evolving concept of "bad luck" vs. God/gods hating you was starting to happen…and the concept of "risk"--so, for example, in the old days, getting on a ship, weather looks shaky, do you get on anyways because you made sacrifices to Poseiden so he'll protect you, or do you stay off because hey, the weather looks bad?[/quote]

+1

I agree that OP is a troll but for anyone who may be thinking this way: There is always disease in the world. There always has been, always will be. We live in a fallen world and that's the way it is. It is God who has sent us the way out of this mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything is God's will.

That is absurd. Evil is anything but God's will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything is God's will.

That is absurd. Evil is anything but God's will.

Have you not read the Bible? Or do you not believe in it? I don't necessarily, but it does state on many occassions that God causes mass deaths.

[Anonymous]

Everything in this life is a lesson. Every single thing. We cannot grow spiritually or physically without difficulty and challenge. It just can't happen. We become physically stronger by pushing ourselves through pain. Our muscle fibers break down and then rebuild as stronger muscle. Our immune systems improve when challenged.

Spirituality is no different. I learned compassion after having cancer. I learned to embrace diversity after living in a place where I was the minority. I learned to be emotionally strong by going through a horrible divorce. I am learning to truly love others by working with some people that most would consider unlovable.

Ebola is no different. It's a horrible disease. But what will we learn from it? We are only on this planet for a very short time. I am convinced we are here to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything is God's will.

That is absurd. Evil is anything but God's will.

Have you not read the Bible? Or do you not believe in it? I don't necessarily, but it does state on many occassions that God causes mass deaths.

That's because the Bible was written by humans, and frankly we aren't very smart.

[Anonymous]

I could see it as personal will if one takes the risk of becoming infected with Ebola. But I would say that the creation of the Ebola virus itself would be God's will. So one would have to ask, for what reason did God create the Ebola virus?

[Muslima]

This goes back to the old question of "Why does God allow bad things to happen". I will preface this by saying that my response comes from an Islamic perspective, so my thought process will reflect that. As a Muslim, I believe that nothing happens in this world but it is willed by God. Atheists especially use this rhetoric ( why God allows evil) a lot to deny the existence of God. It is not a new question, in fact, we find the angels asking something similar even before man was created: “When your Lord told the angels, ‘I am putting a deputy on earth,’ they said, ‘How can you put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed, when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?’ but He said, ‘I know what you know not.’” Qur’an 2:30 In other words, God was asked, “Why would you allow this human, who will do bad things, to exist? Why not create someone who won’t do anything bad, like us?” The answer was, “I understand the wisdom in what I am doing, and you don’t.” Now, outside of religion:

In their book, Philosophy of Religion, Murray make the following note: The Big Questions: “The logical problem of evil has been severely criticized in recent years and is regarded in the contemporary literature on the subject as largely discredited. In brief, the problem with this argument is that it assumes something false. Specifically, it assumes that a good being would prevent every evil it can under any circumstances…Thus, at best, the logical problem of evil shows us that if God exists, the only evil that exists is evil for which there is some good reason.”

The rhetorical questions now change to inquisitive questions. Rather than blurting out, “How could God do that?! What kind of God does these things?!” the question now is “Why is the world this way and what wisdom lies in that?” In Islam, we are told that this life is a test and true, perfect happiness is only possible in the hereafter, therefore, we will experience pain and suffering in this life. If God were to interfere and prevent every bad thing from happening to each individual, it would be like taking the test away from a student. Our entire purpose is to be closer to our Creator, so good is whatever brings you closer to Him and evil is whatever takes you further from Him. I think the popular notion of good and evil is as per the perception of our material body: Good = what causes us comfort and pleasure; Evil = what causes us pain and suffering but when you consider the soul, and a Creator beyond this material universe, you will get to understand that there is something bigger than just our material body.

"Not a single leaf falls without His Knowledge." (6:59) And "No calamity comes to the earth or in yourselves, except it is inscribed in the Book of Decrees (Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz), before Allah brought it into existence. Certainly, that is easy for Allah." (57:22) So Yes, He certainly knows about Ebola, cancer, aids, you name it.There won’t be an end to diseases. This life is the stage for our test, almost every day a person gets ill, we will never fully understand the wisdom of it all, but i don't believe it is all random.....

[Anonymous]

Before I opened this thread, I was hoping this wasn't going to be about God's doing. Does that mean the victims somehow deserved it?

[Anonymous]

Oh Muslima. Every time you post, it invites that pp who loves to harass you. I think she is employed by an Islam hating group. Lets see how fast she gets here...10, 9, 8, 7, 6,...